Justinian's codification
Justinian's codificationis a term loosely used to describe the three volumes (Codex, Digesta or Pandectae, Institutiones) in which Justinian (AD 527–65) tried to restate the whole of Roman law in a manageable and consistent form, though this restatement, which runs to over a million words, is too bulky and ill-arranged to count as a codification in the modern sense.
Ninety years after the Theodosian Code of 438 a new codex (collection of laws) was needed to collect the laws enacted in the intervening period. Justinian, with a keen sense of his predecessors' neglect and his own superior dedication, seized the opportunity to carry out part of the programme envisaged by Theodosius II in 429. This involved including all imperial laws in one volume and ensuring that the laws in it were consistent with one another (C. Haec pref.). Within a few months of becoming emperor in 527, he ordered a commission of ten, mostly...
[The entire page is 1339 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
