amined by Dahn ('Koenige der Germanen' iv.
123-135). I have adopted his division of paragraphs, though rather
disposed to think that the 'De Donationibus' should be broken up into
two, to prevent counting the Epilogue as a section. See also Manso
('Geschichte der Ostrogothen' 405-415).]

[Sidenote: Edict of Athalaric.]

'_Prologue._ This edict is a general one. No names are mentioned in
it, and those who are conscious of innocence need take no offence at
anything contained therein.

'For long an ominous whisper has reached our ears that certain
persons, despising _civilitas_, affect a life of beastly
barbarism[607], returning to the wild beginnings of society, and
looking with a fierce hatred on all human laws. The present seems to
us a fitting time for repressing these men, in order that we may be
hunting down vice and immorality within the Republic at the same time
that, with God's help, we are resisting her external foes. Both are
hurtful, both have to be repelled; but the internal enemy is even more
dangerous than the external. One, however, rests upon the other; and
we shall more easily sweep down the armies of our enemies if we subdue
under us the vices of the age. [This allusion to foreign enemies is
perhaps explained by the hint in Jordanes ('De Reb. Get.' 59) of
threatened war with the Franks. But he gives us no sufficient
indication of time to enable us to fix the date of the Edictum.]

[Footnote 607: 'Affectare vivere belluina saevitia.']

'I. _Forcible Appropriation of Landed Property_[608] (Pervasio). This
is a crime which is quite inconsistent with _civilitas_, and we remit
those who are guilty of it to the punishment[609] provided by a law of
Divus Valentinianus [Valentinian III. Novell. xix. 'De Invasoribus'],
adding that if anyone is unable to pay the penalty therein provided he
shall suffer banishment (deportatio). He ought to have been more chary
of disobeying the laws if he had no means to pay the penalty. Judges
who shrink from obeying this law, and allow the _Pervasor_ to remain
in possession of what he has forcibly annexed, shall lose their
offices and be held liable to pay to our Treasury the same fine which
might have been exacted from him. If the _Pervasor_ sets the Judge's
official staff (officium) at defiance, on the report of the Judge our
Sajones will make _him_ feel the weight of the royal vengeance who
refused to obey the [humbler] _Cognitor_.

[Footnote 608: 'Praedia urbana vel ru