ABSTRACT
In Visigothic Spain, as in Anglo-Saxon England, there seems to have been both an aristocracy of blood and an aristocracy of service. The Visigoths seem to have had a greater skill in the poliorcetic art than many of their Teutonic kinsmen. The number of the Lombards of middle fortune was too great to allow of such a usurpation taking place, and the king's gastaldus and schultheiss were present in each duchy, to keep its ruler in check, and afford protection to all freemen. The Franks, as pictured to us by Sidonius ApoUinaris, Procopius, Agathias, and Gregory of Tours, still bore a great resemblance to their Sigambrian or Chamavian ancestors whom Tacitus described more than three centuries earlier. The skill with which the Franks discharged the weapon just before closing with the hostile line was extraordinary, and its effectiveness made it the favourite national weapon.
