On This Day In Roman History, March 29
King Gundobad releases a compilation of laws in a text known as the Lex Burgundionum on March 29, This proclamation was greatly influenced by Roman law and looked to define a wide set of rules and codes having to due widely with domestic laws. This document is not to be confused with the similarly named Lex Romana Burgundionum which directly takes several laws from Roman sources. This text influenced the Burgundian Kingdom which was one of the oldest Germanic kingdoms ever, coming to fruition in the mid 5th-century.
Did you know?
Laws for land being passed down, like so many other laws found within this text, are based on the strict and ancient belief systems of the Germanic Burgundians that invented them. This only allowed land to be passed down through strict hand-offs within families. This succession was common for many other aspects of handling property ownership.
Pictured: Saint Sigismund. Detail from: Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta praying in front of St. Sigismondo. By Piero della Francesca, 1451. Photograph by Georges Jansoone, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sigismund was the son of King Gundobad and may have directly contributed to the writing of these laws. It is unknown exactly how much influence either had in the writing of these laws, but it is assumed both had a large role in their compilations.
Today's quote is a translated set of laws from the mentioned text: "23. If a person provides someone with weapons where strife arises, but1
he does no harm, let him pay
with 6 shillings.
23.1. If highway robbery should be done, let him [i.e., the one who provided the weapons] pay with
6 shillings.
23.2. If a person kills that man [who is being robbed] let him [i.e., the one who provided the
weapons] pay with 20 shillings.
24. If a person kills someone, let him pay an ordinary person-price, 100 shillings.
24.1. If a person kills someone, let him pay 20 shillings at the open grave, and let him pay the entire
person[-price] in 40 nights.
24.2. If the killer departs from the land, let his kinsmen pay a half person[-price].
25. If a person binds a freeman, let him pay [with] 20 shillings.
26. If a person kills a freeman’s loaf-eater,2
let him pay with 6 shillings.
27. If [a person] kills a freedman3
of the first rank, let him pay [with] 80 shillings.
27.1. If he kills [one of] that second [rank], let him pay with 60 shillings.
27.2. [For one of] that third [rank], let him pay with 40 shillings.
28. If a freeman breaks into an enclosure,4
let him pay with 6 shillings.
28.1. If a person takes property therein, let that man pay 3[–fold] as compensation.
Opinion
Welcome to my daily opinion! Slowly but surely I will catch up! Here is a late post from yesterday, I hope to actually fill out this section sometime later today!
Sources
Drew, K. F., & Lear, F. S. (1963). Perspectives in medieval history. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Drew, K. F. (1996). The Burgundian code: book of constitutions or law of Gundobad, additional enactments. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Hoyt, R. S. (1993). Life and thought in the early Middle Ages. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Books on Demand.
Further Reading:
No comments:
Post a Comment