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Franconian dialects. Among: the Teutonic nations which 

 settled in Roman provinces, the Franks were the last who 

 were converted to the Christian religion : their king Clovis 

 was baptized after his victory over the Alemanni at Ziil- 

 pich (Tolbiacum) in 496. They founded a mighty aris- 

 tocracy in France, the political influence of which was 

 broken by Louis XI. The personal and social influence 

 of the Franks lasted till the Revolution of 1789, which is 

 justly regarded by the best modern French historians as a 

 reaction of the subjugated Celtic people against haughty 

 and insolent Frankish invaders. 



The Franks were divided into Franci Salici, who lived 

 in the Low Countries between the Zuider Zee, the Maas, 

 and the Somme ; and Franci Ripuarii, who were settled 

 along the Rhine between Nvmegen and Bonn. Each of 

 them had their code. The Lex Salica was written in very 

 barbarous Latin, under Clovis, between 484 and 496, and 

 was never revised, although it contains some laws by the 

 sons of Clovis, which begin with the 62nd (63rd) title. 

 Except one rule in title 14, about the rape of free per- 

 sons, and another concerning marriage within the prohi- 

 bited degrees, this code contains no trace of the Roman 

 law. It is very important for the history of the laws of 

 the Teutonic nations. The antient Lex Salica is often 

 confounded with the present Salic Law, which regulates 

 the right of succession in several sovereign and noble fami- 

 lies in Europe. But this latter Salic law is only a single 

 rule of the Lex Salica, and originally concerned the suc- 

 cession to the tax-free estates of free or noble Franks 

 (terra Saiica\ which belonged to the male issue, to the ex- 

 clusion of females. It is contained in title 62, ' De Alode,' 

 1.6: " De terra vero Salica nulla portio haereditatis mu- 

 lieri venial : sed ad virihem sexura tota terrae haereditas 

 perveniat.' 



This law was not peculiar to the Franci Salici : it 

 occurs in the greater part of the other antient Teutonic 

 laws. 



\Viarda, Geschichte und Awlegung des Salisc/ien Ge- 

 xftzis; Kc'meec'ms,Ant. Germ., i., p. 205, 285: a sepiuatc 

 edition of the Lex Salica was published by Pithou, Paris, 

 1602, 8vo.) 



The Lex Uipuaria was collected by Theodoric, the son 

 of Clovis, between 511 and 534. It was several times 

 revised, especially by Dagobert. It resembles the Lex 

 Salica, and contains no traces of the Roman law. 



(lijth.t. AVhile the Alemanni, the Burgundians, and 

 the Franks invaded the Roman empire on the Danube 

 and the Rhine, its eastern frontiers were attacked by the 

 Goths. The Goths originally inhabited the countries on 

 the Baltic between the Vistula and the Niemen ; but as 

 early as the close of the second century A.D. they ap- 

 peared on the shore of the Pontus Euxinus and the 

 Maeotis, where they founded two great kingdoms, that 

 of the Ostro-Goths, or Greuthungi, east of the Dnieper, 

 und that of the Visi-Goths, or Thervingi, west of it. Their 

 power was broken by the Huns, by whom they were partly 

 subjugated, partly forced to take refuge in Dacia and in 

 -1:1. The Visi-Goths then left the Danubian coun- 

 tries, traversed Italy as far as Reggio, opposite Sicily, and 

 finally conquered the southern part of Gaul, and Spain. 

 The Ostro-Goths, less fortunate in their attempt on Thrace, 

 were forced to go back to Dacia, where they became sub- 

 ject to the Huns. After the death of Attila, in 453, they 

 recovered their independence, and leaving the dangerous 

 country of the eastern part of Dacia, they settled in the 

 western part of this country, which the emperor Zeno was 

 obliged to cede to them in 474. In 488 their king Theo- 

 dorie, after having besieged Zeno in Constantinople, com- 

 pelled him to cede his claims on Italy, then under the 

 dominion of Odoacer, the chief of the Rugii, the Heruli, 

 and other tribes, who had put an end to the Roman em- 

 pire in Italy by deposing the last, emperor, Romulus 

 Aug'.isttiliis, in 475-. [THEODORIC.] Odoacer was deprived 

 of his crown and his life by Theodoric in 493, who founded 

 the kingdom of the Ostro-Goths in Italy and Illyricum, 

 which lasted till 552, when Tejas, the last king, was de- 

 feated and killed by Narses. 



The Code of the Ostro-Goths, 'the Edictnm Theodorici,' 

 which was composed by order of Theodoric in 500, is a 

 collection of Roman laws. This king wished to form one 

 people of the Romans and the Goths (Edictnm, $ 30), and 

 he therefore adopted the laws of the most civilised of his 

 ubjects. Leaving the Gothic laws exclusively to the 

 P. C., No. 1521. 



memory of the people, he Tcnew that they would soon fall 

 into oblivion without being formally abolished. In some 

 cases, however, he supplanted Gothic customs by Roman 

 laws. The IVehrgeld, or Wehre, that is, the fine for 

 crimes, was entirely abolished, and in place of it the 

 punishment of death was introduced in many cases, an 

 innovation which seemed very hard to the Goths, who, 

 like all the other Teutonic 'nations, inflicted the punish- 

 ment of death only for high treason and a lew such 

 crimes. Pithou published a separate edition of the ' Edie- 

 tum Theodorici' (Paris, 1579). Rhon, Commentatio ad 

 Edictnm Theodorici, Keg. Ostrogoth., Hake, 1816, 4to. 



The Visi-Golhs settled in the southern part of Gaul in 

 412, and invaded Spain in 414. This country was then in 

 the hands of the Suevi, the Alani, and the Vandals, who 

 became subject to the Goths, or were forced to emigrate. 

 In 451 the Visi-Goths, together with the Franks, defeated 

 Attila and his 700,000 Huns, Goths, Gepidae, and other 

 vassals, in the plain of Chalons-sur-Marne. Their king, 

 Alaric II., lost Gaul, except the eastern part of Langue- 

 doc and Provence, in the battle of Vougl6 against Clovis: 

 king of the Franks, in 507. The kingdom of the Visi 

 Goths lasted for three centuries, when it was overthrown 

 by the Arabs in 712. [SPAIN.] 



Among all the Teutonic nations the Visi-Goths were the 

 first who had written laws. (Isidorus Hispalensis, ' Chron. 

 ad annum Aer. Hisp. 504, A.D. 466.') A collection of 

 them was made by their king Eurie (466-484), which is 

 written in Latin and has the title of ' Lex Visigothorum.' 

 Its present form dates from King Egica, whose new code 

 was translated into the Gothic language under King 

 Reeeswind. It contains many traces of the Roman law, 

 and is the only early Teutonic law which may be consi- 

 dered as a code in the modern signification of the word. 

 The Lex Visigothorum must not be confounded with the 

 Breviarium Alarici (Alaric II., in 506), or the Code for the 

 Romans, who were subjects of the Visi-Goths, and conti- 

 nued to live under their own laws until they were abo- 

 lished by the kings Chindaswind and Reeeswind, who 

 declared the revised Lex Visigothorum obligatory on all 

 the inhabitants of the kingdom of the Visi-Goths. 



The Goths, the most civilized among the Teutonic 

 nations, were the first who adopted the Christian religion. 

 They had a literature from the time when Ulphilas trans- 

 lated the Bible. The Visi-Goths were at first Arians, and 

 though they returned to the Roman Church, they distin- 

 guished themselves from the other Roman Catholics by 

 their form of worship, or the Offieium Gothicum, which 

 was approved by the fourth Council of Toledo, A.D. 633. 

 It is also called Offieium Beati Isidori : Isidore presided 

 over that council. It contains many customs and forms 

 which have been used in the Spanish church from the 

 earliest times of Christianity. It was written in Latin, but 

 in old Gothic characters, which differ from the Scandina- 

 vian runes. 



The Ostro-Goths soon disappeared among the Longo- 

 bards, while the Visi-Goths preserved their language and 

 nationality till the invasion of the Arabs; and another 

 portion of them maintained their nationality until a very 

 recent period. 



These were the Gothi-Tetra,ritae, who, after the emi- 

 gration of their brethren to the western countries, retired 

 to the eastern part of the Chersonesus Taurica, now the 

 Crimea, and the opposite island of Taman. There they 

 lived for eleven centuries under the successive dominion 

 of Huns, Bulgarians, Greeks, Khazars, Tartars of Kip- 

 tshak, and Tartars of the Crimea, and, lastly, of Turks 

 Osmanlis. Their part of the Crimea was called Gothia 

 during the middle ages. Busbequius, who was the ambas- 

 sador of the emperor Rudolph II. at Constantinople, to- 

 wards the end of the sixteenth century, is the last writer 

 who mentions them. It appears that they afterwards 

 adopted the language, the customs, and the religion of the 

 Tartars. Russian scholars have traced the Gothic language 

 among the Tartars of the Crimea. {Journal de St. Pcli'ru- 

 bourg, 31st January (12th February), 1829.) 



Another part of the Goths invaded Sweden, and founded 

 the kingdom of Gothland (Gautland), which was afterwards 

 divided into East Gothland and West Gothland (Kystra- 

 Gautland and Vestra-Gautland). They mixed with the 

 Scandinavians, and it became a general opinion that they 

 were originally the same people. But a comparison of the 

 Gothic of Ulphilas and the old Scandinavian language 

 VOL. XXIV. 2 M 



