When two worlds collide and merge: “at first I wanted to erase the Roman name and convert all Roman territory into a Gothic empire...”
When two worlds collide and merge: “at first I wanted to erase the Roman name and convert all Roman territory into a Gothic empire...”

Summary/Abstract: The Visigothic and later the Ostrogothic Kingdom as well, were marked by significant level of Romanization of the Gothic elites, striving to integration with the late Roman traditions, and by remarkable religious and ethnic tolerance towards their Roman subjects. The old glorious Romania was not transformed into a new Gothia, but rather became a kind of new Romania, whose new defenders created a new Romanitas. Perceiving themselves as true heirs of the Roman Empire, the Visigothic and Ostrogothic reges endeavoured to imitate the Roman rulers and perhaps that partly motivated them to issue legal codes in the spirit of Roman traditions. The present paper translates and analyzes key regulations in one of the most significant legal texts: Edictum Teodorici Regis or Lex Romana Ostrogothorum, and comments how the Roman concepts of iustitia and corruptio were incorporated in a new light and new sociopolitical and moral environment.

• Details
• Contents