{{Short description|Gothic title for a tribal ruler}} '''Reiks''' ({{Langx|got|𐍂𐌴𐌹𐌺𐍃}}; pronunciation {{IPA|/ri:ks/}}; [[Latinisation of names|Latinized]] as ''rix'') is a [[Goths|Gothic]] title for a tribal ruler, often translated as "[[Germanic king|king]]".
In the [[Gothic Bible]], it translates to the [[Greek language|Greek]] ''[[Archon|árchōn]]'' (ἄρχων).<ref name="HoekKolff1992">{{cite book|author1=A. W. Van Der Hoek|author2=Dirk H. A. Kolff |author2-link=Dirk H. A. Kolff |author3=M. S. Oort|title=Ritual, State, and History in South Asia: Essays in Honour of J.C. Heesterman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EtwtSZwyWpgC&pg=PA310|accessdate=4 January 2013|year=1992|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-09467-3|pages=310–}}</ref> It is presumably translated as ''[[basileus|basiliskos]]'' (βασιλίσκος "petty king") in the ''Passio'' of [[Sabbas the Goth]].<ref name="Wolfram2005">{{cite book|author=Herwig Wolfram|title=Gotische Studien: Volk und Herrschaft im frühen Mittelalter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xuAI_WgtFuUC&pg=PA90|accessdate=5 January 2013|year=2005|publisher=C. H. Beck|isbn=978-3-406-52957-3|pages=90–}}</ref>
The Gothic [[Thervingi]] were divided into subdivisions of territory and people called ''kunja'' (singular ''[[:wiktionary:%F0%90%8C%BA%F0%90%8C%BF%F0%90%8C%BD%F0%90%8C%B9#Gothic|kuni]]'', cognate with English {{wikt-lang|en|kin}}), led by a ''reiks''.<ref>[[Herwig Wolfram]], ''Die Goten: Von den Anfängen bis zur Mitte des 6. Jahrhunderts'', p. 105.</ref> In times of a common threat, one of the reiks would be selected as a ''[[kindins]]'', or head of the empire (translated as "judge", Latin ''iudex'', Greek δικαστής).<ref>[[Ammianus Marcellinus]] (27,5,9) mentions one Athanaric ''iudex gentis'', "judge of the people."</ref>
Herwig Wolfram suggested the position was different from the Roman definition of a ''[[Rex (title)|rex]]'' ("king") and is better described as that of a [[tribal king|tribal chief]] (see [[Germanic king]]).<ref name="Heather1999">{{cite book|author=P. J. Heather|title=The Visigoths from the Migration Period to the Seventh Century: An Ethnographic Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4MADmH2eaGIC&pg=PA358|accessdate=5 January 2013|year=1999|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=978-1-84383-033-7|pages=358–}}</ref>
A reiks had a lower order of ''[[optimates]]'' or ''megistanes'' (μεγιστάνες, presumably translating ''mahteigs''<ref>Béla Köpeczi, History of Transylvania: From the beginnings to 1606, Social Science Monographs, 2001, p. 163.</ref>) beneath him on whom he could call on for support.<ref>Béla Köpeczi, ''History of Transylvania: From the beginnings to 1606'', Social Science Monographs, 2001, p. 163.</ref>
It also figures prominently as second element in [[Germanic names|Gothic names]], Latinized and often anglicized as ''-ric'', such as in [[Theoderic the Great|Theoderic]] (''Þiuda-reiks'').
The use of the suffix extended into the [[Merovingian dynasty]], with kings given names such as [[Childeric I|Childeric]],<ref name="Wolfram1997">{{cite book|author=Herwig Wolfram|title=The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tOnQDfRU-poC&pg=PA17|accessdate=5 January 2013|year=1997|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-08511-4|pages=17–}}</ref> and it survives in modern German and Scandinavian names such as ''[[Ulrich]]'', ''[[Erik]]'', ''[[Dietrich (disambiguation)|Dietrich]]'', ''[[Heinrich (disambiguation)|Heinrich]]'', ''[[Richard]]'', ''[[Friedrich (disambiguation)|Friedrich]]''.
==See also== {{wiktionary|Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/rīks}} {{wiktionary|𐍂𐌴𐌹𐌺𐍃}} *[[Germanic king]] *[[Reich]] *[[King of the Visigoths]] *[[King of the Ostrogoths]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
[[Category:Positions of authority]] [[Category:Titles]] [[Category:Early Germanic law]] [[Category:Goths]] [[Category:Archons]]