page_title: Code of Euric
section_title: Further legislation
hierarchical_section_title: Code of Euric / Further legislation
context_page_description: The Codex Euricianus or Code of Euric was a collection of laws governing the Visigoths compiled at the order of Euric, King of the Visigoths, sometime before 480, probably at Toulouse; it is one of the earliest examples of early Germanic law. The compilation itself was the work of Leo, a Roman lawyer and principal counsellor of the king. The customs of the Visigothic nation were recognised and affirmed. The Code is largely confused and it appears that it was merely a recollection of Gothic custom altered by Roman law.
  The code entrenches a clear stratification of Gothic and Gallo-Roman society. There is the class of lords, who are called either domini or patroni depending on whether they were lords of slaves or freemen. And there are two classes of freemen who have lords above them: the buccellarii and the saiones. The Code was in fact the first legal recognition of the buccellariatus, an office which the Roman Emperors were trying to ban. The buccellarii were a knightly class; they could change lords, but they had to return all the landed benefices they had received from their former lord.
context_section_description: Parts of the Codex Euricianus can be found later, probably as a base, in the Lex Baiuvariorum, the first Bavarian legislative codification. Also other Germanic legal codifications, those of the Burgundians (lex Romana Burgundionum) or Franks and Alamanni (lex Alamannorum), also are considered influenced by the Codex Euricianus.
  After the death of Euric, the legislation remained in use and was even extended. The son of Euric, Alaric II added a piece of legislation known as the Breviary of Alaric (also known as Liber Aniani, after the supposed writer).
  These two laws together remained largely in force until the Visigoths settled definitively in Spain under King  Liuvigild (568-586). This king adopted a new legislation, the Codex Revisius, but it was lost.
  Later, more extensive legislation was introduced, the Lex Romana Visigothorum. This legislation became a territorial legislation and no longer legislation that settled disputes between population groups, such as the Codex Euricianus.
caption: Copy of Breviarium Alaricianum from University of Auvergne, France, 10th century
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