Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/86

58 having followed in the MSS. the Lex Visigothorum and the extract from Papinian which closes that having been taken as the commencement of this. Papianus is a frequent mistake for Papinianus.)

For the kingdom of the Ostrogoths in Italy a code of laws was issued by Theodoric about A.D. 500. It is usually called Edictum Theodorici. The code is nearly the same length as the Lex Romana Burgundiorum and much resembles it in character and sources, but does not name them. The contents are torts and crimes, especially attacks on landed possessions and cattle-lifting, successions, marriage, serfs, conduct of judges, process, etc. The first editor, Pithou, had two MSS. in 1578, but these have completely disappeared.

The Lex Romana Visigothorum is much more important than either of the above. It is a compilation promulgated by Alaric II for Roman citizens in Spain and part of Gaul in the twenty-second year of his reign, i.e. A.D. 506. He states in an accompanying letter to Count Timotheus that it was compiled by skilled lawyers (prudentes) with the approval of bishops and nobles, to remove the obscurity and ambiguity of the laws and make a selection in one book which should be solely authoritative. No power of amending the law appears to have been given.

It contains a large number of constitutions from the Theodosian Code, omitting especially those which relate to administration rather than general law. Consequently there are few taken from Books vi, vii, xi-xiv. Some post-Theodosian Novels follow; then an abridgment of Gaius' Institutes, a good deal of Paul's Sententiae, a few extracts from the Gregorian and Hermogenian Codes, and one extract from Papinian. A short interpretation is appended to all of these, except to Gaius and to most of Paul's Sentences, where interpretation is stated not to be required. The author and age of the interpretation are quite unknown. It sometimes gives a restatement of the text in other words, sometimes adds explanations. The selection of matters for the code shews the intention of giving both Statute and Common Law. The code was no longer authoritative law after Chindaswinth (642-653), but it was used in the schools and assisted largely in preserving Roman Law in the south and east of France till the twelfth century; and a tradition that it received confirmation from Charlemagne is possibly true. Our knowledge of Books ii-v of the Theodosian Code and of most of Paul's Sentences is due to this compilation, which in modern times has received the name of Breviarium Alarici.

In the lands on the eastern part of the Mediterranean — Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, Arabia, Egypt, and Armenia — a collection of laws, evidently translated from Greek, was used under the name of "Laws of Constantine, Theodosius, and Leo," probably composed at the end of the fourth century and enlarged in the fifth, perhaps with later alterations from the Justinian laws. Versions of it in Arabic, Armenian, and several in Syriac, differing in some degree from one another, have been