PART
5 –
Ch.XXXIII.26 (I – X)
The
Pelasgians or proto – Latins (Arimii)
(The
Pelasgians from the northern parts of the
XXXIII.
26. Leges Bellagines. Lex antiqua Valachorum.
I.
We have studied in
the previous chapter the age and the geographical extension of the name Blac as far back as the Homeric times.
We have now to talk
about an ancient collection of laws of Dacia, known in the 6th
century ad under the name Leges
Bellagines, a name which indicates under this form the name of the Belacii or Blacii of Dacia.
According to all
the historical traditions still preserved, the most ancient laws which had
governed human society, had been of Pelasgian origin. But the first beginnings
of the history of law and legislation go back especially to the north regions
of the lower Danube.
Homer presents the Pelasgian populations from the
northern parts of Thrace, the Mysii,
Scythii, and Abii, as the most
just people on the face of the earth, dichaiotatoi anthropoi
(Iliad,XIII.v. 6).
The same moral
character is attributed to the barbarian populations from the northern parts by
the geographer Strabo, when he tells
us that the Greeks who had lived before his times, had judged the ancient
Scythians exactly as Homer had presented them; and that, in the ancient times,
there was a general belief that the Nomads,
who dwelt farther away from the other peoples, were the most just among all (Geogr. I. ViI. 3. 8-9; Pliny, IV. 26. 11; Bessel, De reb. Get. p. 40).
Plato mentions the law of the Scythii, o ton Schithon nomos,
which contained dispositions regarding military instruction (Leges, VII. ed.
Didot, vol. II. 370). And Clearchus of
Solos tells us that the Scythii had been the first to use common laws (fragm. 8 in Fragm. Hist.
gr. II. 306). Finally, Herodotus writes
that the Getae were the bravest of
men, but at the same time the most just among
all the inhabitants of Thrace (lib. IV. 93).
The oldest
codification of laws of ante-Homeric world about which the Greco-Roman
traditions speak, had taken place in the northern parts of the lower Danube; a
region which, starting with the primitive times of history, appears
successively under various geographical names, as: Gaea (Terra) in the legends
of the Titans; the country of the Arimii (ein ‘Arimois), the country of the
Hyperboreans (en ‘Yperboreois); the country over which had reigned the titan
Atlas; the regions beyond the Oceanos potamos (Istru); the extreme parts of the
ancient world (ta eschata), Hyperia (the country from beyond), Hesperia, the
country of the Cyclops (Kichlopon gaia), Aetheria, the High
Mountains (Ourea machra), the Rhipei mountains (ta ‘Ripaia ore); finally,
Scythia and Scythia “the mother of iron”, because the populations from the north
of the lower Danube had been often considered as only a branch of the great
family of the Scythia.
In the
But a large part of
the authors of antiquity attributed the redaction of these laws to Hermes (Armis of Dacia, or Armes of
Scythia), who had been married with Maia, the daughter of Atlas.
Hermes, according
to the traditions of antiquity, had been the secretary of the gods of ancient
The domination of
the Pelasgian race had extended far in those times, and the laws of the
This code of laws,
according to which the ancient world had been governed, is called archaic law, nomos archaios by Hesiodus (fragm. 193); archaic laws, archaioi nomoi by Sophocles (Oed. Col. v. 1382); divine law, nomos theon by Eschyl (Eum. 172); and sacrata jura parentum and jura sacerrima by Ovid (Heroid.9. 159; Met. X. 340).
The ancient laws of
This custom of
singing in hymns the divine laws, has the characteristics of an archaic
religious life.
As Hesiodus writes, the muses, or famous
female singers who dwelt on the Olympus, near the Oceanos potamos, sang with
pleasant voices in the palace of Jove, and at the feasts of the gods, the deeds
of brave men, the battles of the Giants and the laws of all the peoples, melpontai panton nomous (Theog. v.
66).
Once the Pelasgian
tribes had migrated towards the western parts of
We also find traces
of this archaic legislation in Hispania. The Turditanii or Turdulii,
who had migrated there in remote times from the western regions of Transilvania
(see Ch. XXXII. 6), had, as Strabo
writes (I. III. 1. 6), a collection of
laws written in verse, 6000 years old, as they said. This date, which was
based without doubt on an ancient chronology of the Iberian priests,
corresponds approximately to the epoch in which had lived Saturn, Atlas and
Hermes.
The laws of the
Turditanii were in any case traditional, and they could not be different from
the sacred laws of Pelasgian antiquity, which Hesiodus names “universal” and
“archaic”.
The Goth bishop Jornandes, born and reared in Mesia
inferior in the 6th century, also mentions the ancient collection of
laws of
We reproduce here
the words of Jornandes (Get. orig.
c. 11): “This Deceneus, being a very learned man in the philosophical sciences,
introduced to the Getae a moral discipline, in order to tame their barbarian
customs; he taught them the fixed laws of the physical world, making them to
live in accord with the order of things established by nature, and according to
their own laws, which they have in written form until our own days, and call
them Leges Bellagines; he taught
them to be able to distinguish true from untrue (the logic), and in this way he
made them superior to other peoples, in judging matters, urging them at the
same time to spend their lives in good deeds; he made them know the secrets of
astronomy, explained to them the 12 signs of the zodiac, and in particular, how
the planets pass through these signs, how the moon waxes and wanes, the names of
the 344 stars and the signs they cross, when do they rise and when do they set;
then he chose from the most noble youths the smartest, taught them theology,
the rites and ceremonies of venerating certain divinities, and how to perform
the religious service in temples; of these he then formed priests, to whom he
gave the name pileatii”.
As we see,
Jornandes speaks here about the same vast system of human and divine sciences,
about the same complex of moral, religious, political and civil laws, from the
north of the lower Danube, which the Greek and Roman authors had attributed to
Hermes a long time before him.
Finally, we also
note that Stephanos Byzanthinos (see
Getia)
and Eustathius of Thessalonica
(Comm. ad Dionys. 304) also mention the matrimonial
and fetial laws of the Getae (Nomoi
Geton, Nomos Getichos).
II.
The ancient Greek
legislation had been based on this archaic codification of laws from the north
of Thrace, which figures in various epochs as laws of the Atlantii or
Hyperboreans, of the Scythii, Agathyrsii and Getae.
The first
compilation of laws of Hellada was that of the city of Sparta in the
Peloponnesus, make by Lycurgus in the 9th century bc.
The Spartans,
writes Herodotus (lib. I. 65; Pausanias, lib. III. 2. 4), had been
the only ones among all the inhabitants of Greece, who had the worst laws;
because of which Lycurgus, a member of the royal family, had decided to
introduce in his country a better system of laws. He consulted the oracle of
Delphi on this purpose, because in older times any legislation needed the
approval of religion. Pythia, or the priestess of Apollo from Delphi, as some
of the ancient historians said, communicated to Lycurgus the laws and
institutions which were later used by the Spartans right to the times of
Herodotus.
The Christian
philosopher Clement the Alexandrine writes in this regard that Lycurgus, while
visiting often the oracle of Apollo from Delphi, had learned there the laws; Plato, Aristotle and Ephorus mention the same fact (Clement Alex., Stromat. I. 26; Aristotle, Respubl. Fr. 156).
As we know, the
oracle of Delphi had been founded by the Hyperboreans (Pausanias, lib. X. 5. 7 seqq), and for a long time this renowned
sanctuary of Apollo had been exclusively under the administration and rule of
the Hyperborean priests and prophets.
The laws of the
Athenians, which Solon had compiled in the 7th century bc, were
based on the same ancient principles which had inspired the public laws of the
Scythii and the Agathyrsii.
While Solon, writes
Plutarch (Oeuvres, Tom. I, 1784, p.
280), was occupied with the redaction of his laws, he met in Athens Anacharsis, the famous philosopher of
the shepherd Scythii, and one of the 7 wise men of the ancient world. Solon,
admiring his wisdom, gave him lodgings in his house for a while, and on this
occasion he discussed with him his project of laws.
This matter
presents a particular interest for the ancient civilization and organization of
the countries from north of the lower Danube. We shall examine here the texts
which we have, about the country and nationality of Anacharsis, in order to
bring more light to this matter.
From the data we
have about his life and deeds, Anacharsis appears as one of the most learned
men of law in the northern parts of Istru.
Ephorus, who had lived in the 4th
century bc, tells us in one of his fragments, regarding his country and
nationality, that Anacharsis had been one of the shepherd Scythii (fragm. 78).
According to Homer, the Shepherd Scythii, the Hippomolgii and Galactophagii (Iliad, XIII. 5), were neighbors with the Mysii from the north of Thrace. Also
according to Eschyl (Prom. v. 709),
the dwellings of the shepherd Scythii were in the regions from north of Thrace,
near the Caucasus close to the Istru (Oceanos potamos), in Scythia, called “the
mother of iron”, and close to the violent and difficult to cross river, which
flows from the high mountains
(Atlas, Alutus, Olt).
The shepherd
Scythii of Homer and Eschyl formed therefore a population completely different
from the nomad Scythii of Herodotus, scattered through the lands at north of
the Meotic lake, near the open gates of great Asia, where nobody ploughed,
nobody sowed, where were neither villages, nor cities [1].
[1. It results in fact, even from
the writings of Herodotus (VI. 84;
IV. 99. 125), that the dwellings of the shepherd Scythii, against whom Darius,
the king of the Persians, had come with war, started near the Danube and the
Carpathians.
We also add that the Scythii from
near the Euxine Pontos told, as Herodotus
writes (IV. 76), that they did not know who Anacharsis was].
The name of
Anacharsis, as transmitted by the Greek authors, does not correspond to the
onomastics from north of the lower Danube. We do not have here a single name in
any case, but a composed one: Ana
Charsis. Under this form, the
name Anacharsis belongs to the popular onomastics from north of the lower
Danube [2].
[2. Ona, in Latin form Annus,
Annius, Anius, Ania (C. I. L. v.
I. 78), Etr. Annaeus. In the western
mountains both forms, Ana and Ona still exist today as family names (Francu, Motii, p. 116). In Moldova we
find Ona Ureacli at 1445 (Uric. IX.
137)].
Ona and Carsa
(n. Carja) are personal and family names very largely spread in the southern
parts of Transilvania. In the Tera Fagarasului, Carsa (Gr. Chryses) is the name of an old boyar family, which
around 1862 had 7 heads of family. In the boyar family Carsa especially, the
name Ona seems to have been retained
until the 18th century, as an inheritance from remote times.
In the documents of
the freeholder peasants of Campulung, who constitute in fact only an old
migration from the Tera Fagarasului, we find in 1792-93 two of them with the
same name “Oncea Carsa”, where
“Oncea” is a simple diminutive of Ona, as in Roman Ancus from Anus.
In regard to the
family of Anacharsis, we find with the Greek authors several genealogical data,
which present a particular interest for the political history and the history
of civilization of Dacia, prior to the conquest by the Romans.
According to the scholiast of Plato (ed. Didot III. p.
333), Anacharsis was the son of Gnoyrou (Gnoyros) – with the
meaning of Niuru – a king of the
Scythii, understand the shepherd ones.
According to Diogenius Laertius (lib. I. c. 8), who
had lived around 190ad, Anacharsis was the son of Gnoyrou (Niuru) and
brother with Cathuidos, the king of
the Scythii. Suidas though, who had
used other historical sources, probably older, tells us that Anacharsis was the
son of Gnyrou and brother with Caduias,
the king of the Scythii.
As we see, the
father of Anacharsis is called Gnoyrou or Gnoyros by the scholiast
of Plato and by Diogenius Laertius, but Suida writes Gnyrou (Gnyros),
with a small variation in orthography.
The name Niuru, or Niuros with the usual Greek ending, had in any case a barbarian
Latin form.
Niro in the Neapolitan dialect, niguru in the Calabrian, and niuru in the Sicilian, means “negru” (TN - black) (Mortillaro, Nuovo Diz.
Siciliano-italiano, Palermo, 1876, p. 747).
The father of
Anacharsis was therefore named Niuru
or Negru, or in other words he was
from the family named “Negru”; he
was at the same time a king of the Scythii, as Plato’s scholiast says. We are
therefore presented with precious documents for the history of the countries
from the lower Danube, prior to the times of Trajan.
Negru is the most ancient and legendary family
of the Romanian voivodes (TN – lords, sovereigns, Domns, princes, etc) from the
Tera Fagarasului. Apart from Negru Voda,
about whom the Romanian chronicles tell that he had moved the seat of power
from Fagaras to Campulung (1290), the historical documents and traditions talk
about other Romanian voivodes too, from the same family and with the same name.
One Negru Voda had reigned around 1232,
according to the ancient acts of ownership of the commune Resinari near Sibiu (Hasdeu, etym. Magn. Tom. IV. p. CII).
One Negru Voda builds around 1215
the big royal church at Campulung. One Negru
Voda had lived around 1185, as told by the genealogy of the family Monea
from Vinetia of Fagaras. In the epic songs of the Romanian people is still
mentioned a Negru Voda from the
epoch when the rich Letin (Telephus, also named Latinus) had ruled over
Dobrogea (Tocilescu, Mater. Folk. I.
p. 1268).
Another Negru Voda had lived in mythical times.
He had built the renowned monastery of Arges by following a pagan custom, which
he had then dedicated to the god Mars, as results from the text of a folk
rhapsody (Tocilescu, Mater. Folk. I.
p. 18. 20. 25).
This ancient family
of Romanian voivodes from Tera Fagarasului, still exists today as a boyar
family with the name Negrea, in the
commune Posorta, and around 1862
comprised 28 heads of family. (The feminine form of co-names, like Bunea,
Cornea, Codrea, Lupea, Puia, Mamulea, Negrea, Basaraba, etc, refers to the
family, or the trunk to which belonged the respective persons, like the Romans
said: ex gente, or ex tribu Cornelia).
On the territory of
the same commune, close to the village called Breza, can still be seen today on
a high rocky outcrop, the ruins of a fortification dating from obscure times,
which the folk call the Fortress of
Negru Voda [3]
[3. Herodotus writes (IV. 76) that Anacharsis, returning from Greece,
had withdrawn es tan cheleumenen ‘Ylaien. An estate called Ileni exists in Tera Fagarasului, nor
far from Posorta, the cradle of the
family Negru].
In regard to the
country of Anacharsis, we also find an important historical note with Lucianus (2nd century ad),
who calls Anacharsis the son of Dauketes
(lib. XXIV, c. 4), meaning of the Dacian,
as Strabo and Jornandes had called one of the great civilizing men of ancient
Dacia, Deceneus (Dechaineos).
We are now
presented with an interesting matter of the ancient history of the Romanian
language: did the word “niuru” belong to the folk language once spoken in
Dacia, or in the 6th century bc it was said in Tera Fagarasului
“niuru” instead of “negru”, as the Sicilians say today?
All that we find in
this regard is that in a very remote epoch it was said, in Banat as well as in
Tera Hategului (TN – the country of Hateg), neru, nera (f), instead
of “negru, negra”. Thus, in our ancient folk songs about Iovan Iorgavan, the
river Cerna, which flows at Mehadia,
is called nera (Alecsandri, Poesii pop. ed. 1866, p. 14), meaning “negra” (TN –
black). Another river which springs in the western mountains of Mehadia is
still called Nera today. Two
Romanian villages of Banat, today vanished, have in the historical documents of
1598 and 1636, the names Ner and Neresci (Pesty, A Szor. Bans. II. p. 376. 377). Finally, Nera had once been also called the
river of Cerna, which flows in
Transilvania alongside Hunedoara.
But the question is
still open, if the data, used by the Greek authors for the biography of
Anacharsis, had been borrowed from the Pelasgians who dwelt along the shores of
the Mediterranean, and which maybe pronounced niuru instead of “negru”.
The brother of
Anacharsis, according to the historical sources used by Suidas, was called Caduias and appears as a king of the
Scythii. Caduias had become therefore the successor of his father Gnuru.
In Tera Fagarasului
still exists today (in the commune Sercaita) the family called Codaia. We find therefore the families Negru (Niuru), Carsa (Charsis) and Codaia
(Caduias) in the same region. If any other family called “Codaia” had existed
also in other parts of Transilvania or Romania, we have not found out so far
[4].
[4. According to Diog. Laertius (I. 101), the brother of
Anacharsis was called Cathuidos
(var. Caduidas).
We must note that in the same
commune of Tera Fagarasului, where we find the family Codaia, also exists,
according to the documents we have, the ancient family Candit, which seems to be the same name as Cathuidos].
As we see from the
data examined so far, both sons of Gnuru (Niuru) had family names, one Carsa,
the other Codaia.
In ancient times,
all the barbarian populations of Pelasgian race, but especially the Getae,
Thracii and Scythii, had a national law regarding marriage, that the men could
have more women or wives at the same time. The children born of these
simultaneous marriages with a number of women also had, apart from their proper
name, which everybody had, the family name of their mothers (Diodorus Siculus, lib. III. 57; Micali, L’Italia, II. 1826, 92).
It results
therefore that king Gnuru from the century 7-6bc, also had, by the custom of
the Getae and the Scythii, a number of women; and that the mother of Anacharsis
had been from the family called Carsa,
while the mother of his brother, from the family Codaia.
From all this data
studied so far, the genealogy of Anacharsis appears under the following form:
But Herodotus, who had lived 100 years after
Anacharsis, also adds some important notes about the family of Anacharsis,
which at the same time bring much light to the history of the royal dynasty of
the Agathyrsii of Dacia.
As father of
Anacharsis, Herodotus mentions Gnuru
(Niuru); as grandfather, Lykos
(Lupul, TN – the Wolf); as great-grandfather, Spargapithes, the king of the Agathyrsii on the river Maris in
Transilvania; as brother; Saulios,
king of the Scythii; and as nephew, Idanthyrsus
(lib. IV. 76), king of the Scythii, at the time when Darius, the son of
Hystaspes, had come with war against the shepherd Scythii.
The name Spargapithes appears only with
Herodotus. But from the ethnical point of view it has an Agathyrsic and Getic
character. One Spargapithes is king
of the Agathyrsii in the 7th century bc, the ancestor of Anacharsis.
Another Spargapithes is the king of
the Agathyrsii in the 5th century bc (Herodotus, lib. IV. c. 78); finally, a third Spargapizes (here with z
instead of th) is the son of Queen
Tomyris, who had reigned over the Masagetae in the times of Cyrus (Herodotus, lib. I. 211).
The name Spargapithes, as presented by
Herodotus, appears completely altered by the Greek pronunciation and
orthography, and most of all, by the mania of the Greek authors to Hellenize
the names of the Barbarians; so that we can say that we have here only a mode
of writing of this name, but in no way its true original form.
In this name, which
as we saw belongs to the Agathyrsian population, the letter p of the first and third syllables
takes the place of b, as we have
numerous examples with the Greek authors, even with Herodotus; and the letter g is only a simple guttural Greek
aspiration, resulted because of the letter r
of the preceding syllable, as in ‘Orgiempaioi = Arimphaei = Arimbaei,
as in Regma instead of Rema, Rogmi instead of Romi, Rogmani instead of Romani.
Finally, eithes is a simple nominal Greek suffix, which corresponds to
the terminations escus and iscus in the regions of the lower
Danube, which we find in various personal, ethnic and topical names, like: Andriscus, Daciscus, Threciscus, Teurisci,
Scordisci, Ardescos, Securisca, Transmarisca.
By emending thus
the Greek orthography of Herodotus, we shall have the following reconstructed
forms of this name: Spargapithes =
Sbar(g)abithes = Sbarabithes, where the radical or patronymic form is Sbarab. Finally, by replacing the
termination eithes (ithes) with the Greco-Latin suffix ita, or with the termination iscus
or escus from the regions of the
Carpathians, we get the forms Sbarabita,
Sbarabiscus and Sbarabescus.
We have here
therefore some more positive data about the pronunciation of this name.
Spargapithes, as
results from the data found with Herodotus, is not an individual name, but a family
or clan name of the royal dynasty of the country of the Agathyrsii.
Now we are
presented with the question, do we also find some mention about the name of
this royal dynasty with other authors of antiquity?
The Goth historian Jornandes communicates a passage of the
lost writing of Dios Chrysostomos ta
Geticha, in which this author tells us that all the kings of the
Dacians were from the so-called family or clan of the Zarabii (De reb. Get. c. 5). We have here a form very close to the
family name of the Agathyrsian kings, Spargapithes (Sbarabita, Sbarabiscus)
from the patronymic Sbarab. We must
observe though that neither Dios Crysostomos, nor Jornandes, reproduce the name
of the Dacian dynasty quite exactly.
In the text of Dios
and Jornandes, the name Zarabi
appears only as a simple truncated form of Bazarabi,
exactly as in the Byzanthine history of Chalcocondylas, Dan, the voivode of the
Romanian Country at 1444, was also called “the son of Saraba” (Sarampa), instead of Basaraba (Stritterus, Memoriae pop. II. 918).
In order to stress
even more the fact that the Greek authors had altered almost entirely the form
of this name, we must mention that on the
But there is no
echo, either in the family names, or in the topical terminology.
In the history of
the Romanian people from the lower
From this trunk,
which by the end of the Middle Ages had spread on both sides of the Carpathians
in a large number of smaller branches of cnezi (TN – ruler), boyars, freeholder
peasants, and nobles, were chosen the ancient Bani of Severin and Craiova (TN –
traditional rulers of these two provinces), and the Domns of the Romanian
Country.
In chronicles, in
biographies and in various other historical works, the reigning family of the
Basarabii also appears with the name Basarabesc
clan or the Basarabescii (Hasdeu, Etym. Magn. III. 2541, 2555).
The Romanian Country, over which ruled the Basarabii, is called in Italian,
Serb, and Polish historical sources, Bessarabia
and Besserabia, and its inhabitants
are Bessarabeni (Sommersberg, Siles. rer. script. II.
82), Bessarabitae (Ulianitzkii, Uricarul, vol. XI.p.39)
and Bessarabisci (ibid, vol.XI.p.
41).
The name of the
Basarabii, as the reigning family in the history of the countries from the
lower
Diodorus Siculus mentions a king called Barsaban, who had reigned around 149bc
over the northern parts of
We also find an
echo of a prehistoric “Bessarabia” in the Italic toponimy: Pliny mentions among the ancient populations of Calabria, the Decianii, Aletinii and Basterbinii (lib. III. 16. 7). We have
here without doubt a group of tribes migrated in very obscure times from other
geographical regions, and we can very easily guess the names of the Decienii, the Oltenii (or the inhabitants from near the river Olt - Alutus), and
the Basarabenii, natives of Besserabia or Bessarabia, as the Romanian Country was named in the last centuries
of the Middle Ages by the Italian and Polish sources.
Finally, basing
himself on Greek sources, the geographer Ravennas
mentions two neighboring peoples, the Bassarinii
and the Melanglinii (Cosmogr. Ed.
Pinder, p. 174), who had their dwellings in the northern parts of great
Scythia. According to the geographical ideas of the ancient authors, the
regions of Dacia were situated right under the north pole, called also “polus
Geticus”; so the Bassarinii of
Ravennas appear, from the point of view of their geography and name, as being
the same people as the inhabitants of the north of Thrace, over which the
dynasty of the Basarabii reigned. As for the Melanglinii, they are the Melanchlaenii of the Greek authors,
people with black clothes, pastoral tribes, scattered in ancient times through
various regions of southern Scythia. But the Melanglinii of Ravennas especially
– neighbors with the Bassarinii – seem to be identical with the so-called Marginenii, who in the Middle Ages had
a duchy of their own (of Omlas), and who have even today the same
characteristic black, or dark colored attire (Diaconovich, Encicl. rom. III. 204).
We saw from all of
the above how ancient is the name of the Basarabii,
not only in the political history, but also in the geographical terminology of
the countries from the Carpathians and the lower Danube. It results therefore
that from the historical point of view, the Spargapitii of Herodotus - kings of
the Agathyrses - are identical, as family and as dynasty, with the Barsabanii
of Diodorus, with the Zarabii of Dios, and with the Basarabii or Basarabescii
of the Middle Ages, who had reigned in Tera Hategului as Cnezi, in Banat and
Oltenia as Bani, in the Romanian Country as Voivodes, and in Fagaras and Omlas
as Domns and Dukes (Paulus Iovius,
Hist. lib. XL. p. 210).
Finally, here is
another note from the history of the dynasty of the Agathyrsii.
Herodotus mentions
two kings of the Agathyrsii, both having the name Spargapithes, which seems to have been a family name, hereditary
and historical.
We find the same
examples also in the history of the Romanian Basarabii.
On the 1364
inscription from Campulung, Alecsandru Basarab is called “the son of great Basaraba voivode”. Later, the son
of Vladislav (III) Basarab is called only “young Basaraba voivode, the son of good Basaraba voivode”. Similarly, Negoe, of the branch of the Danescii,
as soon as he becomes Domn in 1512, he starts to sign himself “Basaraba voivode, the son of the most
good Basaraba voivode” (Hasdeu, Etym. Magn. III. p. 2546; Archiva ist. I. 1. 142), as if
“Basarab” or “Basaraba” were not only a name, but also a sacred title of the
Domns of this country.
We have therefore
the following genealogic table about the family of Anacharsis, according to the
data gathered by Herodotus:
[5. In this genealogy, a note
written by Apollodorus (III. 10. 1)
also has its rightful place. It says that a daughter of the titan Atlas, called Celaeno (Negra), had been the mother of one so-called Lykos (king?), passed into immortal
life in the Blessed islands (from the mouths of the Danube).
Negru Voda,
the founder of the Romanian Country (TN – as a state), was also from the family
of the Basarabii, as results from a
document of Matei Basarab from 1636, and from the inscriptions of the monastery
of Campulung).
Suidas tells us that Anacharsis could have been a
contemporary of Cronos, who had lived between 595 - 525bc. For the life of
Anacharsis we have considered though the more certain date of 594bc, when Solon
had been elected arhontes, with the mission to compile and redact new laws for
the Athenians, during which he had received the visit of Anacharsis. In regard
to the chronology of the forefathers of Anacharsis, we took in consideration
the rule established by Herodotus
(II. 142; VI. 98), and other modern authors, that three generations make 100
years].
So, according to
Herodotus’ notes, we have a Gnuru
(Niuru) or Negru (king of the
shepherd Scythii), who had lived around 627bc, and we have a Spargapithes, meaning a Sbarab, Basarab or Basarabescu, as king of the Agathyrsii, or of the western parts of
Transilvania, who had reigned around 694bc, in the same times of Numa Pompilius
of Rome.
Anacharsis, as the
Greek sources tell us, had also composed a work in verse about the laws of the shepherd Scythii. We
saw that Aristotle also mentions the laws of the Agathyrsii.
But the redaction
of the Scythian or Agathyrsian laws attributed to Anacharsis, was in any case
much more ancient. The Turdulii or Turditanii of the
So, we can draw a
positive conclusion, that the laws of Solon had been mostly a compilation and
imitation of the political and civil laws of the Scythii from the Carpathians
and the lower Danube; laws which had divine authority since a very remote
antiquity, and which were at the same time ancestral laws for the co-nationals
of Strabo, because as Plato writes, the Athenians reduced their origin to
Atlantis, the ancient kingdom of Atlas at north of Istru.
III.
We arrive now at the
ancient collection of laws of
In the historical
documents of
- In
- In Tera
Fagarasului: lex Valachorum (Kolozsvari es Kelemen, Monum. Hung. Juridico-historica,
- In
In
- In the Romanian
Country (TN – Tera Romanesca), in a document from 1591: lege Dumnedeesca (TN – Godly law; Hasdeu, Arch. Ist. III. 147); and in
the preface of the Law of Ion Caragea from 1818: “pravilnicesca condica scrisa” (TN – written codex of
laws), which Tera Romanesca had “from
ancient times”, entirely different from the imperial decrees of the Romans.
- In
- In
This law, as
results from the official texts of the documents, contained various rules in
the domain of public law, regarding: the political, judicial, fiscal and
military organization of the Romanian banate, voivodate, provinces, districts,
cnezate, communes, and villages (TN - various administrative Romanian
territories); rights and obligations of the various classes of society, the
priests, voivodes, cnezi, boyars and the military, who were charged with the
defense of the forts, the frontiers, of the fords and roads, and also rules
regarding the condition of the peasants (neighbors, serfs, laborers) towards
the privileged classes. We also find in this law a system of rules in the
domain of private law, regarding property and possession, obligations,
successions, matrimonial rights and procedure in front of the judiciary.
Finally, some rules referred to the penalties which had to be applied to the
criminals. This law was especially severe with those who destroyed the crops,
and who stole cattle from the pasture, or from herds.
Some important
fragments of this immemorial legislation called “Lex antiqua Valachorum”, have
been preserved in the so-called Statutes
and Constitutions of Tera Fagarasului,
from the 16th and 17th centuries, which, in their rules
and form of redaction, differ from the statutes, constitutions, and particular
laws of the other nationalities of Transilvania, Hungary and Poland.
We shall reproduce
here several laws from this “Lex antiqua Valachorum” [1], presenting them at
the same time in parallel with some fragments from the laws of the XII Roman
Tabulae (Leges XII tabularum), as well as with other precepts from the ancient
laws of the Pelasgian people:
[1. Part of the legal dispositions
which follow are taken from The Statutes
of Tera Fagarasului (Fogarasvideki Statutumok) from y.1508, and from The Constitutions of the District of Tera
Fagarasului (Constitutiones Districtus Terrae Fogaras), compiled in the 16th
and 17th centuries and published in Monumenta Hungariae juridico-historica by Dr. Kolozsvari Sandor and Dr. Ovari Kelemen (Tom. I,
- If the boyar
dies without male heirs, his hereditary estates will pass to his
con-divisional brothers; in their absence, the succession of the real
estate is due to the lord of the land, because, by Romanian law, the
estates are not passed on to the female sex.
- Tab. V: Si intestato moritur cuius suus heres nec
(escit), agnatus proximus familiam
habeto. Si agnatus nec escit, gentilis familiam nancitor.
- Lex Romana
Utinensis: Ille homo qui sic moritur, qui testamentum
non faciat sua ereditas… si filii non sunt, ad suos propincos qui de patre sunt (debet pervenire) … nam ipsa hereditas
ad feminas venire non potest. De legitima patroni
hereditate.
- Statuta Distr. Fogaras (173): Quando
Boyaronem mori contigerit et heredes non
habuerit…si…masculo caruerit: et filiam habuerit…fraters diuisionales…puellam (cum quarta parte puellari) contentant
et hereditates …ad se redimant. Casu vero quod fratribus diuisionalibus
deficeret…Dominus terrestris…puellam
de talibus hereditatibus excludere valeat… Quia in lege Valachorum hereditates sexum femineum non concernunt.
The same order of
succession was observed for the Romanian nobility in
- About the
right of peasants to acorn, in the woods of the landlords and the boyars.
- Pliny, lib. XVI. 6: Cautum est praeterea, lege
XII tabularum, ut glandem in alienum
fundum procidentem liceret colligere.
- Statuta Distr.
Fogaras (p. 175): dum glandines
fertiles erunt …nec domini Terrestres, nec Boyarones a colonis exigere waleant
quiequam.
3. Judicial
punishments for those who destroy the vallum of the city and the graves.
- Tab. X: Ne forum sepulcri bustumque usucapiatur (
- Cicero, De Leg.
II. 9: Deorum Manium jura sacra
sunto. Hos leto datos, divos
habento.
- Herodotus, IV.
127: Idanthyrsus, the king of the shepherd Scythii, towards Darius, the king of
the Persians: “If you wished to engage a fight with us as soon as possible,
then you should know that we have graves
of our forebears; see to find them, and if you did, try to destroy them,
and then you shall see if we fought with you for the graves, or not”.
- Const. T. Fogaras
(p. 321): Contra Valli circa Oppidum
jacentis et Sepulcri diruptores
poena declaratur.
- About he who
illegally occupies the house or courtyard of another from villages, or
from estates.
- Tab. VII: Hortus
– Haeredium - Tugurium
- Statuta Distr.
Fogaras (171): Qui domum vel curiam vel
hortum in aliqua villa, vel terries,
agris, siue eeiusdem …absque
Juris ordint potentialiter occupauerint etc.
- About the
limitation of neighboring lands.
- Virgil. Aen. XII. 897: Saxum antiquum ingens …Limes agro positus, litem ut
discerneret arvis (cf. Homer, Iliad, XXI. 405).
- Constit. T. Fogaras
(p. 323): quicumque …runcatas Terras habent, cum vicinis et commetaneis suis in
bona harmonia signent, magnis et
praestantibus lapidibus.
- Boundary
controversies between neighboring estates are regulated by arbiters.
In the
controversies “de finibus regundis”, the laws of the XII tabulae ruled that three arbiters should judge.
Pesty, Krasso varm. Tort. III. 25. 1347: Ita ereccionem ipsarum metarum ordinassent…quod partes adducent communiter quatuor probos viros…Quiquidem….iusticiam
inter ipsas partes observant, vadant et
videant illas veras et rectas metas erectas exantiquo.
Pesty, A Szor. Bansag. III. 145, 1503: Banus
Zewriniensis…utrasque partes amonuimus, ut certos
probos nobiles viros ad id sufficientes iuxta ritum Volahie eligant
et adoptent, etc.
- About he who
insults somebody before the tribunal.
- Tab. VIII: Si injuriam faxit alteri viginti quinque
aeris poenae sunto.
- Statuta Distr.
Fogaras (p. 174): In sede Judiciaria alter alteri verba dehonestatoria dixerit, tunc ille conuincatur in floreno uno.
- About the
boyars who avoid paying contributions, harming their peasants in the
process.
- Tab. VIII: Patronus si clienti fraudem fecerit sacer esto.
- Constit. T.
Fogaras (p. 326): …quicunque…inter Boerones
in dolo deprehensi fuerint (quod in
miserae Plebis maximam ruinam contributionem subterfugiant) eorum
domos…occupare possint illi qui pro talibus fraudulenti(i)s tributum deposuerint.
- When someone’s
cattle, big or small, make damage on someone else’s land.
- Dig. I. IX. 1. 1:
Si quadrupes pauperiem fecisse
dicatur, action ex lege duodecim tabularum descendit.
- Constit. T.
Fogaras (p. 317): Si pecora de die aliqua Loca invaserint interdicta,
nec adeo notabilem damnum intulerint, singulum Pecus redimatur.
- About those
who graze their cattle on the sown fields or orchards of others, or steal
hay, oats and other food from the fields.
- Pliny, H. N. lib. XVIII. 3. 4: Frugem quidem aratro quaesitam furtim noctu pavisse, ac secuisse, puberi XII tabulis capitale erat: suspensumque
Cereri necari jubebant, gravius quam in homicidio convictum: impubem Praetoris
arbitratu verberari, noxiamque duplione decerni.
- Constit. T.
Fogaras (p. 317): Si quis potentiose…sua pecora
in vetita aliorum Loca videlicet segetes,
partum, impelleret, … in tali casu ipse et pecora ejus capiantur et se redimat fl. 12. insuper damnum
juxta aestimationem solvat.
- Constit. T.
Fogaras (p. 320): …qui Herbam, Avenam, ac cuiuscunque generic, et
speciei frumentum ex
campis….invehunt….ac qui suspicioni obnoxiantur, (Portarii) eos significant.
- About the thief
who breaks into houses, or enters through the window.
- Tab. VIII: Si nox furtum factum sit si im occisit iure caesus esto (Cf. Macrob. Saturn.
- Statuta Distr.
Fogaras, (p. 175): Qui domos aliorum foderint, wel de fenestra intrauerint, capite priuentur.
12. About the thief who turns against those who try to catch him.
-
-
- Constit. T.
Fogaras (p. 318): Si quis vero insurgeret,
et se capi, aut pecora sua ex loco
vetito impelli non sineret, eotum contumax in fl. 24. convincatur.
- The guiding of
the law (ed. 1652), c. 247: He who shall kill
the thief, when finding him stealing his food (crops), he shall not be
reprimanded….if found that the thief had attacked the owner of the crops.
- Punishment by
death for those who steal sheep, pigs or other cattle, big or small.
- Gaius, Comment. III.
189: Poena manifesti furti ex lege
XII tabularum capitalis erat.
- Justinus lib. II. 2: Nullum scelus apud eos (Scythas) furto gravius: quippe sine tecto munimentoque
pecora et armenta inter syluas habentibus, quid salvum esset, si furari liceret?
- Statuta Distr.
Fogaras (p. 174): Ex parte furum
observetur antiquis modis, ita
videlicet, quod si vnum ouem vel porcum, sive alias pecudes et pecora
furauerit duodecies tamen soluat, et sic caput
suum redimat a patibulo, sicuti hucusque consuetum fuit in talibus.
- A document from
y. 1509: Quod agiles Mussatt et Komsa… coram nobis (Capitaneo T. Fogaras)….sunt
confessi in hunc modum, quomodo….fratrem ipsorum carnalem Man vocatum in
quoddam furticinium, pro quo de jure suspendi debebat, incidisse
etc.
- About those
who put fire to other’s houses, hay, oats or straw.
- Gaius,
- Constit. T.
Fogaras (p. 322): In Protocollo de praecautione eorundem (incendiorum) nonnulli
inserti habeantur articuli…1. Nemo versus Plateam in ordine Domorum, Faenum, aut Avenam, stramen….collocet.
- Statuta Distr.
Fogaras (173): Incediary…Ignis
Incendio conburantur.
- About
wounding.
- Tab. VIII: Si membrum rupsit, ni cum eo pacit talio
esto (Festus).
- Gaius. Comm. III. 223: Propter os vero fractum aut collisum
trecentorum assium poena (ex lege XII tab.) erat.
- Statuta Distr.
Fogaras (p. 171): Prius erat consuetudo, quod pro effusione sanguinis florenos 13 pro birsagio exigebant.
- Constit. Distr.
T. Fogaras (p. 316. 330): …si ….rusticum Nobilis incruentaverit (mulctetur) fl.
3.
16. About those who shall kill others with weapon, poison
or spells.
- Si quis hominem
liberum dolo sciens morti duit paricidas esto (Leges
regiae).
- Tab. VIII: Qui
malum Carmen incantasset – Malum venenum.
- Statutum Comitatus
Hunyadiensis, y. 1773 (p. 494): Quicunque e praedestinata malitia …aliquem quocunque telo, pharmaco, aut arte
magica occiderit….capitis amputatione punietur.
- About those
who use spells for removing the manna from the sown fields of another.
- Tab. VIII: Qui fruges excantassit – Neve alienam
segetm pellexeris.
- Teodorescu, Poesii pop. (p. 384): Spell
for undoing the spells: “spell with the taking of manna of cows and ewes… spell
with the taking of the manna of wheat
and maize and all the sown crops….lighted moon, come and take the spell
from my land, from my garden, etc”.
As we see, the
belief in the taking away with spells of the manna of sown crops, had also existed with the Romanian people; so the
ancient Romanian law had to include a penal disposition in this regard, as it
was also included in the XII tabula and in Lex Baiuvariorum, tit. XII: si quis
messes alterius initiaverit maleficis artibus, etc.
- About traitors
and those who rise against authority.
- Lex duodecim
tabularum iubet, eum qui hostem concitaverit, quive civem hosti tradiderit, capite puniri (Dig. I. XLVIII. 4. 3).
-
- Statuta Distr.
Fogaras (p. 170): Proditores, infidels Castri, capite priventur.
- Ibid. (p. 175):
Qui…contra Castellanos vel Officiales et homines eorum insurgere auderent ex
tunc capite priventur.
- About
deserters at time of war.
- Livy. I. XXIV. 20: et recepti perfugae trecenti septuaginta; quos cum
Romam misisset consul, virgis in comitio caesi omnes, ac de saxo dejecti.
- Ibid. I. XXX. C.
43: De perfugis gravius, quam de fugitivis, consultum; nominis latini
qui errant, securi percussi, Romani
in crucem sublati (Cf. Dionys. VII. 40).
- Schard, Script. Rer. Germ. Ed. 1574. p. 1276:
Haec est Valachorum consuetudo, ut
cos omnes qui ex pugna evadentes domum revertuntur suppliciis gravioribus, quam
si in
20. In Tera Fagarasului, the punishment by beheading could
be given only by the supreme court of that land.
- Tab. IX: De capite civis nisi per maximum comitiatum…ne ferunto (Cic.
Leg. III. 4. 9).
- Constit. T.
Fogaras (p. 328): Quod in hoc Districtu Terrae Fogaras non aliud Forum sit, quod
Jus Gladii haberet (quam
Fogarasiensis Sedes
- The ancient
law forbids fainting in church over the body of the deceased.
- Tab. X: Mulieres….neve lessum funeris ergo habento.
- Statutum Arbensis
civ. (XIV century). I. IV. 12: quod mulieres
non possint pro aliquo mortuo boccare: nisi illo die quo morietur….Insuper
nullus homo audeat se projicere supra
aliquem mortuum in ecclesia (Bibl. Acad. Of Agram. Ms. Nr. II. d.4).
- Exile, as
judiciary punishment, for those who had committed certain thefts, or had
devastated the estates of others, with foreign armed men.
- The exile, under the form “aquae et ignis interdiction”, had
existed with the Romans even before the XII tabula (Cf. Dionys. Hal. II. 53).
- A sentence of the
tribunal of Fagaras from y.1500: quod cum…in oppido Fogaras iudicium facere consedissemus…. In nostrum iudicium extitit
inducta, quod filius quondam Juga de Beriwoy nomine Man per furticinium suum amisisset….
Boieronatum suum … idem fuisset in exilium
positus….vt mos predecessorum fuit,
etc.
- In Maramures, the sentence for sending
someone into exile was pronounced in
the general assembly of the entire nobility and the top men of the land.
- Mihalyi, Dipl. Maram. p. 363. 1453: Nos….Comes….et
universi nobiles Comitatus Maramarosiensis…. nobiles viros Michaelem et
Georgium Ficze dictos….ratione et pretextu….quorundam latronum alienorum….et depopulacionis
possessionis nobilis Petri Gerhes….cum universis proceribus prescripti
Comitatus…. (in) exilium duximus
ponendos….ipsos….exules captivare et
possessiones eorum depopulare commiseramus.
- Judicial
punishments for drunken women.
- Lactantius, Div. Inst. Lib. I: Clodius…refert, Fauni hanc uxorem (Fatuam Faunam)
fuisse: quae quia contra morem….clam
vini ollam ebiberat, et ebria facta
erat; virgis myrteis a viro usque ad
mortem caesa.
- Pliny, lib. XIV. 14. 2: Non licebat id (vinum)
feminis Romae bibere….Egnatii Mecenii uxorem,
quod vinum bibisset e dolio, interfectam fusti
a marito.
- Constit. T.
Fogaras (p. 333): Faemina ebria
inventa prima vice fl. 1, secundo vero in Cippum inclusa verberibus afficiatur.
- The ancient
law forbids marriage between boyars and peasants.
- Tab. XI: Ne
patribus cum plebe connubium sit.
- The ancient traditional
(unwritten) laws of the Brahmans of India also included the rule that a woman from another tribe could not be
taken in marriage (Diodorus.
II.41; Strabo, XV.1.49).
- In Tera Fagarasului, marriages between boyars
and peasants were forbidden.
- In the Romanian Country, marriages between freeholder peasants and statute laborers are not allowed (Hasdeu, Columna, IX. 178).
- According to
the ancient Romanian law, the simultaneous marriage with two or more women
was allowed.
The supreme purpose
of marriage in archaic times, from the point of view of legislation, had been
multiplication of the nation and preservation of the state.
- Saturn (Munteanul), the most ancient king of the
inhabitants from near Atlas mountain and Oceanos potamos (Istru), had 45
children with a number of women (Diod.
III. 57).
- Priam, the last king of
- The kings of the Scythii had several women (Herodotus, IV. 78).
- The Thracii and Getae had an ancient custom, that each man had to have 2-12 and
even more women (Strabo, VII. 3. 4; Herodotus, V. 5).
This custom had
once been almost general with all the
populations of Pelasgian race.
- Tacitus (Germ. 18) writes: nam
(Germani) prope soli barbarorum
singulis uxoribus contenti sunt, exceptis admodum paucis, qui….ob nobilitatem plurimis nuptiis ambiuntur.
- The same customs
also existed in fact in the Roman army
recruited from the provinces, as results from the privileges given to the
veterans, by which they were conferred jus
connubii with only one woman:
dedit et connubium cum uxoribus, dum taxat singuli
singulas; or: dum taxat singulis et
primis uxoribus (C. I. L. vol.
III).
- In some parts of
Transilvania, still existed until the 16th century the custom of
having more women. From 1543 onwards though, the legislation of Transilvania
begins to take severe measures against these customs.
- Mon. Hung. Jur.
Hist. I. 513: Ex communi tocius Vniversitatis Saxonum congregatione: Conclusum
est, quod….Valachi uxores legitimas
habentes, et alias superinde ducentes capitis
poena plecti debent.
- Statutum comm.
Hunyad. Y. 1773 (p. 494): Quicunque (Valachus)
Crimine…Bigamiae, aut Polygamiae semet contaminaverit, ac
polluerit, gladio ferietur.
- The decision of
the Diet of Transilvania y. 1554: (In terra Fogaras) viri duas uxores habentes….solita poena puniantur (Densusianu, Doc. Priv. ist.
- Verancus Exp.
Solimani (ap. Ilarianu, Tesauru,
III. 160): Licet enim eis (Valachis)
omnibus communiter et duas et tres
uxores habere, nobilibus ac potioribus etiam plures; vaivodis vero quot
volunt, liberum est; ….illarum quoque liberi, nihil obstante quod concubinarum
speciem prae se ferant….pro legitimis
habentur, successionesque dominationis sortiuntur.
- Anon. Belae reg.
not. C. 11: Menumorout (dux
Byhoriensis)…plurimas habebat amicas.
- Mircea the Great, Domn of the Romanian
Country, also had children from a number of women (Engel, Geschichte d. Walachey, p. 162).
- The ancient
Romanian law allowed the unbinding of a legitimate marriage, through
repudiation.
- Plutarch, Romul. C. 22: an ordnance of Romulus
allowed the man to separate from the woman even without a legitimate cause,
with the condition that half of his wealth be adjudicated to the woman, and the
other half to the goddess Ceres.
- In
- The XII tabula
also allowed repudiation, with the
condition to return to the woman the things brought by her (Cic. Phil. II. 28: suas res sibi habere
jussit ex duodecim tabulis. Claves ademit; exegit).
- Statuta Distr.
Fogaras (p. 172): Boyarones siue rustici valachi uxoribus proprys
matrimonialiter Juncti, si maritus wel
uxor verum matrimonium non obseruaret; Extunc talis pars non obseruans,
portionem suam in hereditatibus, quam in rebus amittat, portio vero pars (partis)
obseruantis una cum hereditatibus suis sola (salva)remaneat.
- Statuta Distr.
Fogaras (p. 172): Boyarones more et lege
ipsorum uxores a se abycere vellent et cum easdem amplius manere nollent,
pars separans, castellano….soluat pro birsagio florenum unum. Rusticus Valachus similiter, uxorem
abycere voluit….boyaroni suo….soluat asporas nouem.
- Gratianus De I. Heraclide Despota. Ed.
1759, p. 21: Matrimonia viri (Valachi)
vel minimis de causis saepe solvunt remisso
uxori nuncio pensisque fisco
duodecim denariis.
- Wrancus. De situ Transsylvaniae,
Moldaviae, etc (ap. Ilarianu,
Tesauru, III. p. 179): matrimonia….dato
repudii libello, et pecunia quadam admodum modica, in signum dissolutae
desponsationis uxori reddita, dirimere nullum nefas est.
- According to
the ancient Romanian law, the marriages of foreigners with Romanian women,
on Romanian territory, were prohibited. Such an illegal marriage could not
confer the foreigner and his children, either political, or civil rights,
on Romanian soil.
- Seneca, De Benef. IV. 35: Promisi tibi filiam in
matrimonium; postea peregrinus
apparuisti; non est mini cum externo
connubium. Eadem res me defendit, quae vetat (Cf. Livy, lib. XLIII. 3).
- Revista noua, An.
III. 302 - The document (hrisov) of Ion Stefan Michai Racovita, from y. 1764:
As the foreigners who come here in this
country….also get married, taking women
of this land and daughters of boyars, and with all sorts of wiles enter the
ranks of the boyars with high jobs…. custom
which badly has taken root in the land of the country, I, my Highness,
decide, that from now onwards, no
foreigner shall marry here in the land of the country, and take daughter of
local, and the locals too, should not dare give their daughter or other
relatives after foreigners, no matter who they were, because whoever from
now onwards shall disobey my order and this decision of my Highness, should
know that the married men shall be chased off the land of this country together
with the woman, and all their wealth
shall be taken over by the Reigning power, etc.
- According to
the ancient Romanian law, foreigners were unable to buy and own real
estate on the
- Tab. III:
Adversus hostem aeterna auctoritas.
-
So, the foreigner
(hostis), according to the XII tabula, had neither the public, nor the civil
rights of the Roman citizen. In particular, he had no right to buy, own and
sell legally (jus comercii). As opposed to the foreigner, the right of
ownership and possession of the Roman citizen, and the Roman state, was never
proscribed.
- Pesty, A Szoreny varmegyei olah keruletek. p.
73-74, y. 1457: Nos Ladislaus Dei gr. Hungarie….Rex….omnia et singula eorundem Valachorum et Keniziorum
priuilegia….perpetuo valitura, roboramus….Et….decreuimus a modo in posterum in
prefatis octo districtibus (Valachorum) nullo
unquam tempore alicuio extraneo possessions et villas donare.
- Ibid. III. 300.
1561: Nicolaus pobora in universitatis dominorum nobilium Comitatus
Zewriniensis (nomine) asserens: habere ipsam universitatem nobilium efficacia priuilegia, ne videlicet maiestas
Regia cuipiam in Comitatu ipso Zewriniensi Bona non habenti Bona conferre
possit.
This ruling of the
Romanian law is archaic. A Roman inscription from 201ad mentions the antique laws of the inhabitants of Tyra (White citadel, Ak-herman),
according to which only the representatives of the municipality of Tyra, and
not the emperor, could confer to a foreigner the rights of citizen in that
locality.
- C.
- Uricariul, I. 139: In 1525, the old
people of the town of Vaslui ask
Stefan Voda the Young to judge their
cause by ancient law, in order to
take from the hands of the Armenians, Jews and Greeks the house land, the
grassland and the land for beekeeping, because, according to ancient law, foreigners had no right to buy
farmland, house land, grassland, apiary land. And the Domn decides: “but land,
nobody, no foreigner, even if he
were Greek, is allowed to own, or to pay for, in our Moldovan land”.
- According to
ancient Romanian law, Saturday was the day set apart for audiences before
the tribunal.
- Lex Alamannorum,
tit. XXXVI: 1. Conventus autem secundum consuetudinem
antiquam fiat in omai centena coram
Comite… et coram Centenario. 2. Ipsum placitum fiat de sabbato in sabbatum.
- Constit. Distr.
T. Fogaras (p. 304): Juxta antiquum
et in praesens usque retentum modum ac consuetudinem
terminus Celebrationis Sedis Judiciariae praefixus est dies Sabbathi.
Even before the
introduction of Christianity, the Roman people had a calendar cycle of 7 days,
about which some authors make no mention though. The seventh day in this cycle
was called sabbatum. In this regard,
Suidas writes: “Saturday was the seventh day of the seven day cycle, venerated by the Romans”. The
philosopher Seneca, born in Hispania
in 3ad, also mentions (Epist. 95) that the Romans had an ancient custom of
lighting candles on Saturday.
According to Ovid (R. Am. 219)
though, the Saturdays were venerated
by the peregrinii, a general name
which referred to all the foreigners, not only to the Hebrews.
An ancient city
with the name Sabata is situated on
the
It is without any
doubt that, with the populations of Pelasgian race, the name of the day of the week,
called “Saturday”, predates Christianity, and therefore is not Biblical.
The Sabinii and the
Umbrii venerated an ancient national divinity, under the name Sabus (Dionys. II. 49; Sil. Ital.
VII. 424). The same Sabus, called Sabinus
by Virgil (Aen. VII. 178), also
appears as an ancestor of king Latinus.
In
In Venetian
dialect, Sambeta is called Sabo even
today (Boerio, Diz. d. dial. venez.
1861, p. 590), meaning the day consecrated to Sabus. In the
In Transilvania, we
also find some important traces of the cult of the divinity Sabus. One of the most
ancient and famous monasteries of Terra Fagarasului is that from Sambeta, a locality whose name derives
without doubt from an ancient sanctuary of the divinity once venerated there.
In the medieval
dialects of
In Transilvania
could still be heard around the beginning of the 19th century the
word Sambea and Sfantul (
The nine nymphs
(muses) who accompanied Sabazius in his travels (Diod. IV. 4. 1) are called in Romanian folk incantations “nine
white sambe” (Schmidt, Das Jahr u. s. Tage, p. 15). All of this is evident proof
the Saba-zius of the Thraco-Getae
was identical with Sabus and with Sambea, from which derives the name of
the day Sambeta (Saturday).
The ancient custom
to hold court on the day of Saturday is also preserved in Lex Alamannorum.
Finally, the same
rule had once existed in the upper parts of
From this ruling of
the ancient law results therefore that Sabus or Saba-zius had been a principal
divinity of the Pelasgian tribes from north of the lower
Until today, the
personal and family names Savu, Savul
and Saulea are very widely spread in
Tera Fagarasului and in the district of Muscel in
The brother of
Anacharsis (594bc) is called by Herodotus Saulios
(Saulea).
The Christian saint
IV.
As we see, this
ancient legislation of the Romanian people, called “Lex antiqua Valachorum”,
“antiqua et approbata lex districtuum volahicalium universorum”, “Jus Volahie”
and “Jus valahicum”, which contained rulings in all the branches of the public
and private rights, goes back to a very remote age.
Without doubt, this
traditional constitution of the Romanian people is in essence the same as the
so-called Leges Bellagines from the
6th century, mentioned by Jornandes [1].
[1. The Statutes of Tera Fagarasului (Fogarasvideki Statutumok) of 1508
appear to have been, in regard to the particularities of the language, as only
a simple Latin translation of an older
Romanian text.
As for the second manuscript, with
the name Constitutiones Districtus
Terrae Fogaras, this contained mostly simple extracts from an older codex of articles and edicts
(Protocollares articuli et edicta. Tit. XIX. Art. 9), which was kept at the
Captaincy of Tera Fagarasului.
Some rulings of these Constitutions
bear the dates of 1635 and 1690; but others mention the Dux or Duce of Fagaras (Tit. XIX, art. 4) and the vajvodales homines, a sort of judging
representatives of the voivode;
their name seems to have been preserved from ancient times, because the Captain
of T. Fagarasului, who later occupied the position of the former Voivode, had
the right to punish these commissars; they were therefore his assistants (quos
vajvodales homines Dominus Capitaneus, legaliter puniat. Tit. VII, art. 2).
It results therefore that part of
the articles of these Constitutions had had the power of law also in the times
when Fagaras was a Duchy or Voivodate].
Here the word Bellagines has an ethnic meaning though
(analogous examples are: Lex Salica, Lex Burgundiorum, Lex Alamannorum, etc).
It is an expression identical with Bellacenae
or Bellacorum, meaning the Laws of
the Belacii, as some barbarian
tribes of the Pelasgian family were still called in the Roman epoch.
The geographical
term Blacena appears at the lower
In the acts of the
council of Sardica (Sofia) in 343ad, we find apart from other bishops of
Aurelian
In the 3rd
century bc the Greek term Blacennomion,
derived from Blaconnomos, a
traditional law by which the Blachii settled in the lower parts of the
[2. This is a word, the ending of
which appears as an irregular adjective formed from nomos, law. The fiscal
tax in Alexandria was based on “o ton Blachon nomos”, like the
fiscal taxes of the Romanians of Transilvania, Hungary, Poland and Serbia were
similarly based on Lex antiqua
Valachorum. (Henr. Stephanus,
V.
In regard to the
history of ancient Pelasgian legislation, a particular interest is presented by
the great similarity between Lex antiqua
Valachorum and the fragments which have been preserved from the XII Tabula of the Roman Decemvirii.
Both legislations
are based on the same juridical principles. They refer to the same archaic
times, the same constitution of the society, finally to the same type of life
and the same needs.
The historian Paulus Jovius, born around the end of
the 15th century, had some knowledge about this ancient codex of
laws of the Romanians, because he showed surprise at the antique character of
these laws, which he believed to have been in reality only ancient Roman laws
(Hist. libr. XL, ed. Basiliae, 1567, tom. II. p. 310).
About the XII
tabulae of the Decemvirii it was generally believed that they had been borrowed
from
Polybius though, born around 204bc, tells us
something completely different: that the ancient constitution and
administration of
Tacit writes on his turn, that the Decemvirii,
charged to present a project of laws for the Romans, had picked from all over the place, where they
could find something good (Ann. III. 27; Krueger,
Histoire des sources du droit romain, Paris, 1894, p. 17).
Finally, we also
find with Servius an important
historical note, that the Faliscii
of
The Faliscii, writes Strabo, had a particular idiom, the best herds and flocks, and very
good pastures (Geogr. Lib. V. 2. 9). Probably these Faliscii, a mostly pastoral
people, who also had a traditional renown of “just” men (particular epithet of the Getae), must have been only a
group of Blaci or Vlasci, migrated from the regions of
the Carpathians and the lower Istru.
It is a positive
fact though, that the XII tabulae of Rome did not contain anything original;
they were only a simple compilation work of the ancient laws and rulings of the
Pelasgian tribes which, according to general belief, also had the authority of
“sacred” laws.
The populations of
Pelasgian race always had a particular veneration for their ancient, or
ancestral, institutions (vetus mos).
Romulus, writes Dionysius of Halikarnassus, after
placing the first foundations of Rome, after fortifying it with moats and
walls, had convoked to the assembly the citizens of the new city, and,
informing them that the peace and happiness of each state depended on the form
of its government, had asked them to express their opinion: did they wish to be
ruled by one, or by few, or did they wish to involve the entire people in the
preserving of the laws; and they had answered: we do not need to be governed by
new methods, but we want to be governed in the way in which our forefathers had
already found that it was best, and this way, which we have from them, we shall
not change, nor shall we stray from their rules, which we believe had been
established with great wisdom (lib. II. 3-4).
In the
Dionysius tells us that the laws of the Decemvirii,
only 10 tabulae in the beginning, edited, received by the senate, and voted by
the people, had been also engraved on copper
columns, exposed in the Forum and made public knowledge in this way (lib.
X. 57).
Finally, we also
find another juridical custom with the Romans, borrowed without doubt from
We see that the
same mode of veneration of the laws of the XII tabulae had been introduced at
This custom had
been certainly borrowed from the Agathyrsii, the only people in ancient times
who sung their laws.
VI.
Part of the sacred
laws of the Romans predating the XII tabulae, was formed, as Dionysius tells us, by the fetialia laws (jura fetialia), which
contained the sacred rulings: how to ask satisfaction from enemies, how to
declare wars, and how to contract peace treaties.
The Romans had
borrowed these laws in the times of Numa, or of Ancus Marcius, from other
Pelasgian peoples; but towards the end of the republic it was not known
precisely from which peoples. The ancient traditions mentioned only two
peoples, the Faliscii (Aequicoli) and the inhabitants of Ardea, from whom these laws were believed to have been copied (lib.
II. 72).
Regarding this, Dionysius writes: The Faliscii and Fescenii still preserve to this day some few traces of their
Pelasgian origin.
In their cities had
existed for a long time many archaic institutions; so that, when these cities
needed to make war with others, or to repel beyond their boundaries the
aggressions of others, they sent at the head of their armies some unarmed fetiali priests (lib. I. 21; Livy, lib. I. 32).
These fetialii had
to ensure that the Roman people would not start an unjust war against another
federate people, and in the case of another people violating international
treaties, they were sent by the Roman people as legates, to ask, by direct
speech, reparation for the unjust deed.
Only in the case
that these demands were left unsatisfied, the Roman people could consequently
declare war.
The mode in which
the fetialii accomplished their mission was the following:
One, two, three, or
four fetiali, clothed in ceremonial attire, and having with them the sacred
insignia, went to the city of those who had injured the Roman people. Upon
reaching the boundary of the enemy, one of the fetiali, placing on his head a
woolen veil, started to shout: “Listen Jove, listen you, boundaries, listen you
(here the name of the enemy city and people was spoken), listen you Justice, I
am the public envoy of the Roman people and come to you with a just mission,
and you must believe my words”; he then presented his demands, invoked again
Jove and the other gods as witness. After he finished, the fetial walked on
towards the city of the enemy people, and again repeated the same oaths and
declarations, to the first citizen, or peasant, he met on his way on the enemy
territory; upon reaching the city gate, he again invoked the gods and repeated
the same claims to the gatekeeper, or whoever he met there; and finally, he
went to the forum of the foreign city and once there, he told the magistrates
the cause of his coming, always repeating the same oaths, claims and curses.
If his demands were
met, the fetial withdrew as a friend from a friendly people, and if the enemy
people asked for time to deliberate, he then conceded them 30, at the most 33
days, and finally, if even this interval passed without any result, the fetial
again invoked the gods on high, and the gods underneath, as witness of the
injustice suffered by the Roman people, returned to Rome and reported to the
senate that all that was prescribed by the sacred laws had been done, and if the
senate wanted now to declare war, the gods permitted it.
If, following these
sacred formalities, the senate decided to declare war, then a fetial was sent
to solemnly announce to the enemy that the Roman people declares war. The
fetial took with him an iron shod hasta (lance), or a bloodied hasta, singed in
fire, went to the boundary of the enemy, and there he said the following words:
“Because the people and the city (the name of the enemy) had worked against the
Roman people, the Roman people had
decided to make war against the people and the city (the name of the enemy),
and the senate of the Roman people
had approved to make war on the people and the city (the name); because of
which, I and the Roman people declare and make war on the people and the city
(names); and after he said these words, he threw the bloodied lance on the
boundary of the enemies (Dionys. Hal.
lib. II. 72; Livy, lib. I. 32).
These formalities
done, the Romans called the war bellum
justum et pium; just, because it was founded, legitimate,
and pium because it was declared by
following the sacred formulae, prescribed by religion.
VII.
The historical
origin of the fetialia laws seems to have been in the eastern parts of
We find traces of
this institution with the Getae, but in a much more religious form, therefore
more archaic. According to Stephanos
Byzanthinos, the law of the Getae
was that the legates sent to the enemy had to walk strumming the citherae (see Getia; Theopompus, fr. 244).
In the countries
near Oceanos (potamos) and the Riphei mountains, or in other words from the
lower
We find another
mention of the fetialii of the Getae with Jornandes
(De reb. Get. c. 10).
“According to what
Dios writes”, says the Goth historian, “Filip (the king of
[1. In
Regarding the form of the name, the
Romans wrote more feciales, than fetiales; the Greeks though wrote only
with t, phitialoi, phetialoi, phetialeis.
The ancients were not completely clear
about the origin of the name fecialis
or fetialis.
Festus
chooses the word facere, because the
fetialii had the right to make peace
and war. Varro tries to derive the
name of the fetialii from fides,
belief, and foedus, international
treaty (L. L. lib. V. 86). These are simple arbitrary etymologies though, taken
from the similarity of the word “fetialis” with other Latin words.
In Transilvania, the carer and guardian of the church is even today
called fet, Lat. aedituus (TN –
young boy). The “fet” has to be a honorable person; he is the guardian of the
sacred vases, of the priestly ornaments, and he helps the priest in the altar
with that which is needed for the divine service. The “fet” also serves as the envoy of the priest to his
parishioners, and takes the church circulars to the priests of neighboring
villages; he is in everything a minister of the religious cult.
In
Another name which we find in
Transilvania is that of “fii ai
bisericei” (TN – sons of the church). These are the curators or
administrators of the church wealth.
Finally, in Transilvania are also
called “fete bisericesti” (TN –
faces of the church) the persons who have a religious character, like the
priests, bishops and deacons. In a larger sense, this name is also applied to
the singers, the “fetii” and the “fiii” of the church.
With the Getae, as Jornandes tells us (De reb. Get. c.
10), the class of the priests who carried out the functions of fetiali, were
called “pii” (TN – pious). The
Romans called bellum pium the war
declared after the carrying out of the formalities prescribed by the fetial
laws (Varro, De vita pop. rom. II.
13; Cicero, De off. I. 11).
Here the term “pium” has without doubt a historical connection not with “bellum”,
as the Romans believed, but with the ancient institution of the priests called
“pii”. As we see, there is an
intimate connection between the church institutions which we find in
Finally, Aurelius Victor (4th
century), who had access to some older sources, attributes the founding of the institution
of the fetialii to one so-called Rhesus
(De vir. illustr. 5).
According to Homer Rhesus, the son of ‘Ioneus,
had been a rich king in Trojan times. He had reigned over the Thracii of the
most extreme parts of the peninsula (eschatoi allon), or over the regions
from north of the lower
The legates sent in
antiquity to ask satisfaction from the enemy, or to conclude an international
treaty, carried as ensign of their mission a caduceus, a rod with two serpents
on one end, as symbol of agreement, of peace and prosperity (
The caduceus
appears in Pelasgian antiquity as a particular attribute of Hermes, or Armis of
Dacia, and figures as national emblem on the ante-Roman coins of
[2. Romanian religious carols still
mention today the traditional staff
of the ancient kings of these countries.
The silver staff had been given by old Craciun (Saturnus senex) to Ion (Hermes, Armis, Ion, Ianus), as
symbol of power over the sky and the earth (Cestionariu ist. II. Sipeni hamlet, Covurlui district).
And Craciun the old, from his mouth he spoke:
- I might be greater, and from older
times,
On the black earth;
Ione, Ione,
since you have been born,
On the black earth,
I have gone away, and have given
you,
Staff of silver, folds of vestment,
To master the sky, the sky and the earth].
According to the
fetial laws of the Romans, even if these laws had been borrowed from the
Faliscii, or from the inhabitants of Ardea of Italy, or maybe straight from the
eastern parts of Europe, from Ardia or Ardel of the Carpathians, the last
formality of the solemn declaration of war was carried out by throwing a bloodied lance on the boundary of the
enemy.
In Transilvania,
the bloodied sword, as martial
symbol, had also played an important role until the last years of the medieval
establishment (1848). In these parts of ancient Dacia, every time it was
necessary to inform the inhabitants that war had been declared, a straight
sword with two edges, or a bloodied spear was taken from county to county, from
district to district and from city to city, as a sign of the official
proclamation, that all the citizens and peasants fit for battle had to take
without delay their weapons and go to their places of assembly (Szabo, Szekely Okleveltar, I. p. 197; Olahus, Hungaria, l. I. 3. 2).
It seems though
that the throwing of the sword, or of the bloodied spear, on the boundaries of
the enemy, had once been in use also in the countries from the Carpathians.
In this regard we
have a trace, found in an old song from
So, the two solemn ensigns
used by the Roman fetialii to accomplish their mission were: the caduceus (staff or shepherd’s crook),
the attribute of Armis or Hermes, as symbol of peace, and the hasta or lance (sword), the war
attributes of Mars Gradivus (Geticis qui praesidet arvis) [3].
[3. According to Gellius (X. 27. 3), the Romans had sent
to the Carthaginians the hasta and
the caduceus, to choose one.
In later times, the Roman fetialii
threw the bloodied lance from a small
height close to the so-called “ager hostilis” (Ovid. Fast. vI. 201), and the same does in 178ad the emperor Marcus
Antoninus, when he goes to war against the Scythii (Dios, l. LXXI. 33). But in the beginning the bloodied lance was
certainly thrown from a hillock, near the boundary of the enemy].
Both these symbols
are figured on the shields of the two kings of Dacia, who sue for peace from
Trajan, and both also appear in the 17th century as traditional
ensigns of the sovereign power of the Domns of the Romanian Country (Tera
Romanesca).
VIII.
The Latin language
of the most ancient Roman laws is characterized particularly by some words and
grammatical forms which belong especially to the Romanic branch of the eastern
parts of
One of the rulings
of the XII tabulae contained the words: Mulieres….neve lessum funeris ergo habento. Regarding this ruling of the laws of the
Decemvirii, Cicero writes: the
ancient interpreters, S. Elius and L. Acillius, said that they do not
understand well the word lessum, and
they supposed that it means some sort of funeral vestments (vestimenti aliquod
genus funebris); and L. Elius (the third interpreter) reckoned that lessum means a sort of lugubrious
lamentation (lugubrem ejulationem), and “I
believe” writes Cicero, “that this is the true meaning, because the laws of
Solon forbade the lamentations at funerals” (De leg. II. 23).
We have here
therefore just simple suppositions about the true meaning of the word “lessum”
(always used by Roman authors only in the accusative). And it is to be remarked
that Cicero speaks here about the ancient
interpreters of the XII tabulae, although since the promulgation of those
laws until his times no more than three and a half centuries had passed, in
which interval we cannot admit that the Roman language had changed so much,
that the ancient interpreters themselves could not understand some rulings of these
laws.
The word “lessum”
had to exist therefore directly in the original text of the laws, copied by the
Decemvirii, and also the word occentaverit
in its popular form, which the Decemvirii had to explain as “sive Carmen
condiderit”.
In fact the word “lessum” of the XII tabulae, which the
ancient commentators, and not even Cicero could understand, still exists today
almost in the same form, in the language of the Romanian people from the
Carpathians. Here though, this word means neither funeral vestments, nor
lamentation, but simply “lesin”
(deliquium, defaillance, TN – fainting),
as this meaning also results from another ruling of the laws of the Vlachii from Arbe island: that nobody should throw themselves, or faint
in church over the body of the deceased. (From an etymological point of view, lessum is of the same origin as letum or lethum “death”, from the Greek lethe).
IX.
The same ancient
codification dating from Pelasgian times, called in Dacia Leges Bellagines, in Egypt o Blachon nomos, in the Middle Ages Lex antiqua Valachorum and jus Volachie, appears in the western
parts of Europe as an immemorial traditional law, called by Roman authors vetus lex romana (Nonius, p. 531), leges
romanae (Juvenal, Sat.XIV.100),
sometimes vetus mos (Cicero, De republ. I.V.1) and Romanus mos (Servius, Aen.III.222).
In
So, in the ancient
Preface of the Capitularia of Dagobert from 630ad, it is told that the
barbarian laws, called Lex ripuaria, Lex
Alamannorum and Lex Baiuvariorum,
had been mostly compiled in the times of king Theodoric (5th
century) and his successors, from “legibus
antiquis”, keeping at the same time in mind also the “vetustissima
paganorum consuetudo”.
These laws and
particular customs of the provinces occupied during the great invasion of the
barbarians, are not the laws of the Roman empire, from which they differed in
principles and forms of procedure, but are the ancient national laws of the
autochthonous populations of those provinces, laws which had subsisted during
the time of Roman domination, alongside the official laws. In the popular
language of the provinces they were often called “lex Romana”, not because they belonged to Roman legislation, but
because they had been the ancient laws of the Arimic, or Arimanic
populations, scattered since very obscure times from the east of
The Decemvirii had
also compiled their laws from the same source of archaic legislation
So, Cathulph, in a
letter addressed to Charlemagne says that Lex
romana had been the first law of the entire world (Du Cange, Gloss. Med. et inf. lat. see Lex Romana), and in the
Supplements of the Capitularia it is also said that the Roman law had been the mother of all the laws of humankind (Baluzius, Capitularia, I. 1677. p. 1226).
X.
To the family of
these “Roman” laws, mentioned by the laws of the barbarians from the 6th
and 7th centuries ad, also belongs an ancient codex of laws of the
Middle Ages, known today under the name Lex
Romana Utinensis (Canciani,
Barbarorum leges antiquae. Tom. IV. 469-540; Walter, Corpus jur. Germ. antique. Tom. III; Schupfer, La legge romana udinese).
In the beginning,
says Haenel (ap. Schupfer, 67), this law had not been written in Latin language,
but in a barbarian Roman language from the western parts.
We find the
following words, as a sample of the language in which this law had been
redacted in the beginning: tima and tema instead of “timor” (Romanian tema); furor instead of “fur” (TN – thief), which corresponds to a Romanian form of furol = furul; atta and atto with the meaning of mos (TN – old man), a word which is
used even today by the Romancii of Tyrol, and was used in a remote antiquity
under the form attis, with the meaning of “mos” by the shepherds, or Placii
from the Olympus mountain of Bythinia (Arrianus
Nicom. Fragm. 30 in Fragm. Hist. gr. III. 592; Diodorus, III. 58). We also find in this law favelant, with the meaning of “vorbesc”
(TN - speak), a word which belongs in particular to the Volsc dialect (Festus: Obsce et volsce fabulantur, nam latine nesciunt).
In this law, called
“Roman”, but which does not contain anything Italic, all the prepositions are
used with the accusative, for ex. “a culpam”, “cum suum”, “de tertium digitum”,
“pro mortuum”, “sine voluntatem”. The preposition de serves to indicate the genitive and the preposition a the dative: “sine consensu de suos
patrianos”, “per negligentiam de suos tutores”, “a curialem hominem non licet”,
“a principem dicendum est”.
In regard to the
customs and institutions of the country for which this law had been first
written, it is to be noted that we find here an own class of soldiers with the
name “milites”, and “personae altae”, with a particular
judicial forum; they could be accused and judged only in the presence of the
Sovereign (Schupfer, L. R. U. p.
54), exactly like the Romanian nobles of Banat (Pesty, A Szor. Bansag. III. 197-199. 1531).
In the judging of
the trials according to this law, a very important role was played by the
so-called good men (boni homines),
who functioned as assessors of the judges, as witnesses, and as people of good
faith (Schupfer, L. R. U. p. 85. I.
6. 2). We find exactly the same institution of the “good men”, acting as
arbiters and witnesses, in the ancient Romanian law, called in the documents of
the Middle Ages “jus Volachie” (Hasdeu, Arch. ist. III. 146;
The first exemplar
of this “Roman” law has been discovered in the archive of the cathedral of
The inhabitants of
The first political,
civil, religious and military laws, belong therefore to the Pelasgian family
from north of the lower
Hermes, Lactantius tells us, had truly written
many books regarding the knowledge of divine things, in which he affirmed that
there is only one God above all, whom he called like us “deum” and “patrem”
(Div. Instit. l. I. 8).
In this ancient
language of the Pelasgians had also been written the sacred laws of the
Athenians, in which the words chapro and porcho had still been
preserved, until the times of Varro
(L. L. V. 97) [1].
[1. Such words, which belong, by
their form, to the ancient Romanic languages of the eastern parts of
The word barones (sing. baro)
with the meaning of primores, optimates,
homines Regis (Baluzius, Capit.
II. 692. 774), which cannot be explained by the western institutions,
corresponds in form and meaning to the Romanian boiariu (boyaro, boyarones)].
We therefore
conclude:
The ancient laws of
the Greeks and the Romans, as well as the so-called barbarian laws from the
western parts of Europe, were based in essence on the same archaic legislation,
modified in the course of centuries, in different countries, by the needs of
the particular social and political life, but always preserving the common name
of “lex antiqua” and “lex Romana”.
But especially the
ancient codex of political, civil and religious laws of