Code of Euric

The ''Codex Euricianus'' or ''Code of Euric'' was a collection of laws governing the Visigoths compiled at the order of Euric, King of the Visigoths, sometime before 480, probably at Toulouse (possibly at Arles); it is one of the earliest examples of early Germanic law. The compilation itself was the work of Leo, a Roman lawyer and principal counsellor of the king. The customs of the Visigothic nation were recognised and affirmed. The ''Code'' is largely confused and it appears that it was merely a recollection of Gothic custom altered by Roman law.

The code entrenches a clear stratification of Gothic and Gallo-Roman society. There is the class of lords, who are called either ''domini'' or ''patroni'' depending on whether they were lords of slaves or freemen, and there are two classes of freemen who have lords above them: the '' buccellarii'' and the '' saiones''. The ''Code'' was the first legal recognition of the ''buccellariatus'', an office which the Roman Emperors were trying to ban. The ''buccellarii'' were a knightly class; they could change lords, but they had to return all the landed benefices they had received from their former lord.

The ''Codex Euricianus'' contains, among other things, provisions governing border disputes and, in particular, issues arising from the division of land between the settled Gothic conquerors and the Romanesque landowners, as well as provisions for lending, purchase and donation, marriage and succession. He is acknowledged in research as a pioneering legislative achievement for the Germanic codifications. The work is written in good Latin; in his writing Roman lawyers must have had a significant share. Controversial is the proportion of Germanic and Roman legal concepts; It is undisputed that the proportion of Roman law dominates. In the first place, the legal texts derive from the classical law of the vulgar '' Paulussentenzen'', which was written at the turn of the 3rd to the 4th century, and shortened excerpt from the '' Institutiones Gai'' as well as excerpts from the Constitutions of Roman Emperors.Jan Dirk Rake: ''Roman Law. From classical times to modern codifications''. Beck, Munich 2008, (''Grundrisse the right''), § 1 Rnr. 26. Thus, the ''Codex Euricianus'' is also evidence of the advanced Romanization of the Visigoths.

Further legislation

Parts of the ''Codex Euricianus'' can be found later, probably as a base, in the ''Lex Baiuvariorum'', the first Bavarian legislative codification. Also other Germanic legal codifications, those of the Burgundians (''lex Romana Burgundionum'') or Franks and Alamanni ('' lex Alamannorum''), also are considered influenced by the ''Codex Euricianus''. Hausmaninger, Herbert; Selb, Walter: ''Roman private law''. Böhlau, Vienna 1981 (9th ed. 2001), , p. 50.

After the death of Euric, the legislation remained in use and was even extended. Euric's son, Alaric II, added a piece of legislation known as the '' Breviary of Alaric'' (also known as ''Liber Aniani'', after the supposed writer).
These two laws together remained largely in force until the Visigoths settled definitively in Spain under King Liuvigild (568-586). This king adopted a new legislation, the '' Codex Revisius'', but it was lost.
In 654, more extensive legislation was introduced, the '' Lex Visigothorum''. This legislation became a territorial legislation and no longer legislation that settled disputes between population groups, such as the ''Codex Euricianus''.

See also

* Early Germanic law
* '' Lex Visigothorum'', 654

References

External links

Information on the ''Codex Euricianus'' as part of the ''leges Visigothorum'' and its manuscript tradition on the ''{{lang, la, Bibliotheca legum regni Francorum manuscripta'' website
A database on Carolingian secular law texts (Karl Ubl, Cologne University, Germany, 2012).

Germanic legal codes
Legal history of Spain
Palimpsests
Visigothic Kingdom