The original Visigothic laws, wholly based upon oral tradition, were first reduced to order and committed to writing by Euric, at Arles, in the latter half of the fifth century. This collection is unfortunately lost, but many of its provisions were incorporated into the Visigothic Code, although, no doubt, subjected to important and numerous modifications in the course of centuries. At the beginning of the sixth century, Alaric II. promulgated the _Breviarium Alaricianum_, a body of laws compiled mainly from the Codes of Justinian and Theodosius, which collection was the source of the subsequent Lombard and Bavarian Codes. From the two compilations of Euric and Alaric, under the reigns of Kings Chintasvintus and Recesvintus, 649–652, was formed the _Forum Judicum_, or Visigothic Code; the most remarkable monument of legislation which ever emanated from a semi-barbarian people, and the only substantial memorial of greatness or erudition bequeathed by the Goths to posterity. Like the Roman works on jurisprudence it is divided into twelve books, sub-divided into titles and chapters. The language in which it is written is monkish Latin, a barbarous jargon, extremely difficult to translate, and vastly different from the polished idiom of Tacitus and Cicero. Its examination discloses many discrepancies, variations, ambiguities, and contradictions, unquestionably due to the ignorance of the various transcribers; a fact which is not surprising when the imperfect knowledge and defective education which prevailed in Spain during the seventh century, are considered. There is no mention of the _Forum Judicum_ during the Saracen domination, except that it is known to have been preserved by the Moors; and as Christians were permitted the use of their own laws, where they did not conflict with those of the conquerors, upon the regular payment of tribute, it may be presumed that it was the recognized legal authority of Christian magistrates during the period that Spain remained under the Moslem sceptre. When Ferdinand III. took Cordova in the thirteenth century, he ordered the _Forum Judicum_ to be adopted and observed by its citizens, and caused it to be rendered into Castilian. This translation, which is usually appended to the Latin version, is incomplete, incorrect, and unsatisfactory. It contains many omissions and substitutions; the meaning of the sentences, in many cases, is not even approximately given; the proper names seem to have originated in the fertile imagination of the monkish translator; and, not infrequently, interpolations, derived from some unknown source, have entirely usurped the place of the original text.