Justinian’s legislation on marriage

Emperor Justinian adapted the traditional Roman institution of marriage to the Christian moral teachings on marital indissolubility. In his far-reaching Novel 22 of 536 ce, the emperor imposed additional penalties on those who divorced without a legitimate ground.

Justinian’s legislation protected the permanence of monogamous marital union and promoted the equality of the spouses within marriage. It also showed greater concern for the interests of wives and children (Nov. 98). With respect to freedmen, Justinian rejected the distinction between free and freed: women who had been slaves but were formally emancipated could thus marry whomever they wished (Nov. 78). The medieval christian legislation on marriage was firmly founded on the laws of Emperor Justinian.

Further reading

Aubert, Jean-Jacques. Business Managers in Ancient Rome: A Social and Economic History of Institores, 200 bce ad 250. Leiden: Brill, 1994.

Buckland, William Warwick. The Roman Law of Slavery: The Condition of the Slave in Private Law from Augustus to Justinian. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1908.

Domingo, Rafael. La legislation matrimonial de Constantino. Pamplona: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Navarra, 1989.

du Plessis, Paul.

Evans Grubbs, Judith. Law and Family in Late Antiquity: The Emperor Constantine’s Marriage Legislation. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Evans Grubbs, Judith. Women and the Law in the Roman Empire: A Sourcebook on Marriage, Divorce and Widowhood. London and New York: Routledge, 2002.

Evans Grubbs, Judith, and Tim Parkin, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Childhood and Education in the Classical World. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Frier, Bruce W, and Thomas A. J. McGinn. A Casebook on Roman Family Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Gamauf, Richard. “Slavery. Social Position and Legal Capacity.” In The Oxford Handbook of Roman Law and Society, edited by Paul J. du Plessis, Clifford Ando, and Kaius Tuori, 386-401. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Gardner, Jane F. Being a Roman Citizen. London and New York: Routledge, 1993.

Gardner, Jane F. Family and “Familia” in Roman Law and Life. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Halbwachs, Verena. “Women as Legal Actors.” In The Oxford Handbook of Roman Law and Society, edited by Paul J. du Plessis, Clifford Ando, and Kaius Tuori, 443-455. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Joshel, Sandra R. Slavery in the Roman World. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Joshel, Sandra R., and Lauren Hackworth Petersen. The Material Life of Roman Slaves. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Kaser, Max. Das romische Privatrecht I. Das altromische, das vorklassische und klassische Recht. 2nd ed., 268-372. Munich: Beck Verlag, 1971.

Laes, Christian. Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Lindsay, Hugh. Adoption in the Roman World. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

McAuley, Mairead. Reproducing Rome: Motherhood in Virgil, Ovid, Seneca, and Statius.

Mette-Dittmann, Angelika. Die Ehegesetze des Augustus: eine Untersuchung im Rahmen der Gesellschaftspolitik des Princeps. Stuttgart: F. Steiner, 1991.

Phang, Sara Elise. The Marriage of Roman Soldiers (13 B.C. - A.D. 235). Law and Family in the Imperial Army. Leiden: Brill, 2001.

Rawson, Beryl, ed. A Companion to Families in the Greek and Roman Worlds. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.

Schulz, Fritz. Classical Roman Law, 71-202. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1951.

Treggiari, Susan. Roman Marriage: Iusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.

Watson, Alan. The Law of Persons in the Later Roman Republic. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967.

Watson, Alan. Roman Slave Law. Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1987.

Witte, Jr., John, and Gary S. Hauk, eds. Christianity and Family Law: An Introduction. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

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