The Law 151
We wish that before Us the Goths and Romans be judged by the same
law; and there shall be no other difference between you, except that
they undergo the trials of war for the common advantage, and you may
increase in number through the quiet habitation of the city of Rome.10By the early 6th century the imperial administration had largely disappeared,
but, however selective and modified, the Edictum Theoderici was a practical
guidebook of Roman law, which presupposed the importance of customs and
formalities that had their origins in a distant and bygone culture.11 In this,
Ostrogothic Italy was not unique. The adoption of a written code of law was an
experience shared by most of the barbarian successor kingdoms that emerged
in the former provinces of the western Roman empire over the course of the
5th and early 6th centuries. In principle, the legislation issued by the barbarian
kings represents their assuming of authority and responsibility for the prob-
lems associated with their arrival. Yet the interplay between Roman and bar-
barian is a far more complex matter than simple confrontation and eventual
replacement of the former by the latter.12 Barbarian kings alike borrowed from
and adapted Roman law to maintain authority within their respective territo-
ries. Of all the legal systems borne forth from antiquity, none has left a greater
impression on western legal traditions than that of Rome’s. Throughout the
Middle Ages and the early modern era, the bleached bones of this dead soci-
ety’s laws inspired kings, popes, and emperors in their respective roles as law-
givers and champions of justice. The well-known story of the Visigothic king
Athaulf (r. 410–15) is worth mentioning here. According to the 5th-century his-
torian Orosius (Historia adversus Paganos 7.43.2–3), Athaulf was often heard
saying that his first intention was to obliterate the Roman Empire and replace
it with a Gothic one. However, realizing that laws were a pre-requisite for state-
hood, and that his unruly followers had not yet attained such a level of civiliza-
tion, Athaulf chose to defend existing Roman institutions with Gothic arms.
This issue of reception has long puzzled legal historians. In its broad-
est sense, reception is the process in law by which one legal system adopts
(“se omnia deo iuvante quod retro principes Romani ordinaverunt inviolabiliter ser-
vaturum promittit.”) For an edition and translation of the text see Rolfe, Ammianus
Marcellinus, vol. 3.
10 Cassiodorus, Variae 8.3: “Gothis Romanisque apud nos ius esse commune nec aliud inter
vos esse divisum, nisi quod illi labores bellicos pro communi utilitate subeunt, vos autem
habitatio quieta civitatis Romanae multiplicat.”
11 For similar views regarding administration see Bjornlie in this volume.
12 Halsall, Barbarian Migrations.