The (; ) was a historical military appointment, during the time of the or mercenaries in European warfare, who commanded a , a unit of roughly battalion-size.
The commander of a regiment, who initially still commanded his own , was designated as the ("senior field captain"), the most senior of the in the regiment. Orally this was abbreviated to , the equivalent of "colonel" (likewise the rank of general arose from .)
Georg von Frundsberg, but later Johann Tserclaes and Albrecht von Wallenstein as well, were often referred to by their contemporaries as .
In Rome in the Middle Ages there were , the so-called capitani. See also Generalkapitän.
Sources
German dictionary by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm General