The Novels of Justinian

The Novellae constitutiones, or “new constitutions,” are the new legislation (novae leges) that Justinian enacted after the publication of the second edition of the Code (534 ce).

Novels might be applicable in a concrete province, in a group of provinces, or in the whole empire. The majority of them survived in Greek. Most of Justinian’s Novels concerned public offices, administration of provinces, tax law, criminal law, and ecclesiastical law, and they survive in Greek. Novels in Latin were concerned with North Africa and Italy, the Latin-speaking parts of the empire. Sometimes there were two versions of the same Novel, one in Greek and another in Latin (see Novel 66, of 538 ce). For Illyricum, a bilingual province of the empire, we know of novels in both Latin and Greek. No official collection of the Novels was ever produced. The Novels have been transmitted in different collections. The most complete collection we know of is the so-called Greek Collection of 168 Novels, which was used by the compilers of the Basilika (see next section) Originally, the collection was bilingual, including both Latin and Greek Novels. The Collection of 168 was probably initiated in Constantinople in the time of Justinian and includes Novels until the reign of Emperor Tiberius II (578-82). Up to Novel 120, the order is chronological. The rest are not arranged according to any principle. The collection includes some constitutions dating from before the second edition of the Code but not included within it.

There are two private collections of the Novels for teaching purposes: the Authenticum and the Epitome Juliani. The Authenticum is a collection of 134 Novels enacted by Justinian from 535 to 556 and probably created in Constantinople. The collection consists of Novels in Greek and only a few in Latin. The fourteen Novels in Latin have survived in the original, while the Greek Novels were translated word for word (kata poda) into Latin. The Epitome Juliani is a summary of 122 Novels enacted by Justinian (two are duplicates) from 535 to 555 and produced by Julianus, a law professor in Constantinople. It also contains additional Latin Novels that are not attested to in any other legal collection. The Epitome Juliani was well known in the West. In the twelfth century, however, the Authenticum appeared in Bologna and generally took the place of the Epitome Juliani. Initially it was thought that the Authenticum was a falsification, but the law school of Bologna established its authenticity, hence the name Authenticum. The earliest edition of the Greek text of Justinian’s Novels was produced in 1531 by Gregor Haloander.

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Source: Domingo Rafael. Roman Law: An Introduction. Routledge,2018. — 252 p.. 2018

The Novels of Justinian

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