Lex Visigothorum

The Visigothic Code (Latin, Forum Iudicum or Liber Iudiciorum; Spanish, Libro de los Jueces, Book of the Judges), also called Lex Visigothorum (English: Law of the Visigoths) is a set of laws first promulgated by king Chindasuinth (642-653) of the Visigothic Kingdom in his second year of rule (642-643) that survives only in fragments. In 654 his son, king Recceswinth (649-672), published the enlarged law code, which was the first law code that applied equally to the conquering Goths and the general population, of which the majority had Roman roots, and had lived under roman laws.

The code abolished the old tradition of having different laws for Romans (leges romanae) and Visigoths (leges barbarorum), and under which all the subjects of the Visigothic kingdom would stop being romani and gothi instead becoming hispani. In this way, all subjects of the kingdom were gathered under the same jurisdiction, eliminating social and legal differences, and allowing greater assimilation of the populations. As such, the Code marks the transition from the Roman law to Germanic law and is one of the best surviving examples of leges barbarorum. It combines elements of the Roman law, Catholic law and Germanic tribal customary law.

During the first centuries of Visigothic rule, Romans were ruled by different laws than Goths were. The earliest known visigothic laws are the Code of Euric, which were compiled by roughly 480 A.D. The first written laws of the Visigothic kingdom were compiled during the rule of king Alaric II and were meant to regulate the lives of Romans, who made up the majority of the kingdom and were based on the existing Roman imperial laws and their interpretations. The Breviarium (Breviary of Alaric) was promulgated during the meeting of Visigothic nobles in Toulouse on February 2, 506.

During the reign of king Leovigild an attempt was made to unite the laws regulating the lives of Goths and Romans into a revised law code, Codex Revisus. In 589, at the Third Council of Toledo the ruling Visigoths and Suebi, who had been Arians, accepted Catholicism. Now that the formerly Roman population and the Goths shared the same faith King Reccared issued laws that equally applied to both populations.

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