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Germanic law

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Germanic law is a scholarly term used to describe a series of commonalities between the various law codes (the Leges Barbarorum , 'laws of the barbarians', also called Leges ) of the early Germanic peoples . These were compared with statements in Tacitus and Caesar as well as with high and late medieval law codes from Germany and Scandinavia. Until the 1950s, these commonalities were held to be the result of a distinct Germanic legal culture. Scholarship since then has questioned this premise and argued that many "Germanic" features instead derive from provincial Roman law . Although most scholars no longer hold that Germanic law was a distinct legal system, some still argue for the retention of the term and for the potential that some aspects of the Leges in particular derive from a Germanic culture. Scholarly consensus as of 2023 is that Germanic law is best understood in opposition to Roman law, in that it was not "learned" and incorporated regional peculiarities.

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150-604: While the Leges Barbarorum were written in Latin and not in any Germanic vernacular , codes of Anglo-Saxon law were produced in Old English . The study of Anglo-Saxon and continental Germanic law codes has never been fully integrated. As of 2023, scholarly consensus is that Germanic law is best understood in contrast with Roman law , in that whereas Roman law was "learned" and the same across regions, Germanic law

300-577: A Roman character sarcastically suggests that he and his partner "chalk our faces so that Gaul may claim us as her own" in the midst of a rant outlining the problems with his partner's plan of using blackface to impersonate Aethiopians . This suggests that Gauls were thought of on average to be much paler than Romans. Jordanes describes the physical attributes of the Gauls as including "reddish hair and large loose-jointed bodies." All over Gaul, archeology has uncovered many pre-Roman gold mines (at least 200 in

450-400: A Roman province by the time of Caesar, Latin was the language spoken since at least the previous century. Gaulish is paraphyletically grouped with Celtiberian , Lepontic , and Galatian as Continental Celtic . Lepontic and Galatian are sometimes considered dialects of Gaulish. The exact time of the final extinction of Gaulish is unknown, but it is estimated to be around or shortly after

600-430: A burning hot iron, and trial by combat , in which two fighters fought to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused party. The most important of these was the trial by combat. A Germanic origin for the trial by combat is generally accepted. It appears early and widely among many Germanic peoples. Dusil, Kannowski, and Schwedler write that it is an important difference between Germanic and Roman law, and derive it from

750-428: A certain number of years, probably after spending time in an afterlife, and noted they buried grave goods with the dead. Gallic religious ceremonies were overseen by priests known as druids , who also served as judges, teachers, and lore-keepers. There is evidence that the Gauls sacrificed animals , almost always livestock . An example is the sanctuary at Gournay-sur-Aronde . It appears some were offered wholly to

900-409: A compromise. In other cases, social networks were enlisted to help a defendant, or the church lent money to end the feud. Payment could be taken in kind rather than in currency. When compensations could not be paid, the plaintiff had the option to enslave the defendant The ordeal ( judicium Dei "judgment of God") was a method used to cause God to reveal the guilt or innocence of a person accused of

1050-516: A crime. It relied on the notion that God would intervene in the world to prevent the condemnation of an innocent person. Similar practices are attested in other cultures around the world, including in the Code of Hammurabi . Methods found in the Leges and in later medieval laws included the trial by hot water, in which a person dipped their hand into a boiling cauldron, of hot iron, in which a person carried

1200-526: A faster pace. It is characterised by greater use of prepositions, and word order that is closer to modern Romance languages, for example, while grammatically retaining more or less the same formal rules as Classical Latin. Ultimately, Latin diverged into a distinct written form, where the commonly spoken form was perceived as a separate language, for instance early French or Italian dialects, that could be transcribed differently. It took some time for these to be viewed as wholly different from Latin however. After

1350-437: A father god, who was often a god of the tribe and of the dead ( Toutatis probably being one name for him); and a mother goddess who was associated with the land, earth and fertility ( Matrona probably being one name for her). The mother goddess could also take the form of a war goddess as protectress of her tribe and its land. There also seems to have been a male celestial god—identified with Taranis —associated with thunder,

1500-743: A few in German , Dutch , Norwegian , Danish and Swedish . Latin is still spoken in Vatican City, a city-state situated in Rome that is the seat of the Catholic Church . The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part, in substantial works or in fragments to be analyzed in philology . They are in part the subject matter of the field of classics . Their works were published in manuscript form before

1650-404: A few. Famous and well regarded writers included Petrarch, Erasmus, Salutati , Celtis , George Buchanan and Thomas More . Non fiction works were long produced in many subjects, including the sciences, law, philosophy, historiography and theology. Famous examples include Isaac Newton 's Principia . Latin was also used as a convenient medium for translations of important works first written in

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1800-525: A general trend away from an oral legal culture toward a text-based writing culture. It is unclear to what extent the written legal texts were used in court: whereas Patrick Wormald and many German scholars have argued that the Leges texts mostly existed for reasons of representation and prestige, other scholars, such as Rosamund McKitterick, have argued that the number of surviving manuscripts and physical indications of their frequent use means that they were in fact employed in practice. Germanic legal vocabulary

1950-557: A group of Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age and the Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul ( Gallia ). They spoke Gaulish , a continental Celtic language . The Gauls emerged around the 5th century BC as bearers of La Tène culture north and west of the Alps . By the 4th century BC, they were spread over much of what

2100-560: A native language, Medieval Latin was used across Western and Catholic Europe during the Middle Ages as a working and literary language from the 9th century to the Renaissance , which then developed a classicizing form, called Renaissance Latin . This was the basis for Neo-Latin which evolved during the early modern period . In these periods Latin was used productively and generally taught to be written and spoken, at least until

2250-567: A result, the list has variants, as well as alternative names. In addition to the historical phases, Ecclesiastical Latin refers to the styles used by the writers of the Roman Catholic Church from late antiquity onward, as well as by Protestant scholars. The earliest known form of Latin is Old Latin, also called Archaic or Early Latin, which was spoken from the Roman Kingdom , traditionally founded in 753 BC, through

2400-490: A role in gender shifts of words in Early French, whereby the gender would shift to match the gender of the corresponding Gaulish word with the same meaning. Like other Celtic peoples, the Gauls had a polytheistic religion . Evidence about their religion is gleaned from archaeology and Greco-Roman accounts. Some deities were venerated only in one region, but others were more widely known. The Gauls seem to have had

2550-407: A separate language, existing more or less in parallel with the literary or educated Latin, but this is now widely dismissed. The term 'Vulgar Latin' remains difficult to define, referring both to informal speech at any time within the history of Latin, and the kind of informal Latin that had begun to move away from the written language significantly in the post-Imperial period, that led ultimately to

2700-709: A small number of Latin services held in the Anglican church. These include an annual service in Oxford, delivered with a Latin sermon; a relic from the period when Latin was the normal spoken language of the university. In the Western world, many organizations, governments and schools use Latin for their mottos due to its association with formality, tradition, and the roots of Western culture . Canada's motto A mari usque ad mare ("from sea to sea") and most provincial mottos are also in Latin. The Canadian Victoria Cross

2850-429: A sort of informal language academy dedicated to maintaining and perpetuating educated speech. Philological analysis of Archaic Latin works, such as those of Plautus , which contain fragments of everyday speech, gives evidence of an informal register of the language, Vulgar Latin (termed sermo vulgi , "the speech of the masses", by Cicero ). Some linguists, particularly in the nineteenth century, believed this to be

3000-572: A spoken and written language by the scholarship by the Renaissance humanists . Petrarch and others began to change their usage of Latin as they explored the texts of the Classical Latin world. Skills of textual criticism evolved to create much more accurate versions of extant texts through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and some important texts were rediscovered. Comprehensive versions of authors' works were published by Isaac Casaubon , Joseph Scaliger and others. Nevertheless, despite

3150-432: A strictly left-to-right script. During the late republic and into the first years of the empire, from about 75 BC to AD 200, a new Classical Latin arose, a conscious creation of the orators, poets, historians and other literate men, who wrote the great works of classical literature , which were taught in grammar and rhetoric schools. Today's instructional grammars trace their roots to such schools , which served as

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3300-485: A variant of tîsdag ("day of Tyr"), has led to the theory that the thing stood under the protection of Tyr in pagan times. The Leges Alamannorum specified that all free men were required to appear at a popular assembly, but such a specification is otherwise absent for the Frankish Merovingian period . In later periods outside Scandinavia, the assemblies were composed of important persons rather than

3450-693: A vernacular, such as those of Descartes . Latin education underwent a process of reform to classicise written and spoken Latin. Schooling remained largely Latin medium until approximately 1700. Until the end of the 17th century, the majority of books and almost all diplomatic documents were written in Latin. Afterwards, most diplomatic documents were written in French (a Romance language ) and later native or other languages. Education methods gradually shifted towards written Latin, and eventually concentrating solely on reading skills. The decline of Latin education took several centuries and proceeded much more slowly than

3600-412: A way to distance discussion of Germanic tribes from this earlier way of thinking. In this new understanding, Germanic peoples were not stable ethnic units, but were constantly breaking up and reforming in a process of ethnogenesis . Moreover, it is unclear whether the gentes formed the early Germanic kingdoms, or whether they were not instead created as part of the process of state formation. Besides

3750-411: Is Veritas ("truth"). Veritas was the goddess of truth, a daughter of Saturn, and the mother of Virtue. Switzerland has adopted the country's Latin short name Helvetia on coins and stamps, since there is no room to use all of the nation's four official languages . For a similar reason, it adopted the international vehicle and internet code CH , which stands for Confoederatio Helvetica ,

3900-897: Is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages . Latin was originally spoken by the Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio ), the lower Tiber area around Rome , Italy. Through the expansion of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian Peninsula and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire . By the late Roman Republic , Old Latin had evolved into standardized Classical Latin . Vulgar Latin refers to

4050-640: Is a reversal of the original phrase Non terrae plus ultra ("No land further beyond", "No further!"). According to legend , this phrase was inscribed as a warning on the Pillars of Hercules , the rocks on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar and the western end of the known, Mediterranean world. Charles adopted the motto following the discovery of the New World by Columbus, and it also has metaphorical suggestions of taking risks and striving for excellence. In

4200-403: Is blond, and not only naturally so, but they make it their practice to increase the distinguishing color by which nature has given it. For they are always washing their hair in limewater, and they pull it back from their forehead to the top of the head and back to the nape of the neck... Some of them shave their beards, but others let it grow a little; and the nobles shave their cheeks, but they let

4350-572: Is clearly displayed in the prologue of the Lex Salica , in which four men are described as having ascertained what the law was rather than creating it. Most of the Leges refer to having been composed through a meeting of the great men of the kingdom, of its army, or of its people; whereas the southern Leges mention the role of the king, the northern ones do not. A word attested meaning "law" as well as "religion" in West Germanic languages

4500-552: Is found in any widespread language, the languages of Spain, France, Portugal, and Italy have retained a remarkable unity in phonological forms and developments, bolstered by the stabilising influence of their common Christian (Roman Catholic) culture. It was not until the Muslim conquest of Spain in 711, cutting off communications between the major Romance regions, that the languages began to diverge seriously. The spoken Latin that would later become Romanian diverged somewhat more from

4650-689: Is modelled after the British Victoria Cross which has the inscription "For Valour". Because Canada is officially bilingual, the Canadian medal has replaced the English inscription with the Latin Pro Valore . Spain's motto Plus ultra , meaning "even further", or figuratively "Further!", is also Latin in origin. It is taken from the personal motto of Charles V , Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain (as Charles I), and

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4800-739: Is mostly geometric and linear, and is best seen on fine metalwork finds from graves. Animals, with waterfowl a particular favorite, are often included as part of ornamentation, more often than humans. Commonly found objects include weapons, in latter periods often with hilts terminating in curving forks ("antenna hilts"), and jewelry, which include fibulae , often with a row of disks hanging down on chains, armlets, and some torcs . Though these are most often found in bronze, some examples, likely belonging to chieftains or other preeminent figures, are made of gold. Decorated situlae and bronze belt plates show influence from Greek and Etruscan figurative traditions. Many of these characteristics were continued into

4950-466: Is not well attested outside of much later Scandinavian sources, whereas kingship for military leadership is. Dennis Howard Green argues for a development of the terminology from þiudans to truhtin to cuning , reflecting a change in the nature of Germanic kingship first to a primarily military institution and then to a more permanent, dynastic institution. The Germanic languages attest several words for clans or kinship groups, most prominently

5100-587: Is now France , Belgium , Switzerland , Southern Germany , Austria , and the Czech Republic , by virtue of controlling the trade routes along the river systems of the Rhône , Seine , Rhine , and Danube . They reached the peak of their power in the 3rd century BC. During the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, the Gauls expanded into Northern Italy ( Cisalpine Gaul ), leading to the Roman–Gallic wars , and into

5250-705: Is reconstructed from multiple sources, including early loanwords in Finnic languages , supposed translations of Germanic terms in Tacitus, apparently legal terms in the Gothic Bible , elements in Germanic names, Germanic words found in the Leges barbarorum, as well as in later vernacular legal texts, beginning with Old English (7th–9th centuries). There is no evidence for a universal Proto-Germanic legal terminology; rather

5400-573: Is represented by Old High German êwa ; there is some evidence for the word's existence from names preserved in Old Norse and Gothic. Êwa is used in the Latin texts of the Leges barbaroum to mean the unwritten laws and customs of the people, but comes also to refer to the codified written laws as well. Jacob Grimm argued that Êwa 's use to also mean "religion" meant there was also a religious dimension to pre-Christian Germanic law; Ruth Schmidt-Wiegand  [ de ] argues instead that

5550-1011: Is taught at many high schools, especially in Europe and the Americas. It is most common in British public schools and grammar schools, the Italian liceo classico and liceo scientifico , the German Humanistisches Gymnasium and the Dutch gymnasium . Occasionally, some media outlets, targeting enthusiasts, broadcast in Latin. Notable examples include Radio Bremen in Germany, YLE radio in Finland (the Nuntii Latini broadcast from 1989 until it

5700-543: The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL). Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same: volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance and relevant information. The reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy . About 270,000 inscriptions are known. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. In

5850-558: The Monumenta Germaniae Historica in the 19th century. The law codes are written in Latin, often using many Latinized Germanic terms, with the exception of the Anglo-Saxon law codes , which were written in the vernacular as early as the sixth century. The Leges share features such as orality , the importance of court procedure, and a reliance on compensatory justice to settle disputes. The Leges are

6000-595: The Aedui , Helvetii and others, had enjoyed stable political alliances with Rome. They imported Mediterranean wine on an industrial scale, evidenced by large finds of wine vessels in digs all over Gaul, the largest and most famous of which being the one discovered in Vix Grave , which stands 1.63 m (5′ 4″) high. Gallic art corresponds to two archaeological material cultures : the Hallstatt culture (c. 1200–450 BC) and

6150-661: The Coligny calendar . The ethnonym Galli is generally derived from a Celtic root * gal - 'power, ability' (cf. Old Breton gal 'power, ability', Irish gal 'bravery, courage'). Brittonic reflexes give evidence of an n-stem * gal-n- , with the regular development * galn - > gall - (cf. Middle Welsh gallu , Middle Breton gallout 'to be able', Cornish gallos 'power'). The ethnic names Galátai and Gallitae , as well as Gaulish personal names such as Gallus or Gallius , are also related. The modern French gaillard ('brave, vigorous, healthy') stems from

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6300-569: The French Revolution imposed the modern departmental system . Though the tribes were moderately stable political entities, Gaul as a whole tended to be politically divided, there being virtually no unity among the various tribes. Only during particularly trying times, such as the invasion of Caesar, could the Gauls unite under a single leader like Vercingetorix . Even then, however, the faction lines were clear. The Romans divided Gaul broadly into Provincia (the conquered area around

6450-685: The Gallic Wars (58–50 BC), making it a Roman province , which brought about the hybrid Gallo-Roman culture . The Gauls were made up of many tribes ( toutās ), many of whom built large fortified settlements called oppida (such as Bibracte ), and minted their own coins . Gaul was never united under a single ruler or government, but the Gallic tribes were capable of uniting their armies in large-scale military operations , such as those led by Brennus and Vercingetorix . They followed an ancient Celtic religion overseen by druids . The Gauls produced

6600-792: The Germanic Cimbri and Teutones in the Cimbrian War , where they defeated and killed a Roman consul at Burdigala in 107 BC, and later became prominent among the rebelling gladiators in the Third Servile War . The Gauls were finally conquered by Julius Caesar in the 50s BC despite a rebellion by the Arvernian chieftain Vercingetorix . During the Roman period the Gauls became assimilated into Gallo-Roman culture and by expanding Germanic tribes . During

6750-620: The Herules , the Gepids , and the Saxons . According to Tacitus kings were elected from a group of eligible candidates by the people, but had no power of command (Germania, 7). Walter Pohl argues that the authority of the king was probably personal rather than directly related to the office. The power of the kings grew over time: while they originally seem to have been mostly military leaders, they became more institutionalized, authoritative rulers in

6900-583: The Holy See , the primary language of its public journal , the Acta Apostolicae Sedis , and the working language of the Roman Rota . Vatican City is also home to the world's only automatic teller machine that gives instructions in Latin. In the pontifical universities postgraduate courses of Canon law are taught in Latin, and papers are written in the same language. There are

7050-570: The La Tène culture (c. 450–1 BC). Each of these eras has a characteristic style, and while there is much overlap between them, the two styles recognizably differ. From the late Hallstatt onwards and certainly through the entirety of La Tène, Gaulish art is reckoned to be the beginning of what is called Celtic art today. After the end of the La Tène and from the beginning of Roman rule, Gaulish art evolved into Gallo-Roman art . Hallstatt decoration

7200-667: The Leges dealt with Germanic groups living either as foederati or conquerors among Roman people and regulating their relationship to them. These earliest codes, written by Visigoths in Spain (475), were probably not intended to be valid solely for the Germanic inhabitants of these kingdoms, but for the Roman ones as well. These earliest law codes influenced those that followed, such as the Burgundian Lex Burgundionum (between 480 and 501) issued by king Gundobad , and

7350-486: The Leges generally treated any legal matter as something that might be settled privately. While some scholars have argued that the feud may have originated in "vulgar Latin law," the feud is ubiquitous in the Leges and of later Germanic literature, making a non-Roman origin fairly certain. However, the different Leges make different assumptions about feuds and do provide a uniform picture of how they looked or functioned. The existence of feuds between kindred groups among

7500-465: The Leges , faida ) refers to a form of violent self-help whereby a wronged party sought to address a wrong by exacting violence or vengeance themselves. German scholars tend to understand the feud as a legal institution based on individual liberty, the lack of a powerful public authority, and the need for local conflict resolution, whereas Francophone scholarship has instead emphasized feuding as illegal activity. Whereas Roman law did not allow feuding,

7650-574: The Middle Ages , borrowing from Latin occurred from ecclesiastical usage established by Saint Augustine of Canterbury in the 6th century or indirectly after the Norman Conquest , through the Anglo-Norman language . From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed " inkhorn terms ", as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by

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7800-486: The Mithridatic Wars , in which they supported Rome. In the settlement of 64 BC, Galatia became a client state of the Roman empire, the old constitution disappeared, and three chiefs (wrongly styled "tetrarchs") were appointed, one for each tribe. But this arrangement soon gave way before the ambition of one of these tetrarchs, Deiotarus , a contemporary of Cicero and Julius Caesar , who made himself master of

7950-649: The Punic Wars . One of the leading rebel leaders of the Mercenary War , Autaritus , was of Gallic origin. During the Balkan expedition, led by Cerethrios , Brennos and Bolgios , the Gauls raided the Greek mainland twice. At the end of the second expedition, the Gallic raiders had been repelled by the coalition armies of the various Greek city-states and were forced to retreat to Illyria and Thrace , but

8100-576: The Roman Rite of the Catholic Church at the Vatican City . The church continues to adapt concepts from modern languages to Ecclesiastical Latin of the Latin language. Contemporary Latin is more often studied to be read rather than spoken or actively used. Latin has greatly influenced the English language , along with a large number of others, and historically contributed many words to

8250-569: The Romance languages . During the Classical period, informal language was rarely written, so philologists have been left with only individual words and phrases cited by classical authors, inscriptions such as Curse tablets and those found as graffiti . In the Late Latin period, language changes reflecting spoken (non-classical) norms tend to be found in greater quantities in texts. As it

8400-756: The Seleucid king Antiochus I (275 BC), in a battle in which the Seleucid war elephants shocked the Galatians. Although the momentum of the invasion was broken, the Galatians were by no means exterminated, and continued to demand tribute from the Hellenistic states of Anatolia to avoid war. Four thousand Galatians were hired as mercenaries by the Ptolemaic Egyptian king Ptolemy II Philadelphus in 270 BC. According to Pausanias , soon after arrival

8550-510: The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 and Germanic kingdoms took its place, the Germanic people adopted Latin as a language more suitable for legal and other, more formal uses. While the written form of Latin was increasingly standardized into a fixed form, the spoken forms began to diverge more greatly. Currently, the five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are Spanish , Portuguese , French , Italian , and Romanian . Despite dialectal variation, which

8700-625: The crisis of the third century , there was briefly a breakaway Gallic Empire founded by the Batavian general Postumus . First-century BC Roman poet Virgil wrote that the Gauls were light-haired, and golden their garb: Golden is their hair and golden their garb. They are resplendant in their striped cloaks and their milk white necks are circled in gold. First-century BC Greek historian Diodorus Siculus described them as tall, generally heavily built, very light-skinned, and light-haired, with long hair and mustaches: The Gauls are tall of body, with rippling muscles, and white of skin, and their hair

8850-500: The "gentile system" of laws, or whether such a system even lasted into the High Middle Ages with the Sachsenspiegel . Traditionally, the Leges have been understood as only applying to one ethnically defined gens within a kingdom, thus excluding Romans and any other gens that was incorporated into a polity - persons belonging to that group would be judged by their own law ("personality of law"). This principle originated in Roman law. However, scholarly disagreement exists whether

9000-470: The 1990s and 2000s rejected the notion of Friedelehe as a construct for which no evidence is found in the sources, while Kebsehe has been explained as not being a form of marriage at all. Traditionally, the earliest state organization among the Germanic peoples has been described as a "tribe". "Tribes" were argued to have been stable, genetically and culturally united nations that had their own laws, territories, and state proto-state institutions. The use of

9150-424: The 2nd century that the powerful Greek colony of Massilia had to appeal to the Roman Republic for defense against them. The Romans intervened in southern Gaul in 125 BC, and conquered the area eventually known as Gallia Narbonensis by 121 BC. In 58 BC, Julius Caesar launched the Gallic Wars and had conquered the whole of Gaul by 51 BC. He noted that the Gauls (Celtae) were one of the three primary peoples in

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9300-432: The Balkans , leading to war with the Greeks . These latter Gauls eventually settled in Anatolia (contemporary Turkey ), becoming known as Galatians . After the end of the First Punic War , the rising Roman Republic increasingly put pressure on the Gallic sphere of influence . The Battle of Telamon (225 BC) heralded a gradual decline of Gallic power during the 2nd century BC. The Romans eventually conquered Gaul in

9450-424: The Belgae; it borders, too, on the side of the Sequani and the Helvetii, upon the river Rhine , and stretches toward the north. The Belgae rises from the extreme frontier of Gaul, extend to the lower part of the river Rhine; and look toward the north and the rising sun. Aquitania extends from the Garonne to the Pyrenees and to that part of the Atlantic ( Bay of Biscay ) which is near Spain : it looks between

9600-451: The British Crown. The motto is featured on all presently minted coinage and has been featured in most coinage throughout the nation's history. Several states of the United States have Latin mottos , such as: Many military organizations today have Latin mottos, such as: Some law governing bodies in the Philippines have Latin mottos, such as: Some colleges and universities have adopted Latin mottos, for example Harvard University 's motto

9750-402: The Celts as a distinct cultural branch of the Indo-European-speaking people . The spread of iron working led to the Hallstatt culture in the 8th century BC; the Proto-Celtic language is often thought to have been spoken around this time. The Hallstatt culture evolved into La Tène culture in around the 5th century BC. The Greek and Etruscan civilizations and colonies began to influence

9900-469: The Celts plotted “to seize Egypt”, and so Ptolemy marooned them on a deserted island in the Nile River . Galatians also participated at the victory at Raphia in 217 BC under Ptolemy IV Philopator , and continued to serve as mercenaries for the Ptolemaic dynasty until its demise in 30 BC. They sided with the renegade Seleucid prince Antiochus Hierax , who reigned in Asia Minor . Hierax tried to defeat king Attalus I of Pergamum (241–197 BC), but instead,

10050-486: The English lexicon , particularly after the Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons and the Norman Conquest . Latin and Ancient Greek roots are heavily used in English vocabulary in theology , the sciences , medicine , and law . A number of phases of the language have been recognized, each distinguished by subtle differences in vocabulary, usage, spelling, and syntax. There are no hard and fast rules of classification; different scholars emphasize different features. As

10200-435: The Frankish Lex Salica (between 507 and 511), possibly issued by Clovis I . The final law code of this earliest series of codifications was the Edictus Rothari , issued in 643 by the Lombard King Rothari . The next set of law codes to be composed, the Lex and Pactus Alemannorum and the Lex Bajuvariorum , were written in the 8th century, probably at the behest of the Catholic Church . The final set of law codes issued on

10350-490: The Gallo-Latin noun * galia - or *gallia- ('power, strength'). Linguist Václav Blažek has argued that Irish gall ('foreigner') and Welsh gâl ('enemy, hostile') may be later adaptations of the ethnic name Galli that were introduced to the British Isles during the 1st millennium AD. According to Caesar (mid-1st c. BC), the Gauls of the province of Gallia Celtica called themselves Celtae in their own language, and were called Galli in Latin. Romans indeed used

10500-432: The Gauls believed they all descended from a god of the dead and underworld, whom he likened to Dīs Pater . Some deities were seen as threefold , like the Three Mothers . According to Miranda Aldhouse-Green , the Celts were also animists , believing that every part of the natural world had a spirit. Greco-Roman writers say the Gauls believed in reincarnation . Diodorus says they believed souls were reincarnated after

10650-451: The Gauls from the Aquitani; the rivers Marne and Seine separate them from the Belgae. Of all these, the Belgae are the bravest, because they are furthest from the civilisation and refinement of (our) Province, and merchants least frequently resort to them, and import those things which tend to effeminate the mind; and they are the nearest to the Germani, who dwell beyond the Rhine, with whom they are continually waging war; for which reason

10800-515: The Gauls tribes, perhaps with Germanic elements. Julius Caesar , in his book, Commentarii de Bello Gallico , comments: All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, whereas those who in their own language are called Celts and in ours Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language, customs and laws. The river Garonne separates

10950-580: The Gauls, especially in the Mediterranean area. Gauls under Brennus invaded Rome circa 390 BC. By the 5th century BC, the tribes later called Gauls had migrated from Central France to the Mediterranean coast. Gallic invaders settled the Po Valley in the 4th century BC, defeated Roman forces in a battle under Brennus in 390 BC, and raided Italy as far south as Sicily . In

11100-646: The Greeks were forced to grant safe passage to the Gauls who then made their way to Asia Minor and settled in Central Anatolia . The Gallic area of settlement in Asia Minor was called Galatia ; there they created widespread havoc. They were checked through the use of war elephants and skirmishers by the Greek Seleucid king Antiochus I in 275 BC, after which they served as mercenaries across

11250-599: The Grinch Stole Christmas! , The Cat in the Hat , and a book of fairy tales, " fabulae mirabiles ", are intended to garner popular interest in the language. Additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissner's Latin Phrasebook . Some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series,

11400-696: The Hellenized cities united under Attalus's banner, and his armies inflicted a severe defeat upon the Galatians at the Battle of the Caecus River in 241 BC. After this defeat, the Galatians continued to be a serious threat to the states of Asia Minor. In fact, they continued to be a threat even after their defeat by Gnaeus Manlius Vulso in the Galatian War (189 BC). Galatia declined and at times fell under Pontic ascendancy. They were finally freed by

11550-579: The Helvetii also surpass the rest of the Gauls in valour, as they contend with the Germani in almost daily battles, when they either repel them from their own territories, or themselves wage war on their frontiers. One part of these, which it has been said that the Gauls occupy, takes its beginning at the river Rhône ; it is bounded by the river Garonne , the Atlantic Ocean , and the territories of

11700-447: The Leges contain catalogues of compensation prices to be paid by the perpetrator to his victims or the victim's relatives for committing a personal offense. In the West Germanic languages, this payment is known by the term Old High German : buoza , Old English : bōta . This form of legal reconciliation aimed to prevent the erupting of feuds by offering a peaceful way to end disputes between groups. The codification of these catalogues

11850-595: The Mediterranean), and the northern Gallia Comata ("free Gaul" or "wooded Gaul"). Caesar divided the people of Gaulia Comata into three broad groups: the Aquitani ; Galli (who in their own language were called Celtae ); and Belgae . In the modern sense, Gallic tribes are defined linguistically, as speakers of Gaulish. While the Aquitani were probably Vascons , the Belgae would thus probably be counted among

12000-540: The Pyrenees), suggesting they were very rich, also evidenced by large finds of gold coins and artifacts. Also there existed highly developed population centers, called oppida by Caesar, such as Bibracte , Gergovia , Avaricum , Alesia , Bibrax , Manching and others. Modern archeology strongly suggests that the countries of Gaul were quite civilized and very wealthy. Most had contact with Roman merchants and some, particularly those that were governed by Republics such as

12150-406: The Roman provinces. This makes it difficult to determine whether commonalities between them derive from a common Germanic legal conception or not. The term leges barbarorum , 'laws of the barbarians', used by editor Paolo Canciani  [ it ] as early as 1781, reflects a negative value judgement on the actual law codes produced by these Germanic peoples. It was retained by the editors of

12300-513: The Romans called them (singular: pagus ; the French word pays , "country", comes from this term) were organized into larger super-tribal groups that the Romans called civitates . These administrative groupings would be taken over by the Romans in their system of local control, and these civitates would also be the basis of France's eventual division into ecclesiastical bishoprics and dioceses , which would remain in place—with slight changes—until

12450-524: The Romans, the internal division between the Gallic tribes guaranteed an easy victory for Caesar, and Vercingetorix 's attempt to unite the Gauls against Roman invasion came too late. After the annexation of Gaul, a mixed Gallo-Roman culture began to emerge. After more than a century of warfare , the Cisalpine Gauls were subdued by the Romans in the early 2nd century BC. The Transalpine Gauls continued to thrive for another century, and joined

12600-530: The United States the unofficial national motto until 1956 was E pluribus unum meaning "Out of many, one". The motto continues to be featured on the Great Seal . It also appears on the flags and seals of both houses of congress and the flags of the states of Michigan, North Dakota, New York, and Wisconsin. The motto's 13 letters symbolically represent the original Thirteen Colonies which revolted from

12750-563: The University of Kentucky, the University of Oxford and also Princeton University. There are many websites and forums maintained in Latin by enthusiasts. The Latin Misplaced Pages has more than 130,000 articles. Italian , French , Portuguese , Spanish , Romanian , Catalan , Romansh , Sardinian and other Romance languages are direct descendants of Latin. There are also many Latin borrowings in English and Albanian , as well as

12900-424: The absence of uniformity across the codes. Noel Lenski has instead argued that the range of enumerated offenses for personal injury is generally uniform across the codes and that the compositions mirror one another closely if calculated as a percentage of an individual's Wergild value, indications of a shared tradition. In the event that a person was killed or wounded, an animal was stolen, or other offenses committed

13050-469: The area, along with the Aquitanians and the Belgae . Caesar's motivation for the invasion seems to have been his need for gold to pay off his debts and for a successful military expedition to boost his political career. The people of Gaul could provide him with both. So much gold was looted from Gaul that after the war the price of gold fell by as much as 20%. While they were militarily just as brave as

13200-490: The author and then forgotten, but some useful ones survived, such as 'imbibe' and 'extrapolate'. Many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French . Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and Dutch vocabularies. Those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Gauls The Gauls ( Latin : Galli ; Ancient Greek : Γαλάται , Galátai ) were

13350-425: The benefit of those who do not understand Latin. There are also songs written with Latin lyrics . The libretto for the opera-oratorio Oedipus rex by Igor Stravinsky is in Latin. Parts of Carl Orff 's Carmina Burana are written in Latin. Enya has recorded several tracks with Latin lyrics. The continued instruction of Latin is seen by some as a highly valuable component of a liberal arts education. Latin

13500-409: The careful work of Petrarch, Politian and others, first the demand for manuscripts, and then the rush to bring works into print, led to the circulation of inaccurate copies for several centuries following. Neo-Latin literature was extensive and prolific, but less well known or understood today. Works covered poetry, prose stories and early novels, occasional pieces and collections of letters, to name

13650-479: The claim of shared descent, Wenskus also saw the individual gentes as having and developing their own legal orders. Almost all gentes that became post-Roman polities adopted their own law, and the individual Leges , as well as other early medieval sources, mention that the laws belong to individual "people" under various Latin terms (including populus , natio , gens ). However, disagreement exists about whether these written sources are still part of

13800-415: The classicised Latin that followed through to the present are often grouped together as Neo-Latin , or New Latin, which have in recent decades become a focus of renewed study , given their importance for the development of European culture, religion and science. The vast majority of written Latin belongs to this period, but its full extent is unknown. The Renaissance reinforced the position of Latin as

13950-560: The cognates of Old High German sibba and kunni , found in this meaning in all Germanic languages. According to the traditional understanding of Germanic law, the clan contained all blood relations and was essential for the protection and help of the individual. Individuals were argued to have no relation to the larger tribal state outside of the clan. It aided him in seeking revenge (see feuding ), receiving wergild for those who were slain or injured (see compensatory justice ), and acted as oath helpers. Current scholarship acknowledges

14100-639: The compensation is referred to as wergild . Scholars debate if wergild was a traditional Germanic legal concept, or if it developed from a Roman predecessor . The various codes uniformly gradate compensations according to whether an individual was fully free, half free, or enslaved. Some also make distinctions by status among free persons, as with the Lex Burgundonum , while the Lex Salica shows no gradation among free males. The prices were sometimes higher than could readily be paid, which could result in

14250-427: The complicated brew of influences include Scythian art as well as that of the Greeks and Etruscans, among others. The Achaemenid occupation of Thrace and Macedonia around 500 BC is a factor of uncertain importance. Gaulish society was dominated by the druid priestly class. The druids were not the only political force, however, and the early political system was complex. The fundamental unit of Gallic politics

14400-582: The concept of outlawry, can no longer be justified. Besides the assumption of a common Germanic legal tradition and the use of sources of different types from different places and time periods, there are no known native sources for early Germanic law. Caesar and Tacitus do mention some aspects of Germanic legal culture that reappear in later sources, however their texts are not objective reports of facts and there are no other antique sources to corroborate whether there were common Germanic institutions. Reinhard Wenskus has shown that one important "Germanic" element,

14550-569: The continent, the Ewa ad Amorem , Lex Frisonum , Lex Saxonum , and Lex Thuringorum , were written under the patronage of Charlemagne in the 9th century; these codes all show marked similarities to the early codes. In contrast to Roman Law, which was generally created by the emperors, Germanic legal culture regarded the law as unchanging, and it was thus necessary to find the law in any individual case. Laws existed because they were traditional and because similar cases had been decided before. This

14700-465: The country's full Latin name. Some film and television in ancient settings, such as Sebastiane , The Passion of the Christ and Barbarians (2020 TV series) , have been made with dialogue in Latin. Occasionally, Latin dialogue is used because of its association with religion or philosophy, in such film/television series as The Exorcist and Lost (" Jughead "). Subtitles are usually shown for

14850-449: The course of the migration period. Scholars debate the origins of Germanic kingship. Tacitus makes a distinction existed between "kings" and "dukes", in that the kings were chosen because of their nobility and the dukes for their prowess in battle. This statement has been used to explain Germanic kingship as having had a sacral and a military component, which were later united. However, more recent scholarship has shown that sacral kingship

15000-503: The decline in written Latin output. Despite having no native speakers, Latin is still used for a variety of purposes in the contemporary world. The largest organisation that retains Latin in official and quasi-official contexts is the Catholic Church . The Catholic Church required that Mass be carried out in Latin until the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1965 , which permitted the use of the vernacular . Latin remains

15150-464: The earlier Germanic peoples is mentioned by Tacitus in Germania chap. 12 and 21, including the various steps taken for conflict resolution. The post-Roman Barbarian kingdoms appear to have seen an increase in non-state violence and violent deaths with the decline in central authority. The various Leges show attempts to limit the practice in feuding, without, however, ultimately preventing it. All of

15300-520: The earliest law codes, those of the Goths and Burgundians, were meant for all persons in their territory or only those of a particular ethnicity. The Lex Salica is far clearer in making ethnic distinctions in the text, perhaps encouraging assimilation to Frankish identity. By the Carolingian period, confusion between social status and ethnicity on the one hand and between ethnic and territorial law on

15450-416: The early 3rd century BC, the Gauls attempted an eastward expansion , toward the Balkan peninsula. At that time, it was a Greek province. The Gauls' intent was to reach and loot the rich Greek city-states of the Greek mainland. However, the Greeks exterminated the majority of the Gallic army, and the few survivors were forced to flee. Many Gauls were recorded as serving in the armies of Carthage during

15600-471: The early Burgundian, Alemannic, Bavarian, and Kentish law codes and therefore cannot have a pan-Germanic origin. Heinz Holzhauer instead argues that ordeal by fire and water was a common Germanic, pre-Christian method of trial, which he connects to the casting of lots found in Tacitus. Latin Latin ( lingua Latina , pronounced [ˈlɪŋɡʷa ɫaˈtiːna] , or Latinum [ɫaˈtiːnʊ̃] )

15750-533: The educated and official world, Latin continued without its natural spoken base. Moreover, this Latin spread into lands that had never spoken Latin, such as the Germanic and Slavic nations. It became useful for international communication between the member states of the Holy Roman Empire and its allies. Without the institutions of the Roman Empire that had supported its uniformity, Medieval Latin

15900-936: The entire free population. The Visigothic laws lack any mention of a popular assembly, while the Anglo-Saxon laws and history show no evidence of any kingdom-wide popular assemblies, only smaller local or regional assemblies held under various names. Germanic languages attest many different terms that mean king, including þiudans , truhtin and cuning . Terms for Germanic rulers in Roman sources include reges ("kings"), principes ("chieftains"), and duces ("leaders/dukes") - however, all of these terms are foreign ascriptions rather than necessarily reflecting native terminology. Stefanie Dick suggests that these terms are not used with any real differentiation in Roman sources and should all be translated as "leaders". Not all Germanic peoples are attested as having had kings, and different kings seem to have different functions and roles. Peoples without kings included at various times

16050-501: The ethnic name Galli as a synonym for Celtae . The English Gaul does not come from Latin Galli but from Germanic * Walhaz , a term stemming from the Gallic ethnonym Volcae that came to designate more generally Celtic and Romance speakers in medieval Germanic languages (e.g. Welsh , Waals , Vlachs ). Gaulish culture developed over the first millennium BC. The Urnfield culture ( c.  1300 –750 BC) represents

16200-444: The existence of clan groups as a social factor among the Germanic peoples, but argues that there was never an organized, legally recognized clan organization as postulated by older scholarship. Both Germanic terms and those found in the Leges for kinship groups are not precise enough to indicate that the clans existed as legal entities: instead, the group of "relations" that a person could call on were not fixed or stable. The feud (in

16350-421: The form of ( wergild ). This reconstructed legal system also excluded certain criminals by outlawry , and administratively contained a degree of sacral kingship ; retinues formed around the kings bound by oaths of loyalty. Early ideas about Germanic law have come under intense scholarly scrutiny since the 1950s and specific aspects of it such as the legal importance of kinship groups, retinues, and loyalty, and

16500-456: The form of Latinized words, belongs to "the oldest layers of a Germanic legal language" and shows some similarities to Gothic. Philologist and historian, D.H. Green , stated that the introduction of Germanic "vernacular legal terms, even in partly Latinized form" does not occur until the early Middle Ages and that only "vernacular" terminology was "legally precise enough to convey what barbarian practice meant". The study of "Germanic Law" arose in

16650-411: The individual languages show a diversity of legal terminologies, with the earliest examples lacking even a common Germanic word for "law". There are, however, many examples of Germanic legal terms shared across the different early codes which point to shared legal traditions. Modern scholarship no longer posits a common Germanic marriage practice, and there is no common Germanic term for "marriage". Until

16800-609: The inhabitants of Caledonia have reddish hair and large loose-jointed bodies. They [the Britons] are like the Gauls and the Spaniards, according as they are opposite either nation. Hence some have supposed that from these lands the island received its inhabitants. Tacitus noted the Caledonians had "red hair and large limbs" which he felt pointed to a "Germanic origin." In the novel Satyricon by Roman courtier Gaius Petronius ,

16950-518: The invading Gauls. In the second Gaulish invasion of Greece (278 BC), the Gauls, led by Brennos , suffered heavy losses while facing the Greek coalition army at Thermopylae , but helped by the Heracleans they followed the mountain path around Thermopylae to encircle the Greek army in the same way that the Persian army had done at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, but this time defeating

17100-703: The invention of printing and are now published in carefully annotated printed editions, such as the Loeb Classical Library , published by Harvard University Press , or the Oxford Classical Texts , published by Oxford University Press . Latin translations of modern literature such as: The Hobbit , Treasure Island , Robinson Crusoe , Paddington Bear , Winnie the Pooh , The Adventures of Tintin , Asterix , Harry Potter , Le Petit Prince , Max and Moritz , How

17250-704: The language of the Roman Rite . The Tridentine Mass (also known as the Extraordinary Form or Traditional Latin Mass) is celebrated in Latin. Although the Mass of Paul VI (also known as the Ordinary Form or the Novus Ordo) is usually celebrated in the local vernacular language, it can be and often is said in Latin, in part or in whole, especially at multilingual gatherings. It is the official language of

17400-440: The large areas where it had come to be natively spoken. However, even after the fall of Western Rome , Latin remained the common language of international communication , science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the early 19th century, by which time modern languages had supplanted it in common academic and political usage. Late Latin is the literary language from the 3rd century AD onward. No longer spoken as

17550-467: The late seventeenth century, when spoken skills began to erode. It then became increasingly taught only to be read. Latin grammar is highly fusional , with classes of inflections for case , number , person , gender , tense , mood , voice , and aspect . The Latin alphabet is directly derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets . Latin remains the official language of the Holy See and

17700-431: The later part of the Roman Republic , up to 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin . It is attested both in inscriptions and in some of the earliest extant Latin literary works, such as the comedies of Plautus and Terence . The Latin alphabet was devised from the Etruscan alphabet . The writing later changed from what was initially either a right-to-left or a boustrophedon script to what ultimately became

17850-626: The latter 20th century, legal historians, using the Leges and later Norse narrative and legal sources, divided Germanic marriages into three types: According to this theory, in the course of the early Middle Ages , the Friedelehe , Kebsehe , and polygamy were abolished in favor of the Muntehe through the attacks of the Church. None of the three forms of marriage posited by older scholarship appear as such in medieval sources. Academic works in

18000-456: The legal term êwa was given a Christian religious significance by Christian missionaries, in common with other legal terms that lacked any pagan religious significance that acquired Christian meanings. The Germanic peoples had an originally entirely oral legal culture , which involved a great deal of legal significant ritual, gesture, language, and symbolism, in order to create a specific legal procedure. Because oral law can never be fixed in

18150-421: The less prestigious colloquial registers , attested in inscriptions and some literary works such as those of the comic playwrights Plautus and Terence and the author Petronius . While often called a "dead language", Latin did not undergo language death . By the 6th to 9th centuries, natural language change eventually resulted in Latin as a vernacular language evolving into distinct Romance languages in

18300-800: The middle of the 1st millennium. Gaulish may have survived in some regions as the mid to late 6th century in France. Despite considerable Romanization of the local material culture, the Gaulish language is held to have survived and had coexisted with spoken Latin during the centuries of Roman rule of Gaul. Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish played a role in shaping the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French, with effects including loanwords and calques , sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence, as well as in conjugation and word order. Recent work in computational simulation suggests that Gaulish played

18450-472: The modern period, at a time when scholars thought that the written and unwritten principles of the ancient Germanic peoples could be reconstructed in a reasonably coherent form. Beginning in the Reformation , the study of "Germanic law" was typically conflated with "German law", a tradition continued by influential scholars Jacob Grimm , Karl von Amira , and Heinrich Brunner . This law supposedly revealed

18600-434: The modern sense. The assembly stood under the protection of the gods, and feuding parties could visit it without fear of violence. The use of thing as an epithet in a 3rd-century AD inscription dedicated to " Mars Thingsus ", apparently referring to the Germanic god Tyr , as well as the translation of the Roman dies Martii ("day of Mars ", Tuesday) as dingsdag ("day of the thing ", modern German Dienstag ) as

18750-584: The mustache grow until it covers the mouth. Jordanes , in his Origins and Deeds of the Goths , indirectly describes the Gauls as light-haired and large-bodied by comparing them to Caledonians , as a contrast to the Spaniards, whom he compared to the Silures . He speculates based on this comparison that the Britons originated from different peoples, including Gauls and Spaniards. The Silures have swarthy features and are usually born with curly black hair, but

18900-463: The national character of the Germans. Until the middle of the 20th century, the majority of scholars assumed the existence of a distinct Germanic legal culture and law. This law was seen as an essential element in the formation of modern European law and identity, alongside Roman and canon law . Scholars reconstructed Germanic law on the basis of antique (Caesar and Tacitus), early medieval (mainly

19050-466: The new or full moon and were where important decisions were made (Tacitus, Germania 11–13). Germanic assemblies functioned both to make important political decisions—or to legitimate decisions taken by rulers—as well as functioning as courts of law. In their earliest function as courts, the assemblies do not appear to have had presiding judges. Rather, the members collectively came to judgments based on consensus and acted more as arbiters than as courts in

19200-436: The other had essentially turned the system into one of "mobile territorial law", in which a person could claim the law of their territory of birth. In common with many archaic societies without a strong monarchy, early Germanic law appears to have had a form of popular assembly. The earliest attested term for these assemblies in Germanic is the thing . According to Tacitus, during the Roman period, such assemblies were called at

19350-497: The other two tetrarchies and was finally recognized by the Romans as 'king' of Galatia . The Galatian language continued to be spoken in central Anatolia until the 6th century. In the Second Punic War , the famous Carthaginian general Hannibal used Gallic mercenaries in his invasion of Italy. They played a part in some of his most spectacular victories, including the battle of Cannae . The Gauls were so prosperous by

19500-466: The other varieties, as it was largely separated from the unifying influences in the western part of the Empire. Spoken Latin began to diverge into distinct languages by the 9th century at the latest, when the earliest extant Romance writings begin to appear. They were, throughout the period, confined to everyday speech, as Medieval Latin was used for writing. For many Italians using Latin, though, there

19650-484: The product of a mixture of Germanic, late Roman, and early Christian legal cultures. Generally speaking, the further on the periphery of the Roman Empire these law codes were issued, the less influence they appear to show from Roman jurisprudence. Thus, Dusil, Kannowski, and Schwedler argue that the Visigothic law codes show a great deal of Roman influence, whereas the Lex Salica shows basically none. The earliest of

19800-418: The same way as written law, the use of correct procedure was in fact more important than the ultimate legal decision reached and the law was ultimately whatever the community decided was valid at a given time. Due to the originally oral nature of Germanic law, the act of putting the Leges into writing was already an act of synthesis with the Roman legal culture. The development of the different law codes shows

19950-622: The setting of the sun, and the north star.    — Julius Caesar , Commentarii de Bello Gallico , Book I, chapter 1 Gaulish or Gallic is the name given to the Celtic language spoken in Gaul before Latin took over. According to Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War , it was one of three languages in Gaul, the others being Aquitanian and Belgic . In Gallia Transalpina ,

20100-432: The so-called Leges Barbarorum , laws written by various continental Germanic peoples from the fifth to eighth centuries), and late medieval sources (mostly Scandinavian). According to these scholars, Germanic law was based on a society ruled by assemblies of free farmers (the things ), policing themselves in clan groups ( Sippes ), and engaging in the blood feud outside of clan groups, which were settled via compensation in

20250-634: The succeeding La Tène style. La Tène metalwork in bronze, iron and gold, developing technologically out of the Hallstatt culture, is stylistically characterized by "classical vegetable and foliage motifs such as leafy palmette forms, vines, tendrils and lotus flowers together with spirals, S-scrolls, lyre and trumpet shapes". Such decoration may be found on fine bronze vessels, helmets and shields, horse trappings, and elite jewelry, especially torcs and fibulae. Early on, La Tène style adapted ornamental motifs from foreign cultures into something distinctly new;

20400-401: The time prior to Germanic contact with the Romans. Unlike for the trial by combat, scholars debate whether the trials by fire and water were inspired by Christianity or derive from pre-Christian Germanic tradition. Robert Bartlett argues for a Frankish origin of the practice of trial by fire and water, with Frankish influence spreading it around Europe. He argues that the practice is absent in

20550-541: The use of popular assemblies, displays marked similarities to developments among the Gauls and Romans, and was therefore likely the result of external influence rather than specifically Germanic. Even the Leges Barbarorum were all written under Roman and Christian influence and often with the help of Roman jurists. Beginning with Walter Goffart , scholars have argued the Leges contain large amounts of "Vulgar Latin law", an unofficial legal system that they argue functioned in

20700-401: The wheel, and the bull. There were gods of skill and craft, such as the pan-regional god Lugus , and the smith god Gobannos . Gallic healing deities were often associated with sacred springs , such as Sirona and Borvo . Other pan-regional deities include the horned god Cernunnos , the horse and fertility goddess Epona , Ogmios , Sucellos and his companion Nantosuelta . Caesar says

20850-623: The whole Hellenistic Eastern Mediterranean , including Ptolemaic Egypt , where they, under Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BC), attempted to seize control of the kingdom. In the first Gallic invasion of Greece (279 BC), they defeated the Macedonians and killed the Macedonian king Ptolemy Keraunos . They then focused on looting the rich Macedonian countryside, but avoided the heavily fortified cities. The Macedonian general Sosthenes assembled an army, defeated Bolgius and repelled

21000-498: The whole of the Greek army. After passing Thermopylae, the Gauls headed for the rich treasury at Delphi , where they were defeated by the re-assembled Greek army. This led to a series of retreats of the Gauls, with devastating losses, all the way up to Macedonia and then out of the Greek mainland. The major part of the Gaul army was defeated in the process, and those Gauls survived were forced to flee from Greece. The Gallic leader Brennos

21150-572: The word "tribe" includes the implication that the various Germanic peoples were in fact subdivisions of a larger "Germanic" people. According to this understanding, the "tribes" would then go on to found the individual early Germanic kingdoms of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages as "tribal states". Since the work of Reinhard Wenskus in the 1960s, scholars have begun to use the term gens (plural gentes ), communities claiming (rather than possessing) shared biological descent, as

21300-546: Was encouraged by the kings of the individual Germanic kingdoms, who had an interest in preventing bloodshed. Some of the laws, such as the Lex Salica and the Lex Thuringiorum , require that part of the compensation for theft be paid to the king. Later, some kings attempted to replace the compensation system with other forms of justice, such as the death penalty. Scholarship had emphasized the variety of compensations for various offenses and taken this as an indication of

21450-413: Was free to develop on its own, there is no reason to suppose that the speech was uniform either diachronically or geographically. On the contrary, Romanised European populations developed their own dialects of the language, which eventually led to the differentiation of Romance languages . Late Latin is a kind of written Latin used in the 3rd to 6th centuries. This began to diverge from Classical forms at

21600-496: Was much more liberal in its linguistic cohesion: for example, in classical Latin sum and eram are used as auxiliary verbs in the perfect and pluperfect passive, which are compound tenses. Medieval Latin might use fui and fueram instead. Furthermore, the meanings of many words were changed and new words were introduced, often under influence from the vernacular. Identifiable individual styles of classically incorrect Latin prevail. Renaissance Latin, 1300 to 1500, and

21750-441: Was no complete separation between Italian and Latin, even into the beginning of the Renaissance . Petrarch for example saw Latin as a literary version of the spoken language. Medieval Latin is the written Latin in use during that portion of the post-classical period when no corresponding Latin vernacular existed, that is from around 700 to 1500 AD. The spoken language had developed into the various Romance languages; however, in

21900-563: Was not a single legal system, but a group of related systems. Although Germanic law never appears to have been a competing, unified system to Roman law, commonalities in the Germanic laws can still be described as "Germanic" when contrasted with Roman law. These include emphases on orality , gesture, formulaic language, legal symbolism, and ritual. Some items in the Leges , such as the use of vernacular words, may reveal aspects of originally Germanic, or at least non-Roman law. Legal historian Ruth Schmidt-Wiegand writes that this vernacular, often in

22050-462: Was not learned and incorporated regional peculiarities. This consensus has replaced an older one as a result of a reevaluation of notions of Germanic beginnings and the associated nationalist ideologies to which they were attached. Earlier scholars, inspired by Tacitus and Julius Caesar , often conceived of the Germanic peoples as a unified entity, which they were not. Because of this, Germanic law

22200-578: Was seriously injured at Delphi and committed suicide there. (He is not to be confused with another Gaulish leader bearing the same name who had sacked Rome a century earlier (390 BC). In 278 BC, Gaulish settlers in the Balkans were invited by Nicomedes I of Bithynia to help him in a dynastic struggle against his brother. They numbered about 10,000 fighting men and about the same number of women and children, divided into three tribes, Trocmi , Tolistobogii and Tectosages . They were eventually defeated by

22350-482: Was shut down in June 2019), and Vatican Radio & Television, all of which broadcast news segments and other material in Latin. A variety of organisations, as well as informal Latin 'circuli' ('circles'), have been founded in more recent times to support the use of spoken Latin. Moreover, a number of university classics departments have begun incorporating communicative pedagogies in their Latin courses. These include

22500-405: Was the tribe, which itself consisted of one or more of what Caesar called "pagi" . Each tribe had a council of elders, and initially a king. Later, the executive was an annually-elected magistrate. Among the Aedui tribe the executive held the title of " Vergobret ", a position much like a king, but its powers were held in check by rules laid down by the council. The tribal groups, or pagi as

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