2. JENKS: TEUTONIC LAW 39 of Paulus, the Lex Aquilia, and other purely Roman sources.^ Amongst the Teutonic populations of the north and east, the question of the provincials would, for obvious reasons, be less important ; but the curious reference in the Lex Salica to the man qui legem salicam vivit,^ seems to indicate a similar principle. For slightly later days, the matter is set at rest by the decree of Chlothar II. — " We have ordained that the conduct of cases between Romans shall be decided by the Roman Laws." It is not to be supposed, that the invaders accorded to the provincials a principle which they denied to themselves. In truth, it is somewhat difficult to see how migratory groups could arrive at the notion of a lex terra, unless they were prepared to change their customs with each migration. A great and luminous critic, the late M. Fustel de Coulanges, has, indeed, attempted to deny the occurrence of a migratory epoch, or Volkerwanderung, as well as the recognition of racial differences by the barbarians.^ But, as the same learned historian gives an excellent account of at least a score of new German settlements, hostile or friendly, with the Empire,* the first question resolves itself into one of figures ; while his elaborate attempt to prove that the terms Franci and Romani are names of ranks rather than of races,^ would seem, if successful, to point to the fact that the Teutons settled down as an aristocracy upon the enslaved provincials — a doctrine which is M. Fustel's pet aversion. Certain it is, that the barbarians themselves clearly recognized the prin- ciple of the personality of laws. The oldest part of the Lex Ribuaria (Tit. 31) contains the following conclusive pas- sage : — " This also we determine, that a Frank, a Burgun- dian, an Alamann, or in whatever nation he shall have dwelt, when accused in court in the Ribuarian country, shall answer according to the law of the place where he was born. And
- Lex Romana Burgundionum, Titt. T. (3), IV. (3), V. (2), XIX.
(2), etc.
- Lex Salica, Tit. XLI. (1).
- Fustel de Coulanges, L'Invasion Germanique, pp. 340 and 543.
- Ibid., Bk. II. capp. iv.-x.
- Fustel de Coulanges, L'Invasion Germanique, pp. 340 and 543.
(Nouvelles Recherches, pp. 561, sqq.).
