Edictum Theodorīci
The first collection of law that was made after the downfall of the Roman power in Italy.
It was promulgated by Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, probably on his visit to Rome in A.D.
500, though some authorities fix the date after 506. It consists of 154 chapters (besides a
prologue and epilogue), parts of which may be traced to the Code and Novellae of Theodosius
II., to the Codices Gregorianus and Hermogenianus, and to the
Sententiae of
Paulus; and, though it was doubtless drawn up by Roman writers, the original sources are more
disfigured and altered than in any other compilation. Though the Ostrogothic kingdom was in
point of fact quite independent of the Eastern Roman Empire, in
constitutional theory it was considered part of it, the king representing the Caesar, and his
army being reckoned a portion of the emperor's forces; consequently the Roman law was still
held binding in Italy, for the barbarian invaders no less than for the old inhabitants. Hence
the Edict of Theodoric, so far as it went, was intended as law for both nationalities; but
where it had made no change in the Gothic rules, the latter were still applied to the
barbarians, while the Roman law was to prevail for the Romans in those cases to which the
Edict was not applicable. After Narses had again united Italy to the empire of Justinian, the
latter's legislation was established in Italy (A.D. 554), and the Edict of Theodoric had no
longer any authority.
This edict was first printed in the edition of Cassiodorus by Nivellius
(Paris,
1579), and there is an edition by G. F. Rhon
(Halle, 1816). Cf. also Von
Glöden, Das römische Recht im ostgothischen Reich
(1843);
Hänel, Lex Rom. Visig. (1847); and
Rudorff,
Röm. Rechtsgeschichte, i. 288, 303. Hodgkin,
Italy and
her Invaders, iii. p. 342, gives the prologue and epilogue and an analysis of the
contents of the Edict.
