Roman month

English

Alternative forms

• Roman Month

Etymology

Translating German Römermonat, so called because the sum was originally paid in lieu of sending troops to accompany the King of the Holy Roman Empire on his journey to Rome to be crowned emperor, a journey calculated to take a certain number of months.

Noun

Roman month (plural Roman months)

1. (now historical) A quantity of tax paid by electorates or other constituent states to the Holy Roman Empire. Abbreviated as RM. [from 17th c.]
   • 1796, State Papers Relative to the War Against France, vol. III, part 2, p. 190:

     On the 29th ult. the general aſſembly of the empire unanimouſly reſolved, in all the three colleges, to pay the farther ſum of 100 Roman months.

   • 1864, Thomas Henry Dyer, The History of Modern Europe, volume III, page 405:

     [T]he sovereigns of Lippe, Waldeck, Hesse-Cassel, Brunswick, Hanover, and Gotha found it more advantageous to let out their troops to England than to pay Roman-months and furnish their contingents to the Imperial army.