166 Lafferty
of the Franks and the Vandals began to assert their autonomy and establish
dominance in regions once united under Ostrogothic control. From Athalaric
onwards, the Ostrogothic regime became increasingly incapable of dealing
with the dangers that threatened to pull apart the kingdom, dangers that had
existed since the early days of the empire: the exercise of patronage, judi-
cial venality and corruption, and the inability of the central administration
to establish a strong presence in local communities and thereby ensure that
justice was maintained equally and impartially throughout the peninsula.
These problems were not unique to Ostrogothic Italy, but rather were endemic
throughout the various successor kingdoms as different rulers attempted
to restore peace and order without the benefit of a comprehensive judicial
hierarchy.68 What was different in the case of Ostrogothic Italy, however, was
the barbarian regime’s ability to mask these problems behind a rhetoric of
Roman renewal that emphasized the perception of the order and civilitas asso-
ciated with Ostrogothic rule.
Conclusion
The law of Ostrogothic Italy was an amalgamation of different traditions and
customs that strove toward the simplification and popularization of classical
law. A revealing testament to the character and vitality of this legal culture
is the Edict of Theoderic. For one, it fully bears out the longevity of Rome’s
ancient laws. Through their selection of topics the compilers displayed an
interest in, an ability to understand, and a desire to preserve the essence of
classical Roman law to a remarkable degree. Procedural rules governing crimi-
nal and civil cases, evidentiary matters pertaining to the validity of witnesses
and written documents, the performance of oaths to determine the guilt or
innocence of a person, the general system of succession, rules over marriage
and divorce, the conveyance of property, and many other aspects of Roman
public and private law were transmitted—perhaps somewhat simplified
(which was not necessarily a very bad thing), but still in easily recognizably
Roman form. Some might suggest that this conservatism was the result of a
lack of understanding and self-confidence, so that the compilers refrained from
changing the texts of the jurists and the imperial decrees of emperors merely
because they did not know how to do it properly. But innovations do occur.
Some were the result of developments taking place in the Roman court system,
68 Wormald, “Lex Scripta”, pp. 105–38.