The Basilika
Because the Corpus Iuris was written in Latin, it was incomprehensible to many Greek-speaking Byzantine lawyers. The compiler Theophilus produced,
as a teaching book, a Greek version of the Justinian’s Institutes called the Paraphrasis in order to disseminate the Institutes throughout the Greekspeaking world.
(An English translation is available, edited by J. H. A. Lokin et al., and published in 2010). In the eighth century, the Paraphrasis was published as an official legal collection in Greek called Ecloga, which adapted Justinian’s law to Byzantine practice. Around 890, Emperor Leo the Wise (r. 886-912) completed an extensive Greek restatement of all of Justinian’s codification in sixty books. The collection is grounded on all four parts of Justinian’s compilation, although there is little from the Institutiones. The labor of compilation, however, began under his predecessor Basil I (r. 867-86). From the eleventh century, the collection was called the Basilika (from basi- likos, or “imperial” [laws]), and it is considered the most important legal compilation of post-Justinian times. The laws were supplemented with explanatory notes (scholia) on the manuscript based on law professors’ teachings in Justinian’s time (old scholia) or from the eleventh and twelfth centuries (new scholia). The best edition of the Basilika and the scholia was produced by Herman Jan Scheltema (1906-81) and other researchers between 1951 and 1988. In 1345, a short version of the Basilika was published in six books (the Hexabiblos), which was in force in Greece until the promulgation of the Greek Civil Code in 1840.Further reading
Corbino, Alessandro, and Bernardo Santalucia, eds. Justiniani Augusti Pandectarum codex Florentinus. Florence: Olschki, 1988.
Corcoran, Simon. “Roman Law and the Two Languages in Justinian’s Empire.” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 61 (2017): 96-116.
Evans, J. A. S. The Emperor Justinian and the Byzantine Empire. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005.
Honore, Tony. Justinian Digest: Character and Compilation. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Honore, Tony. Tribonian. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1978.
Johnston, David. “The Justinian’s Digest. The Interpretation of Interpolations.” Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 9. 2 (1989): 149-166.
Jolowicz, Herbert Felix, and Barry Nicholas. Historical Introduction to the Study of Roman Law. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972.
Kaiser, Wolfgang. “Justinian and the Corpus Iuris Civilis.” In The Cambridge Companion to Roman Law, edited by David Johnston, 119-148. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Kaiser, Wolfgang. Die Epitome Iuliani. Beiträge zum romischen Recht im frühen Mittelalter und zum byzantinischen Rechtsunterricht. Frankfurt: Klostermann, 2004.
Kaser, Max. Zur Methodologie der romischen Rechtsquellenforschung. Vienna, Cologne, and Graz: Bohlau, 1972.
Kunkel, Wolfgang. An Introduction to Roman Legal and Constitutional History. 2nd ed. Translated by J. M. Kelly. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973.
Lokin, J. H. A. et al. (eds.), Theophili Antecessoris Paraphrasis Institutionum, trans. A. F. Murison, Gronningen, 2010.
Maas, Michael. The Cambridge Companion of the Age of Justinian. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Mantovani, Dario. Digesto e masse Bluhmiane. Milan: Giuffre, 1987.
Mantovani, Dario and Antonio Padoa Schioppa, eds. Interpretare il Digesto. Storia e metodi. Pavia: IUSS Press, 2014.
Mommsen, Theodor, ed. Digesta Iustiniani Augusti. 2 vols. Berlin: Weidmann, 1868-70.
Mommsen, Theodor, Paul Krüger, Wilhelm Kroll, and Rudolf Scholl, eds. Corpus Iuris Civilis. 3 vols. Hildeshaeim: Weidmann, 1989-93.
Mommsen, Theodor, Paul Krüger, and Alan Watson. The Digest of Justinian. 4 vols. Latin text edited by Theodor Mommsen with the aid of Paul Krüger, and English Translation edited by Alan Watson. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985.
Radding, Charles and Antonio Ciaralli. The Corpus Iuris Civilis in the Middle Ages: Manuscripts and Transmissions from the Sixth Century to the Juristic Revival. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
Thomas, J. A. C. The Institutes of Justinian: Text, Translation, and Commentary. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co., 1975.
Wieacker, Franz. Textstufen klassischer Juristen. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1960.
Wolff, Hans Julius. Roman Law: An Historical Introduction. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1951.
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