Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/374

 Constitution which enjoined the preparation of this comprehensive work, to be called the "Digest," or "Pandects," was addressed to Tribonian alone, and he was left untrammelled in the choice of coadjutors in the stupendous task. No-*where throughout the Empire, indeed, was there known to be a legal library which contained all the books necessary for the compilation of the Pandects, except in the collection which had been formed with vast pains and accurate judgment by Tribonian. He now made choice of sixteen associates, and all engaged assiduously on the materials at their disposal. To their surprise, they found that the work advanced much more rapidly than had been expected, and at the end of three years they were able to announce that the Digest had assumed a practical shape. The three million sentences had been reduced to one hundred and fifty thousand, which were distributed in an orderly manner throughout the fifty books in seven categories. Among these were to be found all the matter required to enlighten the hesitating lawyer as to official duties, judicial functions, pledges, contracts, usury, nuptials, wills and codicils, legacies and trusts, relations of slaves and freemen, heirship, intestacy, liabilities of those occupying land and dwellings, crimes and punishments in "two terrible books," public works, and miscellaneous definitions. Having achieved this great work Justinian became apprehensive that it would be corrupted by copyists, wherefore he ordained that no abbreviations).]