Note 086 The obscure hints of a division of lands occasionailv scattered in the laws of the Burgundians (tit. liv. No. 1, 2, in tom. iv. p. 271, 272) and visigoths (1. x. tit. i. No. 8, 9, 16, in tom. iv. p. 428, 429, 430) are skilfully explained by the President Montesquieu (The Spirit of Laws, 1. xxx. c. 7, 8, 9). I shall only add that, among the Goths, the division seems to have been ascertained by the judgment of the neighbourhood; that the barbarians frequently usurped the remaining third; and that the Romans might recover their right, unless they were barred by a prescription of fifty years.

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The History Of The Decline and Fall Of The Roman Empire—Volume 1— Chapter 38