[172] It has already been stated that the wergeld of the Island of Gotland was three gold marks or 160 Merovingian solidi. But owing to the late date of the Gotland laws it cannot be regarded as certain that the amount was the same at the date of the Ripuarian laws.
[173] The depreciation in weight cannot have been the result of ignorance of the Roman standard. We learn from the excellent table given by Montelius in his Remains from the Iron Age of Scandinavia that the gold solidi of the Eastern Empire found their way into the Islands of Gotland, Oland, and Bornholm in considerable numbers, between A.D. 395 and 518. He shows that, while no silver coins of the Republic or before Nero have been found in Scandinavia, coins belonging to the silver currency of Rome after Nero found their way northwards in considerable numbers. Of Roman coins A.D. 98-192 only four gold coins are known to have been found and 2304 silver coins. Then the gold currency begins, and of dates between A.D. 235-395, sixty-four gold coins have been found and only one solitary silver coin. Lastly came the gold currency of the solidus of Constantine and his successors A.D. 395-518, and of this period 286 gold coins and one silver coin are recorded as having been found in Scandinavia. It is clear, then, that the Roman standard as well as the Roman system of division of the lb. was known in the North. For a long period no doubt the chief trade of the Baltic was with the Byzantine Empire and the East.
[174] Die Entstehungszeit der älteren Gulathingslög von Dr. Konrad Maurer, p. 5.
[175] The Reksthane is an official, and quite a different person from the Bónde.
[176] The Árborinn man seems to be the same as the Aettborinn man, i.e. ‘a man born in a kindred.’
[177] Elsewhere called the Odal-born-man.
[178] The hauld seems to have been the same as the odal-born man.
[179] See also the Frostathing Law IV. 31, in which in a similar case the person is outlawed.
[180] The Nefgildi-men include the slayer’s mother’s father, daughter’s son, mother’s brother, sister’s son, father’s sister’s son, mother’s sister’s sons, son’s daughter’s son, daughter’s daughter’s son, brother’s daughter’s son, sister’s daughter’s son.
[181] 4608 × 30 = 138240, and this divided by 8 = 17280 w.g. of gold, i.e. 200 gold solidi of 86·4 w.g.