Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/166

148 Goth for the Goth, and thus under a diversity of judges to have equal justice administered to all.

Each subject of the empire under such a system had the benefit or the burden of the laws of the people to which he belonged. He was bound by the laws which were common to all Roman subjects, but in addition the courts took notice of the law and customs of the race of which he was a member. The foreigner was in a different position. Roman law afforded him protection. For the rest, foreigners might settle their own disputes and regulate their own affairs as they liked. The Armenian in Constantinople had, as an occupant of Roman territory, to obey the laws which had been imposed for the preservation of public order, and to pay certain taxes. But questions of marriage, succession to property, of personal status generally, were left to be settled either by the Armenians themselves or by a magistrate named by the emperor to administer Armenian law.

Treaties or capituulatons respecting foreign residents.

This condition of things was known to other cities, but received its largest development in Constantinople, where the system which created it has always existed, and still exists, under the treaties or capitulations with the Prorte ; a system winch is a striking illustration of the continuity of history. In other words, the system of capitulations under which foreigners to-day reside