t.
Genevieve, built by his wife, Queen Clotilde, who survived him.

It was but right to make the reader intimately acquainted with that
great barbarian who, with all his vices and all his crimes, brought
about, or rather began, two great matters which have already endured
through fourteen centuries and still endure; for he founded the French
monarchy and Christian France. Such men and such facts have a right to
be closely studied and set in a clear light by history. Nothing similar
will be seen for two centuries, under the descendants of Clovis, the
Merovingians; among them will be encountered none but those personages
whom death reduces to insignificance, whatever may have been their rank
in the world, and of whom Vergil thus speaks to Dante:

"Waste we no words on them: one glance and pass thou on."

PUBLICATION OF THE JUSTINIAN CODE

A.D. 529-534

EDWARD GIBBON

The richest legacy ever left by one civilization to another was the
Justinian Code. This compilation of the entire body of the Roman
civil law (_Corpus Juris Civilis_), as evolved during the thousand
years after the Decemvirate legislation of the Twelve Tables,
comprises perhaps the most valuable historical data preserved from
ancient times. It presents a vivid and authentic picture of the
domestic life of the Romans and the rules which governed their
relations to each other. This phase of history is considered by
modern historians as of far greater importance than the chronicles
of battles and court intrigues.

The importance of the Justinian Code, however, is not that of mere
history. Its influence as a living force is what compels the
admiration and gratitude of mankind. It forms the basis of the
systems of law in all the civilized nations of the world, with the
exception of those of the English-speaking peoples, and even in
these the principles of the civil law--as the Roman law is called
in contradistinction to the common and statute law of these
nations--form the most important part of the regulations concerning
personal property.

For this monumental work the world is indebted to Justinian I
(Flavius Anicius Justinianus), the most famous of the emperors of
the Eastern Empire since Constantine. He was born a Slavonian
peasant. Uprawda, his original name, was Latinized into Justinian
when he became an officer in th