Following the death of his uncle in 527 CE, Justinian assumed full control of the eastern portion of the Roman empire.

The western half, from Gallia, Italia and Dalmatia, to Britannia, Hispania and Roman North Africa, had been overrun by Germanic tribes, and was now largely under their control. Although Justinian embarked on a re-conquest of some of these lost territories very shortly after coming to power, the process was slow and fragmented, and met with varying degrees of success.

Constantinople and most Roman territories in the East escaped this same fate, remaining largely unscathed. But the fragile peace accord with the Per­sians was a tinderbox waiting to be re-ignited. Furthermore, the East now had to re-situate itself in relation to Rome in the changing geopolitical environ­ment that was enveloping it from all sides. Its legal system in particular needed reform, because although highly developed, it had become ramshackle and in many ways outdated. It also largely originated in the West, yet most sections of imperial society now had their roots in the East, which did not always share the same norms of social regulation. These factors led to the eastern half of empire re-positioning its approach to the law, and in this context the legal endeavours of the Emperor Justinian assume a particular relevance. The present study aims to evaluate how, in light of the territorial developments set out above, the empire under Justinian legitimised its claim to be heir to Rome's advanced le­gal system, yet how at the same time these laws were adapted in order to ac­commodate divergent societal practices in the East. It shall be shown how the revitalisation of the law was at least in part aimed at preventing the fabric and cohesion of empire from eroding further, to minimise the spectre of renewed imperial disintegration.

The continued primacy of the laws of Rome in sixth-century Constantino­ple is perhaps most evident in Justinian's so-called Corpus Iuris Civilis, in­cluding primarily the Digest (prepared 530-33 ce), a vast and systematised

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compendium of extracts taken from juristic writings written predominantly at Rome over the second to third centuries CE (the so-called �classical era'). Even before undertaking the collation of these fragments, indeed almost immedi­ately upon acceding to power, Justinian had also ordered the preparation of a Code (first edition 529) containing imperial constitutions, some again reach­ing back to the second-century West. But legislation issued by him was also prominent in this Code, at least in its second edition (534), and after this amended version was published he promulgated many novellae (�new laws') as well. Despite the Digest's ancestry, Roman law inherited from the West was slowly being eclipsed.

Modern scholarship is divided in any case on the extent to which the legal principles of Rome were ever properly followed by the various populations in the imperial East.^[233] The third-century constitutio Antonlnlana, which had be­stowed Roman citizenship on every free person living in the Empire, entailed that its laws applied throughout eastern lands as well, but this measure ap­pears not to have fully succeeded in replacing indigenous customary rules there. Evidence certainly exists suggesting that pre-Roman practices remained rampant into the sixth century, in spite of the constitutio.^[234] Given the shift of empire in this easterly direction, and given also that he was a Latin-speaking emperor surrounded by a chiefly Greek language and culture, Justinian had to consider whether or not to devise his new legislation to chime with Hellenic customs, and the degree to which he and his legal advisors bowed to these lo­cal norms shall be explored here. But so shall the extent to which they catered for traditional Roman sensibilities and legal practices established at the old centre of empire, in the now-vanquished lands over which Justinian aspired to resume control.

Given the comparatively precarious state of Justinian's empire, the appar­ent obsession with overhauling domestic law may have seemed an unneces­sary distraction. Even in early 532, shortly after he initiated his reforms, but before the majority of them had been completed, the Nika riots (discussed below) shook the empire to its core, and perhaps demanded a different response. However, sorting out the administration of law and justice within his realm turned out to be one of the fundamental means by which Justinian sought to keep his empire together, by reaffirming its western Roman roots, but also by appeasing dissatisfaction in the East and pre-empting dissent through­out. It is these aspects of Justinian’s lawmaking that shall be looked into here, to address in effect how the law was used in sixth-century Constantinople to heal a culturally divided empire and to prevent it from crumbling further.

In addition to exploring how Justinian re-visited substantive points of law, this chapter shall also look into the way he pitched these enactments, and how he used them in a subtle attempt to promote his own rule. The very way the constitutions were worded, and the means of their announcement and presen­tation to the world at large, say a great deal about how he wanted his legisla­tion to be received, shedding light on the impression he wished to give of him­self, and on how he hoped his laws would bolster his reign and shore up his imperium. Furthermore, through issuing his own legislation, Justinian was stamping his mark directly on the legal culture that regulated Byzantine life and culture in his day. The task of promulgating his own constitutions allowed the Imperator to assert his legislative authority in that capacity over his territo­ries. These factors shall also be the focus of the current investigation.

Overall, it is argued that Justinian had to maintain a balance between ac­commodating and obliterating the differing customs of his subjects through­out his empire.

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