154 Lafferty
abdication this imperial policy came to an abrupt end. Now the dams broke,
especially after Constantine the Great, whom Levy regards as the first official
exponent of vulgar law—a sentiment shared by the emperor Julian (331/32–
63) as an “innovator and disturber of the ancient laws and of custom received
long ago”.17 Vulgar law became universal in the East and the West in decrees of
Constantine and Julian, of Honorius and Arcadius, even after the legislation
became dual (429) in the Novels of Theodosius II and of Valentinian III.18
Levy rightly considers that the spread of vulgar law in the West over the
course of the 4th and 5th centuries was due in large measure to its tendency
towards popularization, away from the technicalities of the classical structure,
and the desire for regulations adapted to the conditions of the time. Related to
Caracalla’s universal grant of citizenship was the spreading relaxation of legal
discipline. A corollary to this was a decline in legal erudition, associated with a
drop in the number of skilled legal professionals. The result was the emergence
of a new type of law. Adhering neither to traditional niceties nor to strict con-
cepts, this law was unable or simply unwilling to match the standards of the
artistic and comprehensive elaboration of logical construction that defined
classical jurisprudence.19 The establishment of the Dominate, the economic
and social revolution, and the administrative procedure of the cognitio led to
a fresh law full of fertile innovation, which was better suited to the needs and
understanding of the common man than the old. This was the vulgar law.20
In sharp contrast to this vulgarization of Roman law were the classicizing
efforts of the jurists in Constantinople. These conservative theorists despised
the heterogeneous vulgar law and continued to interpret the works of the
great classical jurists and the constitutiones of the emperors by applying the
old scholarly methods. Their classicizing tendencies culminated in the crown-
ing achievement of Roman legal science, namely the Corpus Iuris Civilis of the
emperor Justinian (r. 527–65).21 It was a counter-revolution against the intru-
sions of the vulgar law. In the West, vulgar law continued to evolve unham-
pered, amalgamating from the end of the 5th century with the appearance of
17 Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae 21.10.8, ed. and trans. Rolfe: “novator turbatorque pris-
carum legum et moris antiquitus recepti.”
18 Levy, Pauli sententiae, id., “Vulgarization of Roman Law”, pp. 14–40; id., West Roman Vulgar
Law.
19 Levy, West Roman Vulgar Law, p. 7.
20 Levy’s theories have found many adherents including, e.g., Fischer-Drew, “Germanic
Family”, pp. 5–14; id., “Barbarian Kings”, pp. 7–29; Honoré, “Ausonius and Vulgar Law”,
pp. 79–82; Sirks, “Shifting Frontiers”, pp. 146–57.
21 Stein, Roman Law, pp. 32–6.