Their rule extended to the Loire till they were driven back to the Garonne by the Franks in the sixth century, and lasted in Spain and Aquitaine to 711 when it succumbed to Arab conquest. The Wisigoths conquered a country already under Roman law, with a mixed population of German as well as Celtic and Iberian tribes. They were not the first German intruders. They were invaders, but not altogether at enmity with the Romans. Their princes, after the break-up of the Roman power, issued gold coins—solidi and tremisses—in close imitation of those of the Eastern Empire. Goth and Roman were encouraged to marry on equal terms. And though there are traces of a scale of payments in composition for homicide, it bears little trace of the tribal principle of the solidarity of the kindred.
There is no scale of payments directly under the head of homicide, and we are left to gather incidentally what the wergeld (if it can be so called) may have been.
In a clause[96] added between 653 and 672 it was enacted that upon the kidnapping of the child—son or daughter—of a free man or woman, the criminal was to be delivered over into the power of the child’s father, or mother, brother or nearest parentes, so that they may have power to kill him or sell him. And if they desired it, they might demand the composition for homicide from the criminal, i.e. 500 solidi (some MSS. 300 solidi), the crime being to the parents no less grave than homicide. If the child could be recovered, half the composition for homicide was to be paid, and if the criminal could not pay he was to become their slave.
This doubtful mention of 500 solidi or 300 solidi finds some explanation in a later clause.
The wergeld graduated according to the age of the individual.
Indirectly, again, we get the scale in force for homicides in L. VIII. Tit. IV. s. 161, of about the same date. It enacted that injuries done by vicious animals, known to be such, were to be paid for sicut est de homicidiis by the ‘constituted composition’—compositio constituta—and then the following scale is given:
| Aliquis honestus | 500 | solidi |
| Ingenuus persona, 20 years old and up to 50 | 300 | ” |
| Ingenuus persona from 50 to 60 | 200 | ” |
| Older than this | 100 | ” |
| Youths of 15 years | 150 | ” |
| ” 14 ” | 140 | ” |
| ” 13 ” | 130 | ” |
| ” 12 ” | 120 | ” |
| ” 11 ” | 110 | ” |
| ” 10 ” | 100 | ” |
| ” 7 to 9 | 90 | ” |
| ” 4 to 6 | 80 | ” |
| ” 2 to 3 | 70 | ” |
| ” 1 year | 60 | ” |
| Daughter or wife from 15 to 40 | 250 | ” |
| ” ” 40 to 60 | 200 | ” |
| ” ” older | 100 | ” |
| Under 15, half the payment for a male; liberti, half-payments. | ||
Innocent homicide no longer to be paid for.
It is impossible to look upon this scale as fully representing ancient Gothic tribal tradition. And when we turn to the title ‘De cæde et morte hominum,’ which seems to belong to the same date, it becomes obvious how far the spirit of these laws had wandered away from any tribal standpoint and from all recognition of the solidarity of the kindred. A homicide committed unknowingly (‘nesciens’) is declared to be in the sight of God no cause of death. ‘Let the man who has committed it depart secure.’[97]
Every man who killed another intentionally, and not by accident, was to be punished for homicide. The punishment had, in fact, already become a matter of criminal law. The prosecution for homicide was no longer to be left only to the parentes of the slain, ‘for they might be lukewarm’ (s. 15). The judex ought to take the matter up, and on neglect of his duty was to be liable for half the payment for homicide, viz. 250 solidi. Strangers in blood as well as relations had already been enabled to bring the accusation.