Visigoths Rule!

The Visigothic Code of Law
(...forgive me as I roll-back the the skin of time. To a golden era in the ways of humankind. For the next several weeks, I will live and assess others according the the Law of the Visigoths. All hail...jim)

"The original Goths were typical savages. They had practically no political organization; dressed in skins; disdained all labor; showed no mercy to their enemies; killed their parents, when they became old and infirm; had few religious ideas; worshiped a drawn sword as a divinity; were filthy [viii] in their personal habits; and recognized only the law of the strongest. From such unpromising progenitors was derived the race destined to be, in large measure, the lawgivers of Europe."

What the Law Should Be.

"The law should be plain, and not lead any citizen to commit error or fraud. It should be suitable to the place and the time, according to the character and custom of the state; prescribing justice and equity; consistent, honorable, worthy, useful, and necessary; and it should be carefully noted whether its provisions are framed rather for the convenience, than for the injury, of the public; so that it may be determined whether it sufficiently provides for the administration of justice; whether or not it appears to be contrary to religion, and whether it defends the right, and may be observed without detriment to any one."

The Visigoths

"In the course of conquest firmly established in Gaul and Spain, and everywhere victorious over the Romans by arms, were, in their turn -- as inevitably happens under similar circumstances -- both enervated and subjugated by the arts of luxury and peace. Despite their surroundings, they, for a long period, preserved their ancient habits and traditions. For more than a century they went about half-clad and unkempt, as they had done on the shores of the Euxine and the Baltic, to the astonishment and disgust of the polished Roman provincials, who had inherited the luxurious tastes, courteous manners, and artistic conceptions of Greece and Italy. To the last, they wore long hair as a badge of sovereignty; a barbarian custom which first became known to the Romans, when the city was saved by Marius from the invasion of the Cimbri and Teutons."