laws from the descriptions of Roman observers and from
laws that were written slightly aft er the ancient period. Th e
best evidence of Celtic legal codes comes from Ireland’s Bre-
hon laws, which were fi rst written down in the 600s c.e. but
are presumed to have come from ancient Celtic laws. Histo-
rians think that these laws may have developed among Celtic
peoples in Europe during the Bronze Age, between 2300 and
900 b.c.e. Legal experts memorized the laws and transmitted
them orally over the years. Aft er many years of study, these
experts became skilled at interpreting the law, advising rul-
ers, and arbitrating disputes. (Th e name Brehon is an Angli-
cization of the Irish word for “judge.”)
Celtic law divided people into fi ve social classes. At the
top were kings, followed by nobles. Free people who owned
property formed a third class and free people without prop-
erty a fourth. Th e fi ft h class consisted of slaves and other
nonfree people. Th ese ranks indicated how people had to
behave with respect to other members of society. Kings
and nobles owned their own property and paid no rent to
anyone. Men of the third class, freemen with property, did
not own land but did own cattle and other movable goods,
which allowed them to function as the lowest level of chiefs.
Th e vast majority of people fell into the bottom two classes.
Th e fourth class rented land from nobles, to whom they
owed allegiance in war. Some members of the fi ft h class
were slaves, many of them captured from other tribes; oth-
ers were not slaves but did not hold all the rights of full
members of the tribe.
In addition to defi ning social classes, Celtic laws orga-
nized people into groups that served as the basis for distribut-
ing land. Th e family was the smallest group. Th e clan was a
larger group of relatives descended from a common ancestor.
A tribe consisted of several clans likewise descended from a
common ancestor. Each tribe and clan was governed by its
own chief, who in turn owed allegiance to higher rulers. Al-
legiance took the form of yearly payments of property and
military assistance.
Celtic laws did away with the ancient practice of retalia-
tion for crimes and replaced them with a scheme of compen-
sation designed to end disputes peacefully. If a person harmed
another, the victim or the victim’s family would bring the case
before a chief and a legal expert. Th e legal expert would lis-
ten to the facts and decide the appropriate punishment. Every
crime merited a specifi c compensation; cutting off someone’s
hand earned a smaller fi ne than murdering someone would.
Th ere were several levels of court; petty disputes went to the
courts of local chiefs, while major disputes might go all the
way to a king. A party who brought a case to court had to
bring at least two witnesses to testify on her behalf. Social
rank was important in courts; a person of lower rank could
not always testify against someone of higher class.
One notable aspect of ancient Celtic law is its near ab-
sence of capital punishment for crimes. Th e only time Celtic
laws recommended death was when a murderer failed to pay
the full amount of the specifi ed fi ne. Celtic kings and chiefs
did execute criminals, but this practice was done outside the
legal setting. Methods of execution included hanging and
drowning.
Germanic tribes did not begin to compile formal legal
codes until the very end of the Roman Empire in the 400s.
For almost all of the ancient period they governed themselves
according to custom, passed orally from generation to gen-
eration. Th ese laws specifi ed the treatment of criminals and
the settlement of disputes.
German tribes assembled periodically to hold a festi-
val that in medieval times was called the Th ing, which was
an occasion to trade, exchange spouses, and settle disputes.
People who believed they had been wronged would wait until
a major gathering and then bring their grievance before the
king, who acted as a judge. Both parties were allowed to speak
and bring witnesses to back them. Th e king would then is-
sue a judgment. If all went well, both parties would abide by
the agreement, and the dispute would be ended. Sometimes
people settled disputes themselves by force, but there was
community pressure to follow the king’s judgment and settle
matters peacefully. If the king summoned a person to appear
at the Th ing and he failed to come, he would be fi ned. Any
party who summoned another person to appear because of a
dispute and then himself failed to appear would have to pay a
fi ne to the person he had summoned.
German laws covered many diff erent types of crime.
Stealing cattle was a serious off ense, and penalties varied de-
pending on the value of the cattle stolen; a bull owned by the
king merited a higher fi ne than a bull that serviced only the
cows of a single herd owned by an ordinary man. Stealing an
object that lay outside a house was not as serious as breaking
into a house to steal something. Merely breaking into a house
without stealing anything was also a crime, especially if the
thief broke a lock to get in. Rape, assault, insult, and mur-
der were all criminal off enses punishable by fi nes. Tribes set
fi nes according to the value of the victim. Killing a pregnant
woman merited a higher fi ne than killing a woman past her
childbearing years. If a murderer concealed his victim in an
attempt to hide his crime, the punishment was greater than
if he did not. A murderer who did not have enough money to
pay the fi ne was expected to ask his relatives and friends for
help. If he still could not raise enough money, he might be
executed. Germanic inheritance law favored male heirs. If a
father died and left sons, they would inherit his property. If
he had no sons, then his property would go to his parents, his
siblings, or his relatives on his father’s side. In most cases, the
inheritance could not go to a woman.
During the 400s c.e., Germanic groups began compil-
ing codes of laws. Th e Visigothic leaders Th eodoric I, Th oris-
mund, and Th eodoric II all created bodies of law that they
used to govern their people, but they did not write these laws
down. Th e Visigothic king Euric (d. 484 c.e.) made the fi rst
compilation of Visigothic law in 471, gathering the laws of
his predecessors and arranging them in a single volume. His
laws regulated only disputes involving Goths or Goths andlaws and legal codes: Europe 627