The ancient roots of the comitatus

The core comitatus consisted of a small number of warriors, who are called or referred to as friends. Chinggis Khan himself had four: Khubilai, Jelme, Jebe, and Sübedei, whom Jamukha characterizes as the four fierce wolves or dogs of Chinggis. The characterization of the comitatus warriors as wolves or other fierce animals goes all the way back to Proto-Indo-European times. The core group—usually a small number of men—committed ritual suicide (or was executed) to accompany the lord if he predeceased the group, and each man was buried “armed to the teeth” for battle in the next world. The comitatus warriors took their oath freely and, in doing so, broke their original connections to their clan or nation. They became as close or closer than family to their lord, they lived in their lord’s house with him, and they were rewarded lavishly by him in return for their oath. The comitatus is attested archaeologically in burials, historically in descriptions of cultures from all parts of Central Eurasia, and in early literary texts. The most famous are perhaps the Rig Veda hymns to the deified comitatus of Indra, the Marut chariot warriors. A vivid example is found in a dialogue between the lord and his warrior friends where Ahi is the snake-demon enemy, the dragon of many Central Eurasian heroic epics.

Beckwith, Christopher I.. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present (pp. 13-14). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.

The lord and his comitatus formed the heart of every newborn Central Eurasian nation. In Central Asia the warriors of a typical ruler’s full comitatus, even that of a mere governor, numbered in the thousands and was extremely expensive to maintain. In the Middle Ages, the comitatus and ideas of rulership gradually changed with the adoption of world religions, which frown on suicide or ritual murder, but they otherwise continued down to the conquest of Central Eurasia by peripheral powers.

Beckwith, Christopher I.. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present (p. 15). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.