Visigothic Code

The Visigothic Code (Latin: Forum Iudicum, Liber Iudiciorum, or Book of the Judgements; Spanish: Fuero Juzgo), also called Lex Visigothorum (English: Law of the Visigoths), is a set of laws begun by king Chindasuinth (642–653 AD) of the Visigothic Kingdom in his second year of rule (642–643) that sought to provide common legal status between his Visigothic and Spanish-Roman subjects. In 654 his son, king Recceswinth (649–672; sole ruler from 653 to 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 it 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. The Code "fused Roman law and Germanic law and was binding on both [Visigothic and Spanish-Roman] populations." The Code also enshrined much law regarding the Catholic Church, probably "imparted to it by the Council of Toledo of 447". Unfortunately, according to translator S.P. Scott, the code was written in "monkish Latin, a barbarous jargon, extremely difficult to translate, and vastly different from the polished idiom of Tacitus and Cicero".