Relating to or characteristic of the comitatus, the retinue or armed followers of a Germanic or Roman military leader.
From Latin comitatus (retinue) plus -ensian, a suffix forming adjectives. The comitatus system was central to early Germanic tribal organization and later influenced feudal relationships in medieval Europe.
Historians call this the 'retinue system,' and it's actually the ancestor of feudalism! Germanic warriors would pledge loyalty to a war leader (the comitatus), and this exact bond structure later became the knight-and-lord relationship that defined the Middle Ages.
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