The Germanic Codes of Roman Law
We have observed that the early fifth century ad featured the gradual detachment of Western Europe from the control of imperial officials and its capture by the power of various Germanic kings.
The latter did not attempt to impose their own laws and customs upon the Romans residing in their territories, nor did they adopt Roman law for their own subjects. Thus, as the Roman Empire in the West disintegrated the once universal system of Roman law was replaced by a plurality of legal systems. The Roman part of the population continued to be governed by Roman law (leges romanae), while the newly settled Germanic peoples observed their own laws and customs (leges barbarorum). This entailed a revival of the ancient principle of the personality of the laws that had fallen in abeyance after the enactment of the constitutio Antoniniana in ad 212: within every community, some groups would claim as their right the application of one of several existing bodies of legal rules. For the Romans in these western communities, the old forms, legal rules and statutes were still in force. The magistrates were now responsible to Germanic chiefs and administered legal justice in a familiar manner. However, the courts in this period encountered serious difficulties with the administration of justice that derived from the uncertainty regarding the content and authority of imperial and juristic law, and the general decline of legal culture in the West. To rectify this problem, some Germanic kings considered it necessary to order the compilation of legal codes containing the personal Roman law that applied to their Roman subjects. The most important codes were the Lex Romana Visigothorum, the Lex Romana Burgundionum and the Edictum Theoderici. Although much of the law embodied in these collections is a crude reflection of the classical system, they possess great importance for legal historians: besides depicting the state of the law and society at the dawn of the Middle Ages, they preserved several Roman legal texts that cannot be located in any of the extant Roman sources.In ad 506, the King of the Visigoths Alaric II promulgated the Lex Romana Visigothorumhence, it is also known as the Breviary of Alaric (Breviarium Alarici).
It contains extracts from the Gregorian, Hermogenian and Theodosian Codes; a number of post-Theodosian constitutions; an abbreviated version of Gaius Institutes (Epitome Gai); sections of the Sententiae by Paulus; and a short responsum of Papinianus as a conclusion. Some of the texts are accompanied by interpretations (in the form of paraphrases or explanatory notes) aimed at facilitating their understanding and application.[587] As the code was devised to replace all other sources of law, it was proclaimed that imperial constitutions and juristic opinions not included in it had no binding force in the courts of law.New Roman",serif;color:black'>[588] The Lex Romana Visigothorum remained in force in Spain until the seventh century[589]; in Southern France, its application prevailed (even though no longer as an official code) until the twelfth century.[590]The Lex Romana Burgundionum was composed during the reign of King Gundobad of the Burgundians and was promulgated by his son Sigismund in ad 517 for use by the Roman inhabitants of his kingdom. It is based on the Gregorian, Hermogenian and Theodosian Codes; a shortened version of the Institutes of Gaius; and the Sententiae of Paulus. Unlike the Visigothic Code mentioned above, it does not contain any extracts from the original Roman sources. Instead, the materials are incorporated into a set of newly formulated rules that are systematically arranged and distributed over 47 titles.[591] The Lex Romana Burgundionum never possessed the importance or the popularity of the Visigothic Code, and apparently became obsolete soon after the Burgundian kingdom was conquered by the Franks in the middle of the sixth century.[592]
In the late fifth century, King Theodoric II (ad 453-466), ruler of the Visigothic kingdom of Southern France, enacted the Edictum Theoderici that was applicable to both Romans and Visigoths.[593] It has 154 titles and contains materials distilled from the Sententiae of Paulus; the Gregorian, Hermogenian and Theodosian Codes; and post-Theodosian legislation.[594]
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