Edict of Rothari
On 22 November 643 King Rothari promulgated at Pavia the first written code of Lombard law — 388 chapters in Latin that recorded his people’s customs, from compensation for every injury to inheritance and the judicial duel. Later Lombard kings added to it rather than replacing it.
- Date
- 22 November 643exact dateDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Pavia (Ticinum)today: Pavia, Lombardy, Italy · Western and Central Europe
- Participants
- Rothari, Lombards
- Threads
- Early medieval Europe (500–1000)
- Also known as
- Edictum Rothari; Edictus Rothari; Лангобардская правда; Lombard law; Лангобардское право
Rothari, formerly duke of Brescia, was elected king of the Lombards in 636 and married Gundeberga, the widow of his predecessor Arioald. An Arian and a successful warrior, in the early 640s he took Genoa and the rest of Byzantine Liguria. According to Paul the Deacon, until then the Lombards had kept their laws only in memory and custom. The edict, written down by the scribe Ansoald, was issued at Pavia on 22 November 643 and confirmed by a gairethinx, an assembly of the army that approved it in the old Germanic way by striking spears on shields.
Though written in Latin, the text leaves many Lombard terms untranslated — fara, gastald, morgingab, launegild. It deals above all with compensation for wrongs: it sets the wergild and prices every injury down to a single tooth, finger or toe, and it regulates inheritance, gifts, marriage, the status of the half-free aldii and of slaves, oath-helpers and the judicial duel. Anyone who “placed himself in the way” of a free woman or girl owed 900 solidi, of a free man only 20. The law applied to Lombards alone; the Roman population went on living under Roman law. Historians stress the Germanic character of the code, though some see Roman influence in it.
Later kings added to the edict rather than replacing it: Grimoald in 668, Liutprand in 713–735, Ratchis and Aistulf in the 740s and 750s. It is the chief source on Lombard society of the 6th and 7th centuries.
Connections
Related events
- Corpus Juris Civilis7 April 529 – 16 November 534 · Balkans and AnatoliaA century after Justinian codified Roman law, the edict recorded Lombard custom, while the Romans of Lombard Italy kept their own law
- Lombard invasion of Italy2 April 568 – 572 · Western and Central EuropeThe edict wrote down the customs of the people that had conquered northern Italy after 568
Same participants
- Donation of PepinApril 754 – 756 · Western and Central Europevia Lombards
Same place
- Establishment of the Tetrarchy1 March 293 · Western and Central Europe
- Edict of MilanFebruary 313 · Western and Central Europe
- Ambrose, bishop of Milan7 December 374 – 4 April 397 · Western and Central Europe
- Division of the Roman Empire17 January 395 · Western and Central Europe
- Boethius writes The Consolation of Philosophybetween 523 and 526 · Western and Central Europe
- Siege of Pavia and fall of the Lombard kingdomSeptember 773 – June 774 · Western and Central Europe
- Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supperc. 1495 – 1498 · Western and Central Europe
Adjacent events in the thread
- Samo’s realmbetween 623 and 626 – between 658 and 659 · Western and Central Europe
- Synod of Whitby664 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Eastern Europe
- Rise of the Khazar Khaganatebetween 630 and 650 – c. 670
- The Pereshchepina treasure: a steppe ruler’s burial or treasure, perhaps Kubrat’sbetween 642 and 700
- Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv: the legendary founding of Kyivbetween 500 and 700
- Early Slavic cultures: Prague-Korchak, Penkovka and Kolochinc. 450 – c. 700
Middle East and Egypt
- Arab conquest of Persia and the fall of the Sasanian Empire633 – between 651 and 652
Central and Northern Asia
- Songtsen Gampo builds the Tibetan Empirebetween 618 and 629 – between 649 and 650
- The Western Turkic Khaganate: the “ten arrows” from the Altai to the Oxus603 – between 657 and 658
South Asia
- Narasimhavarman I takes Vatapi, the Chalukya capitalbetween 642 and 643
- Reign of Harsha, emperor of Kannauj606–647
- The Pallava monuments of Mamallapurambetween 600 and 630 – between 700 and 728
East Asia
- Xuanzang’s journey to India629 – 8 February 645
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700
North America
- Basketmaker III: pottery, beans and the bow on the Colorado Plateauc. 500 – c. 750
- The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000
Latin America
- Kʼinich Janaab Pakal rules Palenquebetween 24 July and 26 July 615 – between 26 August and 28 August 683
- The burning of Teotihuacan’s ceremonial centrebetween 550 and 650
- Wari culture and the Middle Horizon state in the Central Andesc. 600 – c. 1000
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Edictum Rothari
- Wikipedia (English): Rothari
- Wikipedia (Russian): Эдикт Ротари
- Wikipedia (Russian): Ротари (король лангобардов)
- The Lombard Laws / transl. K. Fischer Drew. — Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1973.
- Хрестоматия по истории средних веков / под ред. С. Д. Сказкина. — Т. I: Раннее Средневековье. — М., 1961. — С. 532–538.
- Wikidata: Q1284512