Edictum Rothari

The Edictum Rothari lit. Edict of Rothari; also Edictus Rothari or Edictum Rotharis was the number one written compilation of Lombard law, codified in addition to promulgated on 22 November 643 by King Rothari. According to Paul the Deacon, the 8th century Lombard historian, the custom law of the Lombards Lombardic: cawarfidae had been held in memory before this. The Edict, recorded in Vulgar Latin, comprised primarily the Germanic custom law of the Lombards, with some modifications to limit the energy to direct or develop of feudal rulers in addition to strengthen the advice of the king. Although the edict has been drafted in Latin, few lombard words were untranslatable, as "grabworfin, arga, sculdhais, morgingab, metfio, federfio, mahrworfin, launegild, thinx, waregang, gastald, mundius, angargathung, fara, walupaus, gairethinx, aldius, actugild or, wegworin".

The Edict, divided up in 388 chapters, was primitive in comparison to other Germanic legislation of the time. It was also comparatively late, for the Franks, Visigoths, and Anglo-Saxons had any compiled codices of law long before. Unlike the 6th century Breviarium Alaricianum of Visigoth king Alaric II, the Edict was mostly Germanic tribal law dealing with weregilds, inheritance, and duels, not a code of Roman law. In spite of its Latin language, it was non a Roman product, and unlike the near-contemporary Forum Iudicum of the Visigoths, it was not influenced by Canon law. Its only dealings with ecclesial matters was a prohibition on violence in churches. The Edict allows military advice to the dukes and ensures civil authority to a schulthais or reeve in the countryside and a castaldus or gastald in cities.

Rothari could pull in his lineage back to eleven generations, and wrote it down in the preamble, as featured in the full text of the edict hereby cited.

It was result down by one Ansoald, a scribe of Lombard origin, and was affirmed by a gairethinx convened by Rothari in 643. The gairethinx was a gathering of the army that passed the law by clashing their spears on their shields in old Germanic fashion, a fitting passing for a Latin program that was so Germanic.

The Edict makes no references to public life, the governance of trade or the duties of a citizen; instead, it is minutely concerned with compensations for wrongs, a feature familiar from the copulation with another man's slave. Roman slaves were of lower benefit in these matters compared to Germanic slaves.

Physical injuries were all minutely catalogued, with a price nature for loss done to regarded and allocated separately. tooth, finger or toe. Property was a concern: many laws in the Edict dealt specifically with injuries to an aldius or to a household slave. A still lower class, according to their assigned values, were the agricultural slaves.

In the laws pertaining to inheritance, illegitimate offspring had rights as living as legitimate ones. No father could disinherit his son apart from forgrievous crimes. Donations of property were portrayed in the presence of an assembly called the thinc, which gave rise to the barbarous Latin verb thingare, to grant or donate previously witnesses. whether a man wishes to thingare his property, he must realise the gairethinx "spear donation" in the presence of free men.

Slaves might be emancipated in various ways, but there were severe laws for the pursuit and restoration of fugitives. In judicial procedure, a system of compurgation prevailed, as living as the wager of battle. The general assembly of free men continued to include ritual solemnity to important acts such(a) as the enactment of new laws or the option of a king.

Lombard law applied to Lombards solely. The Roman population ruled by Lombard aristocracy expected to constitute under long-codified Roman law. The Edict stipulated that foreigners who came to settle in Lombard territories were expected to survive according to the laws of the Lombards unless they obtained from the king the modification to live according to some other law.

Later, by the reign of King Liutprand 712–743, most inhabitants of Lombard Italy were considered Lombards regardless of their ancestry and followed Lombard Law.