Euric's code

The Code of Eurico (Codex Euricianus) was a legal body of Visigothic Law, consisting of a compilation of laws, ordered by the Visigothic king Eurico, at some point before the year 480 in Tolosa. The compilation itself was the work of Leo, a jurist of the time, chief adviser to the king.

Through the code, the customs of the Visigothic nation were recognized and reaffirmed, as well as issues of distribution of land for settlement by barbarians. The Code is quite confusing and seems to have been a mere collection of Gothic customs altered by vulgar Roman Law.

Background

Eurico, born around the year 440, ascended the throne in 466 after the death of his brother Theodoric II. He will carry out a policy of expansion and will become a powerful king after the fall of the Roman structure. Closely related to this policy, he will also carry out notable legislative activity. He will come to be considered the first legislator and the first king under whose government the Goths began to be governed by laws and not by customs. The laws sanctioned by Eurico in this Code that were later collected in the Liber iudiciorum of Recesvinto, promulgated in 654, received the name in the latter of "leges antique".

Influences

Regarding its properly legislative influences, there are various sources that allow deeper knowledge about the content to which the text referred. These sources are:

• Fragmenta Gaudenziana: which identifies the code more as an edict than as a code as such.
• Palimpsesto de Saint Germain de Prés: noted until today as one of the most important sources of knowledge Eurician Code. Constituted by 50 chapters, of which the most influential publication refers to that made by Alvaro D'Ors, which is accompanied by a palingenesia of the code.
• Antiquae of Liber iudiciorum: this does not constitute a direct source of knowledge of the Code, since it is proposed that the Code Liber has a supposed origin from Codex revisius of Leovigildo, and even the very text of King Eurico.

The Codex: Parisian Palimpsest

The current version of the palimpsest found by the Maurine monks of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in their library in the 18th century, accepted by the scientific world, is that of D'Ors, from 1960, translated into Spanish and with extensive comments. Previous to this last version have been that of Blhume, with little success, and that of Zeumer in 1920.

The text, which must have consisted of about 350 chapters of which we only have 47, is based on Roman Law (according to D'Ors, in vulgar Roman Law), and some even maintain that it is about a gothic-roman hybrid.

Despite its name and unlike the Code of Theodoric, the Code of Euricus does not constitute a codification, but rather an edictum, a creative work, which continues the work of the imperial constitutions, so it is not a compilation. This conclusion has been reached because when the Western Roman Emperor Romulus Augustulus fell, Euric took the position left by the prefect of Arles, who had the ius edicenci, which is assumed by the Gothic king and that by virtue of this promulgates his work.

Nobody doubted, from the outset, the authorship of the code whose fragments appear in the Paris codex found in the National Library of Paris. Its discoverers attributed it, at the moment of finding it, to King Euric, taking into account the date (6th century), its relationship with the Lex Burgundionum and two chapters, including 277, in the that it is said that the father of the king who legislated was king and it is forbidden to see any lawsuit from before 451. Therefore, it had to be after that date, but before the year 481 because the lawsuits should not have fulfilled 30 years.

With these data, there could only have been three kings and the other two would be eliminated, if we take into account the affirmation of the principle «the first king under whose government the Goths began to be governed by laws and not by customs».

However, this authorship was questioned after the work of Alfonso García-Gallo in 1947. García-Gallo begins by denying its coincidence with the Lex Burgundionum, so the period already expires. would falter (451–481) and we would only be left with the other two reasons. Furthermore, it is one thing for Eurico to dictate laws and quite another thing for him to promulgate a code and for fragments of it to be collected in the Paris codex. García-Gallo is inclined to attribute it to his brother, Teodorico II, since the prohibition to review failed cases in the reign of his father becomes more logical the closer it gets to the death of Teodorico I (451).

If the code really belonged to Theodoric II, it would date from 453–466, although this thesis is improbable since Leovigildo corrected, added and excluded Euric's laws, so it is presumable the existence of a code.

Authorship, enactment and motives

Eurico was probably the first monarch to break all ties with the ancient Roman Empire and publish a code. It is possible to suspect that Eurico set out to dictate a law, if not regulating all the legal problems that could arise, yes broad enough to fully cover all the usual ones.

Despite the almost total affirmation of attributing the paternity of the text to Eurico (written by some jurist of the time), there were no shortage of authors who attributed them to Alarico II, Leovigildo and Recaredo, as a consequence of the conversion to Catholicism, having to temper the legislation to the new creed.

Although another hypothesis, which is presented by García-Gallo, is that of attributing the code to his brother Teodorico II. One of the reasons for proposing this hypothesis is that the precept prohibits reviewing the failed cases in the reign of the legislator's father, which would be more consistent the closer its dating is found to the death of Theodoric I, in the year 451.

There is no unanimity regarding the date of promulgation of the code, for some it was the year 481, others are inclined to believe that the code is very immediate to the year 451 (date of the death of Eurico's father) it can be specified as term to quo the year 466, date in which Eurico rises to power. Zeuer dates it after the year 469 and before 481, around 475 and finally Álvaro d'Ors, based on a testimony by Sidonio Apollinaris, specifies it in 476, the date of the fall of the Western Roman Empire, which seems the same. most likely.

It is not difficult to find out what were the reasons that prompted Eurico to compile a legislative collection. The Goths settled in the conquered territories, and not as closed colonies, but scattered among the Roman population, with whom they came into very close contact, due to the way in which land was distributed. With the coexistence of Goths and Romans, it was inevitable that numerous legal issues and disputes would arise.

In all these cases, the superiority of written Roman Law would be revealed over Germanic customary Law; much more taking into account this Law, in the midst of the new cultural conditions in which it found itself and which it could not foresee, it had to fail completely on many occasions. The old Gothic Law did not know, for example, any private landed property.

Returning to a doctrine proposed by García Gallo, D'Ors believes that Eurico's Code was applied not only to the Goths, but also to the Visigoths, over whom Eurico exercised his authority. On the other hand, it is probable that the work had the collaboration of Leon de Narbona, one of Eurico's ministers.

Eurico's code was the first code promulgated by a monarch of Germanic origin; It is the first lex barbarorum, constituting the first code of Western Europe. This legal body was considered by San Isidoro de Sevilla, one of the most important historians of German Law, as the first compilation of Gothic laws in a written text.

Date

The authorship of the Code and its dating are interdependent issues. If it belonged to Theodoric II, its promulgation would have taken place between the years 453 and 466, in which he ruled. Attributing the text to Eurico (dominant opinion), it would be located during the years 466-484, in which Euricó ruled. Keeping in mind that it would start from 469, due to the allusion made to the distribution and claim of land.

Structure

According to the palingenesis of the Código de Eurico carried out by Álvaro D'Ors, the titles that would form it would be the following:

Content

While the Eurico Code was studied by historians of the Germanist current, it was thought that this work only corresponded to the writing of Germanic customs.

However, Merea and D'Ors, in 1960, objected to this proposition. They demonstrate that the Eurico's Code fundamentally includes Vulgar Roman Law rather than Germanic Law. This fact has caused the study of the Code to attract the attention of Romanists.

Regarding the content of the Eurico Code, a division of approximately 350 chapters can be noted, which in turn, were framed in 31 titles of authorship recognized by Eurico, and which are included explicitly in each of the branches of Law. Referring to the latter, it should be noted that of the 31 signatures that prove the elaboration of the Code by the king, 20 belonged to the criminal sphere.

Thus, the Code contains a great variety of subjects: norms on judicial procedure, crimes and lawful acts in general, ecclesiastical asylum, doctors and their fees, abandoned children, rights and duties of travelers, division of the land between Romans and Goths, maritime trade, marriage and illicit unions, hereditary succession, manumissions...

Recipients

Regarding the scope of validity and application of the Code of Eurico, there currently seems to be unanimity that it was not repealed by the Breviario de Alarico but by the Code of Leovigildo (codex revisus). Hence, it can be interpreted that either the Code of Euric was applied to Goths and the Breviary of Alaric to Romans; or that both were part of the same legal system (applicable to both Goths and Romans) in which Euric's Code was a special text and Alaric's Breviary was general or subsidiary legislation.

Transcendence

This code goes beyond the borders of the Visigothic kingdom, having a wide diffusion in Gaul and also being used by other monarchs to create new laws in their respective territories.

Among the most important we find:

• Lex Baiuvariorum
• Lex Salica
• Gaudenzian Chapters
• Lectio Legum
• Edictum Rothari.

It also influenced the Hispano-Gothic legislation itself, several of its chapters reaching the Liber iudiciorum, the last work of the kingdom. This book collected most of the Eurico's Code through the Leovigildo's Code.