Salic law

The "Lex Salica" (Pactus Legis Salicae, or Salic Law) is a late antique law of the Migration Period, which, according to traditional opinion, was passed between 507 and 511 by order of the Merovingian King Clovis I (466-511) with the nobility for the Franks in the Frankish Empire. However, the dating is disputed today. It was issued in Latin and Roman legal traditions are also evident. It is named after the Frankish tribe of the Salfranken. The norms deal with various legal cases, whereby the guilty party, provided he was of free status, regularly had to pay a fine.

The "Lex Salica" is counted among the Germanic laws (Leges Barbarorum). The fines were high, for example for theft. In the case of the Franks, they were several to many times higher than those of other folk laws, such as those of the Frisians, Burgundians or Alamanni. Unfree persons, on the other hand, were punished with corporal punishment such as lashes or strokes of the rod and in a few cases even death. Among other things, it also regulated viticultural matters, as viticulture was already widespread in what is now Germany at this time. The theft of a vine was punishable by law.

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Salic law

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