150 Lafferty
by an unknown group of Roman legal experts working under the authority of
the quaestor in Ravenna.7
Its immediate purpose was to restore peace in the kingdom by reinforcing,
clarifying, and in most cases updating existing Roman law (which was at this
time erratically preserved in sources that were not easily accessible to the gen-
eral public at large). Theoderic, we are informed from the prologue, received
complaints that laws were not being observed in the provinces. To preserve
the desired peace, the edict was to be posted so that Romans and barbarians
would know what was expected of them. Its authority lay in the fact that it
was derived from novellae leges and vetus ius, that is to say, written enact-
ments and ancient custom preserved in imperial codifications and juristic
commentaries.8 To underscore the point, the epilogue concludes by stating
that it was the responsibility of all, whether learned or ignorant, city dweller
or countryman, officer or citizen, Goth or Roman, to uphold the rule of the law
in equal measure. Romans and Goths were expected to obey the solemnity
of Roman law. This is wholly in keeping with Roman tradition and the ideol-
ogy of Theoderic’s regime, the consistent message of which as presented by
Cassiodorus makes the point that the Goths were required to adopt the supe-
rior judicial notions of the Roman legal system.9 As Athalaric proclaimed to
the Roman Senate upon his accession in 526:
7 Since the first publication of the text by Pierre Pithou in 1579, the authorship and authentic-
ity of this document was accepted by scholars without question as the work of Theoderic
the Great. In the 1950s, however, Giulio Vismara made a strong case for Theoderic II of the
Visigoths (“Romani e Goti”, pp. 407–63; most notably his “Edictum Theoderici”). But it can
hardly be doubted that the ET is the product of the Ostrogoth Theoderic’s administration,
for it clearly mirrors aspects of the Variae in terms of its content and ideology, and three
provisions address issues particular to the Italian peninsula: both ET 10 and 111 refer to Rome
specifically; and ET 145 mentions capillati, an honorific term (meaning ‘long-haired ones’)
used on one occasion by Cassiodorus to refer to the Goths living in the northern regions of
Siscia and Suavia (Variae 4.49). See further Lafferty, Law and Society, ch. 1; Wormald, “The
Leges Barbarorum”, pp. 21–53. The most accessible editions are those of Bluhme (Edictum
Theoderici regis in MGH Leges 5, pp. 145–79 and Baviera (Fontes Iuris Romani Anteiustiniani II,
pp. 683–710). For a review of the various editions of the ET, see Vismara, “Edictum”, pp. 9–11;
Baviera, FIRA II, p. 683.
8 On this distinction between ius and lex, see Mousourakis, Historical and Institutional Context,
pp. 17–18; Matthews, “Interpreting the interpretationes”, pp. 11–32 at p. 16; Stein, Roman, pp. 4,
28; For similar usages of the terms in later periods see McKitterick, The Carolingians, p. 38.
9 E.g. Cassiodorus, Variae 1.1.3, 27; 2.7; 3.17 (cf. 18), 31, 43.1; 4.22, 33, 42; 5.40; cf. 10.5, 7). Similarly,
the Anonymus Valesianus reports (12.66) that soon after his authority was recognized by the
eastern emperor Anastasius, Theoderic made an announcement to the Senate and people
of Rome, “promising that with God’s help he would preserve inviolate the Roman law”.