Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/78

 60 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. manic kingdoms of the Roman law as valid for their new subjects was incidental to what they esteemed of far greater importance, the preservation of their own Germanic law for themselves. As in the Visigothic and Burgundian kingdoms, so in the kingdom of the Franks the Roman provincials retained their own pri- vate law. But the Franks found the Breviarium of Alaric in force and had no need to issue another code for Roman provincials. So, at a later period, the Lom- bards did not need to issue a code for their Roman subjects in Italy where they found the Justinian legis- lation in force. Before the fifth century, the Roman law as applied among provincials, in Gaul for example, had to some extent recognized local custom. It is also to be borne in mind how pronounced, not to say dominant, the Germanic element in the Roman army and government became in this, the last century of the Western Em- pire. In the next century Germanic ideas and in- stitutions obviously affected the law of the Roman population of Burgundy, France, and Lombardy. For example, in the Visigothic Breviarium, the interpretor Hones accompanying the selected texts show traces of Germanic influence. Conversely, the Roman law affected the codes formu- lated under the direction of Germanic kings for their own peoples, and some effect of Roman culture may also be observed. In the first place, it was the exam- ple of the Romans that led to the formulation of these barbarian codes as codes. The attempt to state and to group laws together in a written code marks a stage in the history of barbaric law. Secondly, the Germanic