PART
5 –
Ch.XXXIII.26 (I – X)
The
Pelasgians or proto – Latins (Arimii)
(The
Pelasgians from the northern parts of the
XXXIII.
26. Leges Bellagines. Lex antiqua Valachorum.
I.
We have studied in
the previous chapter the age and the geographical extension of the name Blac as far back as the Homeric times.
We have now to talk
about an ancient collection of laws of Dacia, known in the 6th
century ad under the name Leges
Bellagines, a name which indicates under this form the name of the Belacii or Blacii of Dacia.
According to all
the historical traditions still preserved, the most ancient laws which had
governed human society, had been of Pelasgian origin. But the first beginnings
of the history of law and legislation go back especially to the north regions
of the lower Danube.
Homer presents the Pelasgian populations from the
northern parts of Thrace, the Mysii,
Scythii, and Abii, as the most
just people on the face of the earth, dichaiotatoi anthropoi
(Iliad,XIII.v. 6).
The same moral
character is attributed to the barbarian populations from the northern parts by
the geographer Strabo, when he tells
us that the Greeks who had lived before his times, had judged the ancient
Scythians exactly as Homer had presented them; and that, in the ancient times,
there was a general belief that the Nomads,
who dwelt farther away from the other peoples, were the most just among all (Geogr. I. ViI. 3. 8-9; Pliny, IV. 26. 11; Bessel, De reb. Get. p. 40).
Plato mentions the law of the Scythii, o ton Schithon nomos,
which contained dispositions regarding military instruction (Leges, VII. ed.
Didot, vol. II. 370). And Clearchus of
Solos tells us that the Scythii had been the first to use common laws (fragm. 8 in Fragm. Hist.
gr. II. 306). Finally, Herodotus writes
that the Getae were the bravest of
men, but at the same time the most just among
all the inhabitants of Thrace (lib. IV. 93).
The oldest
codification of laws of ante-Homeric world about which the Greco-Roman
traditions speak, had taken place in the northern parts of the lower Danube; a
region which, starting with the primitive times of history, appears
successively under various geographical names, as: Gaea (Terra) in the legends
of the Titans; the country of the Arimii (ein ‘Arimois), the country of the
Hyperboreans (en ‘Yperboreois); the country over which had reigned the titan
Atlas; the regions beyond the Oceanos potamos (Istru); the extreme parts of the
ancient world (ta eschata), Hyperia (the country from beyond), Hesperia, the
country of the Cyclops (Kichlopon gaia), Aetheria, the High
Mountains (Ourea machra), the Rhipei mountains (ta ‘Ripaia ore); finally,
Scythia and Scythia “the mother of iron”, because the populations from the north
of the lower Danube had been often considered as only a branch of the great
family of the Scythia.
In the
But a large part of
the authors of antiquity attributed the redaction of these laws to Hermes (Armis of Dacia, or Armes of
Scythia), who had been married with Maia, the daughter of Atlas.
Hermes, according
to the traditions of antiquity, had been the secretary of the gods of ancient
The domination of
the Pelasgian race had extended far in those times, and the laws of the
This code of laws,
according to which the ancient world had been governed, is called archaic law, nomos archaios by Hesiodus (fragm. 193); archaic laws, archaioi nomoi by Sophocles (Oed. Col. v. 1382); divine law, nomos theon by Eschyl (Eum. 172); and sacrata jura parentum and jura sacerrima by Ovid (Heroid.9. 159; Met. X. 340).
The ancient laws of
This custom of
singing in hymns the divine laws, has the characteristics of an archaic
religious life.
As Hesiodus writes, the muses, or famous
female singers who dwelt on the Olympus, near the Oceanos potamos, sang with
pleasant voices in the palace of Jove, and at the feasts of the gods, the deeds
of brave men, the battles of the Giants and the laws of all the peoples, melpontai panton nomous (Theog. v.
66).
Once the Pelasgian
tribes had migrated towards the western parts of
We also find traces
of this archaic legislation in Hispania. The Turditanii or Turdulii,
who had migrated there in remote times from the western regions of Transilvania
(see Ch. XXXII. 6), had, as Strabo
writes (I. III. 1. 6), a collection of
laws written in verse, 6000 years old, as they said. This date, which was
based without doubt on an ancient chronology of the Iberian priests,
corresponds approximately to the epoch in which had lived Saturn, Atlas and
Hermes.
The laws of the
Turditanii were in any case traditional, and they could not be different from
the sacred laws of Pelasgian antiquity, which Hesiodus names “universal” and
“archaic”.
The Goth bishop Jornandes, born and reared in Mesia
inferior in the 6th century, also mentions the ancient collection of
laws of
We reproduce here
the words of Jornandes (Get. orig.
c. 11): “This Deceneus, being a very learned man in the philosophical sciences,
introduced to the Getae a moral discipline, in order to tame their barbarian
customs; he taught them the fixed laws of the physical world, making them to
live in accord with the order of things established by nature, and according to
their own laws, which they have in written form until our own days, and call
them Leges Bellagines; he taught
them to be able to distinguish true from untrue (the logic), and in this way he
made them superior to other peoples, in judging matters, urging them at the
same time to spend their lives in good deeds; he made them know the secrets of
astronomy, explained to them the 12 signs of the zodiac, and in particular, how
the planets pass through these signs, how the moon waxes and wanes, the names of
the 344 stars and the signs they cross, when do they rise and when do they set;
then he chose from the most noble youths the smartest, taught them theology,
the rites and ceremonies of venerating certain divinities, and how to perform
the religious service in temples; of these he then formed priests, to whom he
gave the name pileatii”.
As we see,
Jornandes speaks here about the same vast system of human and divine sciences,
about the same complex of moral, religious, political and civil laws, from the
north of the lower Danube, which the Greek and Roman authors had attributed to
Hermes a long time before him.
Finally, we also
note that Stephanos Byzanthinos (see
Getia)
and Eustathius of Thessalonica
(Comm. ad Dionys. 304) also mention the matrimonial
and fetial laws of the Getae (Nomoi
Geton, Nomos Getichos).
II.
The ancient Greek
legislation had been based on this archaic codification of laws from the north
of Thrace, which figures in various epochs as laws of the Atlantii or
Hyperboreans, of the Scythii, Agathyrsii and Getae.
The first
compilation of laws of Hellada was that of the city of Sparta in the
Peloponnesus, make by Lycurgus in the 9th century bc.
The Spartans,
writes Herodotus (lib. I. 65; Pausanias, lib. III. 2. 4), had been
the only ones among all the inhabitants of Greece, who had the worst laws;
because of which Lycurgus, a member of the royal family, had decided to
introduce in his country a better system of laws. He consulted the oracle of
Delphi on this purpose, because in older times any legislation needed the
approval of religion. Pythia, or the priestess of Apollo from Delphi, as some
of the ancient historians said, communicated to Lycurgus the laws and
institutions which were later used by the Spartans right to the times of
Herodotus.
The Christian
philosopher Clement the Alexandrine writes in this regard that Lycurgus, while
visiting often the oracle of Apollo from Delphi, had learned there the laws; Plato, Aristotle and Ephorus mention the same fact (Clement Alex., Stromat. I. 26; Aristotle, Respubl. Fr. 156).
As we know, the
oracle of Delphi had been founded by the Hyperboreans (Pausanias, lib. X. 5. 7 seqq), and for a long time this renowned
sanctuary of Apollo had been exclusively under the administration and rule of
the Hyperborean priests and prophets.
The laws of the
Athenians, which Solon had compiled in the 7th century bc, were
based on the same ancient principles which had inspired the public laws of the
Scythii and the Agathyrsii.
While Solon, writes
Plutarch (Oeuvres, Tom. I, 1784, p.
280), was occupied with the redaction of his laws, he met in Athens Anacharsis, the famous philosopher of
the shepherd Scythii, and one of the 7 wise men of the ancient world. Solon,
admiring his wisdom, gave him lodgings in his house for a while, and on this
occasion he discussed with him his project of laws.
This matter
presents a particular interest for the ancient civilization and organization of
the countries from north of the lower Danube. We shall examine here the texts
which we have, about the country and nationality of Anacharsis, in order to
bring more light to this matter.
From the data we
have about his life and deeds, Anacharsis appears as one of the most learned
men of law in the northern parts of Istru.
Ephorus, who had lived in the 4th
century bc, tells us in one of his fragments, regarding his country and
nationality, that Anacharsis had been one of the shepherd Scythii (fragm. 78).
According to Homer, the Shepherd Scythii, the Hippomolgii and Galactophagii (Iliad, XIII. 5), were neighbors with the Mysii from the north of Thrace. Also
according to Eschyl (Prom. v. 709),
the dwellings of the shepherd Scythii were in the regions from north of Thrace,
near the Caucasus close to the Istru (Oceanos potamos), in Scythia, called “the
mother of iron”, and close to the violent and difficult to cross river, which
flows from the high mountains
(Atlas, Alutus, Olt).
The shepherd
Scythii of Homer and Eschyl formed therefore a population completely different
from the nomad Scythii of Herodotus, scattered through the lands at north of
the Meotic lake, near the open gates of great Asia, where nobody ploughed,
nobody sowed, where were neither villages, nor cities [1].
[1. It results in fact, even from
the writings of Herodotus (VI. 84;
IV. 99. 125), that the dwellings of the shepherd Scythii, against whom Darius,
the king of the Persians, had come with war, started near the Danube and the
Carpathians.
We also add that the Scythii from
near the Euxine Pontos told, as Herodotus
writes (IV. 76), that they did not know who Anacharsis was].
The name of
Anacharsis, as transmitted by the Greek authors, does not correspond to the
onomastics from north of the lower Danube. We do not have here a single name in
any case, but a composed one: Ana
Charsis. Under this form, the
name Anacharsis belongs to the popular onomastics from north of the lower
Danube [2].
[2. Ona, in Latin form Annus,
Annius, Anius, Ania (C. I. L. v.
I. 78), Etr. Annaeus. In the western
mountains both forms, Ana and Ona still exist today as family names (Francu, Motii, p. 116). In Moldova we
find Ona Ureacli at 1445 (Uric. IX.
137)].
Ona and Carsa
(n. Carja) are personal and family names very largely spread in the southern
parts of Transilvania. In the Tera Fagarasului, Carsa (Gr. Chryses) is the name of an old boyar family, which
around 1862 had 7 heads of family. In the boyar family Carsa especially, the
name Ona seems to have been retained
until the 18th century, as an inheritance from remote times.
In the documents of
the freeholder peasants of Campulung, who constitute in fact only an old
migration from the Tera Fagarasului, we find in 1792-93 two of them with the
same name “Oncea Carsa”, where
“Oncea” is a simple diminutive of Ona, as in Roman Ancus from Anus.
In regard to the
family of Anacharsis, we find with the Greek authors several genealogical data,
which present a particular interest for the political history and the history
of civilization of Dacia, prior to the conquest by the Romans.
According to the scholiast of Plato (ed. Didot III. p.
333), Anacharsis was the son of Gnoyrou (Gnoyros) – with the
meaning of Niuru – a king of the
Scythii, understand the shepherd ones.
According to Diogenius Laertius (lib. I. c. 8), who
had lived around 190ad, Anacharsis was the son of Gnoyrou (Niuru) and
brother with Cathuidos, the king of
the Scythii. Suidas though, who had
used other historical sources, probably older, tells us that Anacharsis was the
son of Gnyrou and brother with Caduias,
the king of the Scythii.
As we see, the
father of Anacharsis is called Gnoyrou or Gnoyros by the scholiast
of Plato and by Diogenius Laertius, but Suida writes Gnyrou (Gnyros),
with a small variation in orthography.
The name Niuru, or Niuros with the usual Greek ending, had in any case a barbarian
Latin form.
Niro in the Neapolitan dialect, niguru in the Calabrian, and niuru in the Sicilian, means “negru” (TN - black) (Mortillaro, Nuovo Diz.
Siciliano-italiano, Palermo, 1876, p. 747).
The father of
Anacharsis was therefore named Niuru
or Negru, or in other words he was
from the family named “Negru”; he
was at the same time a king of the Scythii, as Plato’s scholiast says. We are
therefore presented with precious documents for the history of the countries
from the lower Danube, prior to the times of Trajan.
Negru is the most ancient and legendary family
of the Romanian voivodes (TN – lords, sovereigns, Domns, princes, etc) from the
Tera Fagarasului. Apart from Negru Voda,
about whom the Romanian chronicles tell that he had moved the seat of power
from Fagaras to Campulung (1290), the historical documents and traditions talk
about other Romanian voivodes too, from the same family and with the same name.
One Negru Voda had reigned around 1232,
according to the ancient acts of ownership of the commune Resinari near Sibiu (Hasdeu, etym. Magn. Tom. IV. p. CII).
One Negru Voda builds around 1215
the big royal church at Campulung. One Negru
Voda had lived around 1185, as told by the genealogy of the family Monea
from Vinetia of Fagaras. In the epic songs of the Romanian people is still
mentioned a Negru Voda from the
epoch when the rich Letin (Telephus, also named Latinus) had ruled over
Dobrogea (Tocilescu, Mater. Folk. I.
p. 1268).
Another Negru Voda had lived in mythical times.
He had built the renowned monastery of Arges by following a pagan custom, which
he had then dedicated to the god Mars, as results from the text of a folk
rhapsody (Tocilescu, Mater. Folk. I.
p. 18. 20. 25).
This ancient family
of Romanian voivodes from Tera Fagarasului, still exists today as a boyar
family with the name Negrea, in the
commune Posorta, and around 1862
comprised 28 heads of family. (The feminine form of co-names, like Bunea,
Cornea, Codrea, Lupea, Puia, Mamulea, Negrea, Basaraba, etc, refers to the
family, or the trunk to which belonged the respective persons, like the Romans
said: ex gente, or ex tribu Cornelia).
On the territory of
the same commune, close to the village called Breza, can still be seen today on
a high rocky outcrop, the ruins of a fortification dating from obscure times,
which the folk call the Fortress of
Negru Voda [3]
[3. Herodotus writes (IV. 76) that Anacharsis, returning from Greece,
had withdrawn es tan cheleumenen ‘Ylaien. An estate called Ileni exists in Tera Fagarasului, nor
far from Posorta, the cradle of the
family Negru].
In regard to the
country of Anacharsis, we also find an important historical note with Lucianus (2nd century ad),
who calls Anacharsis the son of Dauketes
(lib. XXIV, c. 4), meaning of the Dacian,
as Strabo and Jornandes had called one of the great civilizing men of ancient
Dacia, Deceneus (Dechaineos).
We are now
presented with an interesting matter of the ancient history of the Romanian
language: did the word “niuru” belong to the folk language once spoken in
Dacia, or in the 6th century bc it was said in Tera Fagarasului
“niuru” instead of “negru”, as the Sicilians say today?
All that we find in
this regard is that in a very remote epoch it was said, in Banat as well as in
Tera Hategului (TN – the country of Hateg), neru, nera (f), instead
of “negru, negra”. Thus, in our ancient folk songs about Iovan Iorgavan, the
river Cerna, which flows at Mehadia,
is called nera (Alecsandri, Poesii pop. ed. 1866, p. 14), meaning “negra” (TN –
black). Another river which springs in the western mountains of Mehadia is
still called Nera today. Two
Romanian villages of Banat, today vanished, have in the historical documents of
1598 and 1636, the names Ner and Neresci (Pesty, A Szor. Bans. II. p. 376. 377). Finally, Nera had once been also called the
river of Cerna, which flows in
Transilvania alongside Hunedoara.
But the question is
still open, if the data, used by the Greek authors for the biography of
Anacharsis, had been borrowed from the Pelasgians who dwelt along the shores of
the Mediterranean, and which maybe pronounced niuru instead of “negru”.
The brother of
Anacharsis, according to the historical sources used by Suidas, was called Caduias and appears as a king of the
Scythii. Caduias had become therefore the successor of his father Gnuru.
In Tera Fagarasului
still exists today (in the commune Sercaita) the family called Codaia. We find therefore the families Negru (Niuru), Carsa (Charsis) and Codaia
(Caduias) in the same region. If any other family called “Codaia” had existed
also in other parts of Transilvania or Romania, we have not found out so far
[4].
[4. According to Diog. Laertius (I. 101), the brother of
Anacharsis was called Cathuidos
(var. Caduidas).
We must note that in the same
commune of Tera Fagarasului, where we find the family Codaia, also exists,
according to the documents we have, the ancient family Candit, which seems to be the same name as Cathuidos].
As we see from the
data examined so far, both sons of Gnuru (Niuru) had family names, one Carsa,
the other Codaia.
In ancient times,
all the barbarian populations of Pelasgian race, but especially the Getae,
Thracii and Scythii, had a national law regarding marriage, that the men could
have more women or wives at the same time. The children born of these
simultaneous marriages with a number of women also had, apart from their proper
name, which everybody had, the family name of their mothers (Diodorus Siculus, lib. III. 57; Micali, L’Italia, II. 1826, 92).
It results
therefore that king Gnuru from the century 7-6bc, also had, by the custom of
the Getae and the Scythii, a number of women; and that the mother of Anacharsis
had been from the family called Carsa,
while the mother of his brother, from the family Codaia.
From all this data
studied so far, the genealogy of Anacharsis appears under the following form:
But Herodotus, who had lived 100 years after
Anacharsis, also adds some important notes about the family of Anacharsis,
which at the same time bring much light to the history of the royal dynasty of
the Agathyrsii of Dacia.
As father of
Anacharsis, Herodotus mentions Gnuru
(Niuru); as grandfather, Lykos
(Lupul, TN – the Wolf); as great-grandfather, Spargapithes, the king of the Agathyrsii on the river Maris in
Transilvania; as brother; Saulios,
king of the Scythii; and as nephew, Idanthyrsus
(lib. IV. 76), king of the Scythii, at the time when Darius, the son of
Hystaspes, had come with war against the shepherd Scythii.
The name Spargapithes appears only with
Herodotus. But from the ethnical point of view it has an Agathyrsic and Getic
character. One Spargapithes is king
of the Agathyrsii in the 7th century bc, the ancestor of Anacharsis.
Another Spargapithes is the king of
the Agathyrsii in the 5th century bc (Herodotus, lib. IV. c. 78); finally, a third Spargapizes (here with z
instead of th) is the son of Queen
Tomyris, who had reigned over the Masagetae in the times of Cyrus (Herodotus, lib. I. 211).
The name Spargapithes, as presented by
Herodotus, appears completely altered by the Greek pronunciation and
orthography, and most of all, by the mania of the Greek authors to Hellenize
the names of the Barbarians; so that we can say that we have here only a mode
of writing of this name, but in no way its true original form.
In this name, which
as we saw belongs to the Agathyrsian population, the letter p of the first and third syllables
takes the place of b, as we have
numerous examples with the Greek authors, even with Herodotus; and the letter g is only a simple guttural Greek
aspiration, resulted because of the letter r
of the preceding syllable, as in ‘Orgiempaioi = Arimphaei = Arimbaei,
as in Regma instead of Rema, Rogmi instead of Romi, Rogmani instead of Romani.
Finally, eithes is a simple nominal Greek suffix, which corresponds to
the terminations escus and iscus in the regions of the lower
Danube, which we find in various personal, ethnic and topical names, like: Andriscus, Daciscus, Threciscus, Teurisci,
Scordisci, Ardescos, Securisca, Transmarisca.
By emending thus
the Greek orthography of Herodotus, we shall have the following reconstructed
forms of this name: Spargapithes =
Sbar(g)abithes = Sbarabithes, where the radical or patronymic form is Sbarab. Finally, by replacing the
termination eithes (ithes) with the Greco-Latin suffix ita, or with the termination iscus
or escus from the regions of the
Carpathians, we get the forms Sbarabita,
Sbarabiscus and Sbarabescus.
We have here
therefore some more positive data about the pronunciation of this name.
Spargapithes, as
results from the data found with Herodotus, is not an individual name, but a family
or clan name of the royal dynasty of the country of the Agathyrsii.
Now we are
presented with the question, do we also find some mention about the name of
this royal dynasty with other authors of antiquity?
The Goth historian Jornandes communicates a passage of the
lost writing of Dios Chrysostomos ta
Geticha, in which this author tells us that all the kings of the
Dacians were from the so-called family or clan of the Zarabii (De reb. Get. c. 5). We have here a form very close to the
family name of the Agathyrsian kings, Spargapithes (Sbarabita, Sbarabiscus)
from the patronymic Sbarab. We must
observe though that neither Dios Crysostomos, nor Jornandes, reproduce the name
of the Dacian dynasty quite exactly.
In the text of Dios
and Jornandes, the name Zarabi
appears only as a simple truncated form of Bazarabi,
exactly as in the Byzanthine history of Chalcocondylas, Dan, the voivode of the
Romanian Country at 1444, was also called “the son of Saraba” (Sarampa), instead of Basaraba (Stritterus, Memoriae pop. II. 918).
In order to stress
even more the fact that the Greek authors had altered almost entirely the form
of this name, we must mention that on the
But there is no
echo, either in the family names, or in the topical terminology.
In the history of
the Romanian people from the lower
From this trunk,
which by the end of the Middle Ages had spread on both sides of the Carpathians
in a large number of smaller branches of cnezi (TN – ruler), boyars, freeholder
peasants, and nobles, were chosen the ancient Bani of Severin and Craiova (TN –
traditional rulers of these two provinces), and the Domns of the Romanian
Country.
In chronicles, in
biographies and in various other historical works, the reigning family of the
Basarabii also appears with the name Basarabesc
clan or the Basarabescii (Hasdeu, Etym. Magn. III. 2541, 2555).
The Romanian Country, over which ruled the Basarabii, is called in Italian,
Serb, and Polish historical sources, Bessarabia
and Besserabia, and its inhabitants
are Bessarabeni (Sommersberg, Siles. rer. script. II.
82), Bessarabitae (Ulianitzkii, Uricarul, vol. XI.p.39)
and Bessarabisci (ibid, vol.XI.p.
41).
The name of the
Basarabii, as the reigning family in the history of the countries from the
lower
Diodorus Siculus mentions a king called Barsaban, who had reigned around 149bc
over the northern parts of
We also find an
echo of a prehistoric “Bessarabia” in the Italic toponimy: Pliny mentions among the ancient populations of Calabria, the Decianii, Aletinii and Basterbinii (lib. III. 16. 7). We have
here without doubt a group of tribes migrated in very obscure times from other
geographical regions, and we can very easily guess the names of the Decienii, the Oltenii (or the inhabitants from near the river Olt - Alutus), and
the Basarabenii, natives of Besserabia or Bessarabia, as the Romanian Country was named in the last centuries
of the Middle Ages by the Italian and Polish sources.
Finally, basing
himself on Greek sources, the geographer Ravennas
mentions two neighboring peoples, the Bassarinii
and the Melanglinii (Cosmogr. Ed.
Pinder, p. 174), who had their dwellings in the northern parts of great
Scythia. According to the geographical ideas of the ancient authors, the
regions of Dacia were situated right under the north pole, called also “polus
Geticus”; so the Bassarinii of
Ravennas appear, from the point of view of their geography and name, as being
the same people as the inhabitants of the north of Thrace, over which the
dynasty of the Basarabii reigned. As for the Melanglinii, they are the Melanchlaenii of the Greek authors,
people with black clothes, pastoral tribes, scattered in ancient times through
various regions of southern Scythia. But the Melanglinii of Ravennas especially
– neighbors with the Bassarinii – seem to be identical with the so-called Marginenii, who in the Middle Ages had
a duchy of their own (of Omlas), and who have even today the same
characteristic black, or dark colored attire (Diaconovich, Encicl. rom. III. 204).
We saw from all of
the above how ancient is the name of the Basarabii,
not only in the political history, but also in the geographical terminology of
the countries from the Carpathians and the lower Danube. It results therefore
that from the historical point of view, the Spargapitii of Herodotus - kings of
the Agathyrses - are identical, as family and as dynasty, with the Barsabanii
of Diodorus, with the Zarabii of Dios, and with the Basarabii or Basarabescii
of the Middle Ages, who had reigned in Tera Hategului as Cnezi, in Banat and
Oltenia as Bani, in the Romanian Country as Voivodes, and in Fagaras and Omlas
as Domns and Dukes (Paulus Iovius,
Hist. lib. XL. p. 210).
Finally, here is
another note from the history of the dynasty of the Agathyrsii.
Herodotus mentions
two kings of the Agathyrsii, both having the name Spargapithes, which seems to have been a family name, hereditary
and historical.
We find the same
examples also in the history of the Romanian Basarabii.
On the 1364
inscription from Campulung, Alecsandru Basarab is called “the son of great Basaraba voivode”. Later, the son
of Vladislav (III) Basarab is called only “young Basaraba voivode, the son of good Basaraba voivode”. Similarly, Negoe, of the branch of the Danescii,
as soon as he becomes Domn in 1512, he starts to sign himself “Basaraba voivode, the son of the most
good Basaraba voivode” (Hasdeu, Etym. Magn. III. p. 2546; Archiva ist. I. 1. 142), as if
“Basarab” or “Basaraba” were not only a name, but also a sacred title of the
Domns of this country.
We have therefore
the following genealogic table about the family of Anacharsis, according to the
data gathered by Herodotus:
[5. In this genealogy, a note
written by Apollodorus (III. 10. 1)
also has its rightful place. It says that a daughter of the titan Atlas, called Celaeno (Negra), had been the mother of one so-called Lykos (king?), passed into immortal
life in the Blessed islands (from the mouths of the Danube).
Negru Voda,
the founder of the Romanian Country (TN – as a state), was also from the family
of the Basarabii, as results from a
document of Matei Basarab from 1636, and from the inscriptions of the monastery
of Campulung).
Suidas tells us that Anacharsis could have been a
contemporary of Cronos, who had lived between 595 - 525bc. For the life of
Anacharsis we have considered though the more certain date of 594bc, when Solon
had been elected arhontes, with the mission to compile and redact new laws for
the Athenians, during which he had received the visit of Anacharsis. In regard
to the chronology of the forefathers of Anacharsis, we took in consideration
the rule established by Herodotus
(II. 142; VI. 98), and other modern authors, that three generations make 100
years].
So, according to
Herodotus’ notes, we have a Gnuru
(Niuru) or Negru (king of the
shepherd Scythii), who had lived around 627bc, and we have a Spargapithes, meaning a Sbarab, Basarab or Basarabescu, as king of the Agathyrsii, or of the western parts of
Transilvania, who had reigned around 694bc, in the same times of Numa Pompilius
of Rome.
Anacharsis, as the
Greek sources tell us, had also composed a work in verse about the laws of the shepherd Scythii. We
saw that Aristotle also mentions the laws of the Agathyrsii.
But the redaction
of the Scythian or Agathyrsian laws attributed to Anacharsis, was in any case
much more ancient. The Turdulii or Turditanii of the
So, we can draw a
positive conclusion, that the laws of Solon had been mostly a compilation and
imitation of the political and civil laws of the Scythii from the Carpathians
and the lower Danube; laws which had divine authority since a very remote
antiquity, and which were at the same time ancestral laws for the co-nationals
of Strabo, because as Plato writes, the Athenians reduced their origin to
Atlantis, the ancient kingdom of Atlas at north of Istru.
III.
We arrive now at the
ancient collection of laws of
In the historical
documents of
- In
- In Tera
Fagarasului: lex Valachorum (Kolozsvari es Kelemen, Monum. Hung. Juridico-historica,
- In
In
- In the Romanian
Country (TN – Tera Romanesca), in a document from 1591: lege Dumnedeesca (TN – Godly law; Hasdeu, Arch. Ist. III. 147); and in
the preface of the Law of Ion Caragea from 1818: “pravilnicesca condica scrisa” (TN – written codex of
laws), which Tera Romanesca had “from
ancient times”, entirely different from the imperial decrees of the Romans.
- In
- In
This law, as
results from the official texts of the documents, contained various rules in
the domain of public law, regarding: the political, judicial, fiscal and
military organization of the Romanian banate, voivodate, provinces, districts,
cnezate, communes, and villages (TN - various administrative Romanian
territories); rights and obligations of the various classes of society, the
priests, voivodes, cnezi, boyars and the military, who were charged with the
defense of the forts, the frontiers, of the fords and roads, and also rules
regarding the condition of the peasants (neighbors, serfs, laborers) towards
the privileged classes. We also find in this law a system of rules in the
domain of private law, regarding property and possession, obligations,
successions, matrimonial rights and procedure in front of the judiciary.
Finally, some rules referred to the penalties which had to be applied to the
criminals. This law was especially severe with those who destroyed the crops,
and who stole cattle from the pasture, or from herds.
Some important
fragments of this immemorial legislation called “Lex antiqua Valachorum”, have
been preserved in the so-called Statutes
and Constitutions of Tera Fagarasului,
from the 16th and 17th centuries, which, in their rules
and form of redaction, differ from the statutes, constitutions, and particular
laws of the other nationalities of Transilvania, Hungary and Poland.
We shall reproduce
here several laws from this “Lex antiqua Valachorum” [1], presenting them at
the same time in parallel with some fragments from the laws of the XII Roman
Tabulae (Leges XII tabularum), as well as with other precepts from the ancient
laws of the Pelasgian people:
[1. Part of the legal dispositions
which follow are taken from The Statutes
of Tera Fagarasului (Fogarasvideki Statutumok) from y.1508, and from The Constitutions of the District of Tera
Fagarasului (Constitutiones Districtus Terrae Fogaras), compiled in the 16th
and 17th centuries and published in Monumenta Hungariae juridico-historica by Dr. Kolozsvari Sandor and Dr. Ovari Kelemen (Tom. I,
- If the boyar
dies without male heirs, his hereditary estates will pass to his
con-divisional brothers; in their absence, the succession of the real
estate is due to the lord of the land, because, by Romanian law, the
estates are not passed on to the female sex.
- Tab. V: Si intestato moritur cuius suus heres nec
(escit), agnatus proximus familiam
habeto. Si agnatus nec escit, gentilis familiam nancitor.
- Lex Romana
Utinensis: Ille homo qui sic moritur, qui testamentum
non faciat sua ereditas… si filii non sunt, ad suos propincos qui de patre sunt (debet pervenire) … nam ipsa hereditas
ad feminas venire non potest. De legitima patroni
hereditate.
- Statuta Distr. Fogaras (173): Quando
Boyaronem mori contigerit et heredes non
habuerit…si…masculo caruerit: et filiam habuerit…fraters diuisionales…puellam (cum quarta parte puellari) contentant
et hereditates …ad se redimant. Casu vero quod fratribus diuisionalibus
deficeret…Dominus terrestris…puellam
de talibus hereditatibus excludere valeat… Quia in lege Valachorum hereditates sexum femineum non concernunt.
The same order of
succession was observed for the Romanian nobility in
- About the
right of peasants to acorn, in the woods of the landlords and the boyars.
- Pliny, lib. XVI. 6: Cautum est praeterea, lege
XII tabularum, ut glandem in alienum
fundum procidentem liceret colligere.
- Statuta Distr.
Fogaras (p. 175): dum glandines
fertiles erunt …nec domini Terrestres, nec Boyarones a colonis exigere waleant
quiequam.
3. Judicial
punishments for those who destroy the vallum of the city and the graves.
- Tab. X: Ne forum sepulcri bustumque usucapiatur (
- Cicero, De Leg.
II. 9: Deorum Manium jura sacra
sunto. Hos leto datos, divos
habento.
- Herodotus, IV.
127: Idanthyrsus, the king of the shepherd Scythii, towards Darius, the king of
the Persians: “If you wished to engage a fight with us as soon as possible,
then you should know that we have graves
of our forebears; see to find them, and if you did, try to destroy them,
and then you shall see if we fought with you for the graves, or not”.
- Const. T. Fogaras
(p. 321): Contra Valli circa Oppidum
jacentis et Sepulcri diruptores
poena declaratur.
- About he who
illegally occupies the house or courtyard of another from villages, or
from estates.
- Tab. VII: Hortus
– Haeredium - Tugurium
- Statuta Distr.
Fogaras (171): Qui domum vel curiam vel
hortum in aliqua villa, vel terries,
agris, siue eeiusdem …absque
Juris ordint potentialiter occupauerint etc.
- About the
limitation of neighboring lands.
- Virgil. Aen. XII. 897: Saxum antiquum ingens …Limes agro positus, litem ut
discerneret arvis (cf. Homer, Iliad, XXI. 405).
- Constit. T. Fogaras
(p. 323): quicumque …runcatas Terras habent, cum vicinis et commetaneis suis in
bona harmonia signent, magnis et
praestantibus lapidibus.
- Boundary
controversies between neighboring estates are regulated by arbiters.
In the
controversies “de finibus regundis”, the laws of the XII tabulae ruled that three arbiters should judge.
Pesty, Krasso varm. Tort. III. 25. 1347: Ita ereccionem ipsarum metarum ordinassent…quod partes adducent communiter quatuor probos viros…Quiquidem….iusticiam
inter ipsas partes observant, vadant et
videant illas veras et rectas metas erectas exantiquo.
Pesty, A Szor. Bansag. III. 145, 1503: Banus
Zewriniensis…utrasque partes amonuimus, ut certos
probos nobiles viros ad id sufficientes iuxta ritum Volahie eligant
et adoptent, etc.
- About he who
insults somebody before the tribunal.
- Tab. VIII: Si injuriam faxit alteri viginti quinque
aeris poenae sunto.
- Statuta Distr.
Fogaras (p. 174): In sede Judiciaria alter alteri verba dehonestatoria dixerit, tunc ille conuincatur in floreno uno.
- About the
boyars who avoid paying contributions, harming their peasants in the
process.
- Tab. VIII: Patronus si clienti fraudem fecerit sacer esto.
- Constit. T.
Fogaras (p. 326): …quicunque…inter Boerones
in dolo deprehensi fuerint (quod in
miserae Plebis maximam ruinam contributionem subterfugiant) eorum
domos…occupare possint illi qui pro talibus fraudulenti(i)s tributum deposuerint.
- When someone’s
cattle, big or small, make damage on someone else’s land.
- Dig. I. IX. 1. 1:
Si quadrupes pauperiem fecisse
dicatur, action ex lege duodecim tabularum descendit.
- Constit. T.
Fogaras (p. 317): Si pecora de die aliqua Loca invaserint interdicta,
nec adeo notabilem damnum intulerint, singulum Pecus redimatur.
- About those
who graze their cattle on the sown fields or orchards of others, or steal
hay, oats and other food from the fields.
- Pliny, H. N. lib. XVIII. 3. 4: Frugem quidem aratro quaesitam furtim noctu pavisse, ac secuisse, puberi XII tabulis capitale erat: suspensumque
Cereri necari jubebant, gravius quam in homicidio convictum: impubem Praetoris
arbitratu verberari, noxiamque duplione decerni.
- Constit. T.
Fogaras (p. 317): Si quis potentiose…sua pecora
in vetita aliorum Loca videlicet segetes,
partum, impelleret, … in tali casu ipse et pecora ejus capiantur et se redimat fl. 12. insuper damnum
juxta aestimationem solvat.
- Constit. T.
Fogaras (p. 320): …qui Herbam, Avenam, ac cuiuscunque generic, et
speciei frumentum ex
campis….invehunt….ac qui suspicioni obnoxiantur, (Portarii) eos significant.
- About the thief
who breaks into houses, or enters through the window.
- Tab. VIII: Si nox furtum factum sit si im occisit iure caesus esto (Cf. Macrob. Saturn.
- Statuta Distr.
Fogaras, (p. 175): Qui domos aliorum foderint, wel de fenestra intrauerint, capite priuentur.
12. About the thief who turns against those who try to catch him.
-
-
- Constit. T.
Fogaras (p. 318): Si quis vero insurgeret,
et se capi, aut pecora sua ex loco
vetito impelli non sineret, eotum contumax in fl. 24. convincatur.
- The guiding of
the law (ed. 1652), c. 247: He who shall kill
the thief, when finding him stealing his food (crops), he shall not be
reprimanded….if found that the thief had attacked the owner of the crops.
- Punishment by death for those who steal sheep, pigs or other cattle, big