EDICTUM THEODORI´CI
EDICTUM THEODORI´CI This is the first collection of
law that was made after the downfall of the Roman power in Italy. It was
[p. 1.707]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. (Hodgkin,
Italy and
her Invaders, iii. pp. 306, 342.) It consists of 154 chapters
(besides a prologue and epilogue), parts of which may be traced to the Code
and Novellae of Theodosius IL., 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 Edictum was not
applicable. Athalaric, Theodoric's grandson, who was a minor, completed his
grandfather's edict by a new one: but 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; Savigny,
Gesch. des röm. Rechts im
Mittelalter, ii., chap. 11 ; Böcking,
Institutionen, p. 89; Puchta,
Institutionen,
8th ed., i. pp. 386, 387. Hodgkin,
Italy and her Invaders,
iii. p. 342, gives the prologue and epilogue and an analysis of the contents
of the Edict.)
[
J.B.M]
