CHAPTER XXIV
THE AGE OF JUSTINIAN: 518–565 A. D.
I. The Germanic Kingdoms in the West to 533 a. d.
The Germans and the Romans. The passing of Italy and the western provinces under the sway of Germanic kings was accomplished, as we have seen, by the settlement of large numbers of barbarians in the conquered territories. This necessitated a division of the soil and a definition of the status of the Romans with respect to the invaders, who were everywhere less numerous than the native population. These questions were settled in different ways in the several kingdoms.
Under the Visigoths. In the Visigothic kingdom in Gaul the Goths and the Romans lived side by side as separate peoples, each enjoying its own laws, and the Romans were not regarded as subjects having no rights against their conquerors. However, intermarriage between the two races was forbidden. The law which applied to the Romans was published by King Alaric in 506 A. D., and is known as the Lex Romana Visigothorum, or the Breviary of Alaric; his predecessor Euric had caused the compilation of a code of the Gothic customary law in imitation of the imperial Theodosian code.
The settlement of the Goths on the land took the form of hospitium or quartering. By this arrangement the Roman landholders gave up to the Goths two thirds of their property, both the land itself and the cattle, coloni and slaves which were on it. The shares which the Goths received were not subject to taxation.
For the purposes of administration the Roman provincial and municipal divisions were retained (provinciae and civitates), the former being placed under duces and the latter under comites civitatum. The Goths settled within these districts formed their national associations of tens, hundreds, and thousands, under native Gothic officers. But the adoption of a more settled form of life deeply affected the Gothic tribal institutions. The Gothic national assembly could no longer be easily called together and came to exist in the form of [pg 370]the army alone. In the division of the land the more influential warriors and friends of the king received the larger shares and this helped the rise of a landed nobility. The government was concentrated at the capital, Toulouse, where central ministries were established modelled on those of the Roman court. This led to a considerable strengthening of the royal power. The language of government remained Gothic for the Goths and Latin for the Romans, but the leading Goths appear to have been familiar with both tongues.