Rome fell. The wars with the tribes and fierce internal quarrels laid her low. Her hands were held and ruled by the warlike tribesmen, but the influence of her civilization lived after her.
The struggle of the tribes was primarily for land and wherever they secured possession their barbaric customs were put in force, but the Roman customs could not die out altogether and many of them were adopted entire. Others were adopted only in part or were joined with similar customs of the tribes.
The tribesmen were communal in their practices, so it is not surprising that they rejected the idea of chattel slavery. Indeed Rome herself had helped destroy slavery by liberating great numbers of the slaves, so that they might serve in her armies. But the Roman "Coloni" (captured people colonized on the land) came under the rule of the tribes and these were restrained by the tribes—bound to the soil, these were the beginnings of the serfs.
The Goths served in the Roman army in great numbers. At no time do the tribesmen appear to have been soldiers (paid fighters)—they were always "warriors." They did not fight in organized battalions and legions as the Romans did, but in "fratries" or sworn brotherhoods. Each man was sworn to his chief and the chief in turn was sworn to the man. It was an honorable relation and implied many mutual obligations and services. This custom was known as the "comitatus," and in many ways resembled the Roman "patrocinium."
During the period of change, when the Roman civilization and Barbarism were working out the new system, the patrocinium became a form of land holding and was known as "precarium"; while the comitatus continued to be a personal relation between the tribesman and his chief, and was known as "commendation." Thus, a freeman might hold lands from a bishop by precarium, while
