Study of Roman law
Justinian {juhs-tin'-ee-uhn} Code
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The Justinian Code was part of a collection of Roman law, known as the Corpus
Juris Civilis ("Body of Civil Law"), prepared during the reign of the
Byzantine emperor Justinian I (r. 527-65). In the 6th century AD the mass
of Roman legal material that had accumulated in 1,000 years of development
was generally unavailable to those who needed it, and it frequently
contained contradictions.
Early in his reign Justinian established three committees, under the general
chairmanship of his chief legal advisor, Tribonian, to gather and edit the
legal material.
One committee collected all the laws that had emanated from the emperors
themselves. These form the Code, which appeared in 12 books in 529 and contains
mainly public, administrative, and criminal law. Another committee collated and
removed contradictions from the writings of the foremost Roman legal experts to
form the Digest. This work contains more than 9,000 extracts arranged in 50
books. This distillation of legal expertise heavily influenced the development
of European law. A third committee prepared a textbook, the Institutes, for
beginning students. It is still used and has been a model for later texts. The
Corpus also includes Novellae, which were later enactments of Justinian and two
of his successors.
Frank Bourne
Bibliography:Honore, T., Emperors and Lawyers (1982);Jolowitz, H. F.,Historical Introduction to the Study of Roman Law, 3d ed. (1972); Sandars, T.C., The Institutes of Justinian (1876; repr. 1984); Stein, P., The Character andInfluence of Roman Law (1988).
Justinian I, Byzantine Emperor (Justinian the Great)
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Justinian I, or Justinian the Great, ruled the Byzantine Empire from 527 to 565
as one of its greatest emperors. Born c.482 near Scupi (the modern Skopje,
Macedonia), he was originally named Petrus Sabbatius. Educated in Constantinople by his uncle Justin, an army officer, he became a power behind the throne when
his uncle became emperor as Justin I in 518. Justinian married (525) Theodora,
whose support was to be vital to him, and in 527 he succeeded Justin to the
throne.
Justinian's aim was the restoration of the earlier Roman Empire by reconquest of areas lost to the Germanic tribes. With the help of his general Belisarius, he
regained North Africa from the Vandals (533-34) and, after a lengthy war
(535-54), Italy from the Ostrogoths (see Goths). Justinian also acquired
southeastern Spain. Repeated wars with the Sassanian Persians, however, usually
ended with the Byzantines buying peace; and the Slavs occupied much of the
Balkan Peninsula.
To finance his wars, Justinian extorted heavy taxes from his subjects. He also
improved the system of justice by the codification of Roman law in the
celebrated Justinianic Code. After the great Nika riot and fire in
Constantinople (532), he rebuilt Hagia Sophia with extraordinary magnificence.
He intervened repeatedly in theological quarrels to reconcile eastern
Monophysites and western Catholics, but without success (see Constantinople,
Councils of). At his death on Nov. 15, 565, Justinian left an exhausted empire
but also enduring monuments in the form of Hagia Sophia and his code of law. His contemporary Procopius of Caesarea wrote the history of the reign.
C. M. Brand
Bibliography: Barker, J., Justinian and the Later Roman Empire(1966; repr.
1976); Gerostergios, A., Justinian the Great (1982).
Last modified July 9, 1996