Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/681

Rh JUSTINIANUS. reform and consolidation. From the time of Con- fitantine, *he fresh and vigorous spirit of the clas- sical jurists seems to have vanished. Many of the most active intellects were now turned away from leg.ll to religious discussions. Jurispnidence, no longer the pursuit of the minister and statesman, became the handicraft of freedmen. (Mamert, Panegyr. x. 20.) The law was oppressed by its own weight. The complexity of practice, the long series of authoritative writings, the unwieldy bulk of express enactments, and the multitude of volu- minous commentators, were sufficient to bewilder the most resolute jurist. In the midst of conflicting texts, it was hard to find out where the true law lay. By the citation law of Theodosius II. and Valentinian III. (Theod. Cod. 1. tit. 4. s. 3), the majority of juristic suffrages was substituted for the victory of scientific reasoning. [Gaius, p. 196.] The schools of law established by Theodosius II. at Rome and Constantinople (Cod. 11, tit. 18) were unable to revive the practical energy of former times. A host of pedants and pretenders came into existence. Some quoted at second-hand the names of ancient jurists, whose works they had never read, while others derided all appeal to scarce and anti- quated books, which they boasted that they had never seen. To them the name of an old jurist was no better than the name of some outlandish fish. (Amm. Marcell. xxx. 4; Jac. Gothofredus, Prolegomena ad Tlieod. Cod. i.) Such were the evils which Justinian resolved to remedy. In his conceptions of the measures neces- sary for this purpose he was more vast than all who had preceded him, and he was more successful in the complete execution of his plan. It seems to have been his intention to establish a perfect system of written legislation for all his dominions ; and, to this end, to make two great collections, one of the imperial constitutions, the other of all that was valuable in the works of jurists. He was per- sonally not unacquainted with the theory and the working of the law; for, in his youth, he had de- voted careful attention to the study of jurisprudence at Constantinople ; and, in his manhood, had dis- charged the duties of the most important offices in the state. The first work attempted by Justinian, as the most practical and the most pressing, was the col- j lection of imperial constitutions. This he com- menced in A. D. 528, in the second year of his ' reign. The task was entrusted to a commission of ten, who are named in the following order : Jo- annes, Leontius, Phocas, Basilides, Thomas, Tri- bonianus, Constantinus, Theophilus, Dioscorus, Praesentinus. (Const. Haec quae necessario.) In I compiling preceding constitutions, and making use ! of the Gregorian, Hermogenian, and Theodosian Codes, the commission was armed with very ample powers. It was authorized to correct and retrench, as well as to consolidate and arrange. The com- missioners executed their task speedily. In the following year, on the 7th of April, a. d. 529, the emperor confirmed the " Novum Justinianeum * Codicem," giving it legal force from the I6"th of April following, and abolishing from the same date all preceding collections. Little did he then think This is the adjective used by Justinian him- self. The purer Latin form would be " Justini- anus Codex," like " Theodosianus Codex." JUSTINIANUS. 667 how short was destined to be the duration of his own new code ! (Const. Summa Reipuhlicae.) At the end of tie following year (Const. Deo Atictore, dated De:. 15. A. D. 530), Tribonian, who had given proof of his great ability in drawing up the code, uas authorised to select fellow-labourers to assist him in the other division of the under- taking — a part of Justinian's plan which the em- peror justl)' regarded as the most difficult, but also as the most important and the most glorious. Tri- bonian was endowed with rare qualificitions for such an appointment. He was himself deeply learned in law, and possessed in his library a match- less collection of legal sources. He had passed through many gradations of rank, knew mankind well, and was remarkable for energy and persever- ance. " His genius," says Gibbon, *' like that of Bacon, embraced as its own all the business and knowledge of the age." In pursuance of his com- mission, he selected the following sixteen coad- jutors: Constantinus, comes sacrarum largitionum ; Theophilus, professor at Constantinople; Dorotheus, professor at Berytus ; Anatolius, professor at Be- rytus ; Cratinus, professor at Constantinople, and eleven advocates who practised in the courts of the praefecti praetorio, namely, Stephanus, Menna, Prosdocius, Eutolmius, Timotheus, Leonidas, Leon- tius, Plato, Jacobus, Constantinus, Joannes. This commission proceeded at once to lay under contri- bution the works of those jurists who had received from former emperors " auctoritatem conscribenda- rurc interpretandique legum." They were ordered to divide their materials, under fitting titles, into fifty books, and to pursue the arrangement of the first code and the perpetual edict. Nothing that was valuable was to be excluded, nothing that was obsolete was to be admitted, and neither repetition nor inconsistency was to be allowed. This ''juris enucieai codex" was to bear the name Digesta or Pardedae, and to be compiled with the utmost care, but with all convenient speed. Rapid indeed was the progress of the commissioners. That which Justinian scarcely hoped to see completed in less than ten years, was finished in little more than three ; and on the 30th of Dec. A. D. 533, received from the imperial sanction the authority of law. It comprehends upwards of 9000 extracts, in the selection of which the compilers made use of nearly 2000 different books, containing more than 3,000,000 (trecenties decem millia) lines (versus or (Trlxoi). (Const. Tanta, Const. AeSw/cet-.) This extraordinary work has been blamed by men of divers views on divers accounts. Tribonian and his associates, regarding rather practical utility than the curiosity of archaeologists, did not scruple at times so to adulterate the extracts they made, that a theorizer in legal history might easily be misled if he trusted implicitly to their accurac}'. Hence the emblemata Triboniani have been to many critics a fertile topic of reprehension. The com- plaints of others are levelled against scientific rather than historical delinquencies. Unity and system, say they, could result only from a single complete code of remodelled laws, and not from the lazy plan of two separate collections, made out of inde- pendent pre-existing writings ; and though, from the circumstances of the time, Justinian may have been forced to adopt the latter alternative, it was unphilosophical to commence with the constitutions in place of the jurists. Those principles which lie at the foundation of jurisprudence pervade the