The East: The Great Legislative Compilation OfJustinian
Compared to the West, the East was flourishing. It had splendid cities such as Constantinople (Byzantium), the capital of the Roman Empire of the East; it had famous centers of scholarship endowed with rich libraries such as Alexandria, Caesarea, Berytus (now BeiÂrut).
Many anthologies were made on these eastern Mediterranean shores that combined selected fragments of imperial edicts with pasÂsages taken from older Roman juridical doctrine. These were compiÂlations of modest scope, usually written in Latin, although on occaÂsion, as with the Scholia Sinaitica ad Ulpianos Libros ad Sabinum, they were written in Greek. The existence of the great libraries made possiÂble the compilation of such modest anthologies. The jurists’ persisÂtence in producing works of that sort is documentary evidence of a legal culture with little learning and of one that relied on inferior auÂthors. Perhaps it is no coincidence that these compilations are anonÂymous.Nonetheless, what even a king as powerful as Alaric found it imÂpossible to do in the West, Emperor Justinian managed to do in the East, beginning in 529. Admittedly, Constantinople still had a center of scholarship that functioned efficiently enough to hold firm to an idea of the law that resembled the Roman view of the law in its basic outline and its methodological approach. Thus the constitution ccOmnemw drew a distinction between Berytus, ccwhich has rightly been called cmother of the laws,’ ”[39] and Alexandria and Caesarea, which it judged more negatively: ccWe have heard that even in those most splendid cities Alexandria and Caesarea and in others there are certain inexpert men who divagate and transmit an adulterated docÂtrine to their disciples.”[40]
Thus Justinian had available a number of professors whom he could bring together to form a commission: Tribonian, who directed the legislative project; Dorotheus, a professor in that “most splendid city of Berytus”; Theophilus and Cratinus, who were active in the capital city, and still others.
Nothing of the sort would have been imaginable in Western lands (Italy, Germany, the British Isles, France, Spain). This was the context in which Justinian’s famous compilation of laws could be finished in only a few years.The first step was to publish a “book of constitutions” that brought together in one Codex imperial edicts from a variety of epochs up to the reign of Justinian himself.
Next, in 533, a lengthy collection of iura was made, the∑>^m (DiÂgest y or Pandects), giving in fifty short “books” a condensed version of passages from ancient Roman doctrine. These were reproduced in the state in which they could still be known, and they often were full of post-classical interpolations and showed signs of having been maÂnipulated and abridged.
In 534 a more complete revised version of the Codex (Code) divided into twelve “books” was produced. In that same year a textbook of jurisprudence in four “books,” the Institutiones (Institutes) was eleÂvated, by promulgation, to the level of “law.” There were instances of similar operations in the West, for example, in the insertion of the Epitome Gai into the Lex Romana Visigothorum. These reflected a conÂception of the relationship between the legislative power and the auÂthority of doctrine that permitted no distinction between the sphere of the creation of laws and the sphere of theoretical elaboration of the law.
Next came theNovellae Constitutiones (XhcNovels), which listed the decrees that Justinian promulgated until his death in 565. These were compilations made by at least two private individuals: one known as the Epitome Julianii which included 122 constitutions, by Julianus, who was probably a professor at Constantinople; the other, anonyÂmous and called Authenticumi which gave the full text of 134 constituÂtions.[41]
Given the way in which they were compiled, the motivation behind the undertaking (it was linked to the utopian project of reviving the unity and splendor of the Roman Empire), and a broader cultural context that had already deteriorated in the East and had collapsed in the West, Justinian’s legislative texts were like a jewel case guarding precious gems and removing them from use. They barely succeeded in conserving and safeguarding scattered and precious fragments of Roman law; despite the intentions and the illusions of Justinian and his commissioners, they served only to pass on an awareness of that law to later ages.
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