SALIC, or SALIQUE, LAW, (Lex Salica), an ancient
and fundamental law of the kingdom of France, usually
supposed to have been made by Pharamond, or at least
by Clovis; in virtue whereof males only are to inherit.
Some, as Poiteau, would have it to have been called
Salic, q. d. Gallie, because peculiar to the Gauls. Per
Montanus insists, it was because Pharamond was at first
called Salicus. Others will have it to be so named, as
having been made for the salic lands. These were noble
fiefs which their first kings used to bestow on the sal-
lions, that is, the great lords of their fief or court,
without any other tenure than military service; and for
this reason, such fiefs were not to descend to women,
as being by nature unfit for such a tenure. Some,
again, derive the origin of this word from the Salians,
a tribe of Franks that settled in Gaul in the reign of
Julian, who is said to have given them lands on condition
of their personal service in war. He even passed the
conditions into a law, which the new conquerors ac-
quiesced in, and called it salic, from the name of their
former countrymen.