The Law 167
and others were the result of changes in Italian society following the collapse
of imperial authority and the arrival of the Goths in the peninsula.69
In revising existing but increasingly outdated Roman law, the compilers of
the Edictum Theoderici were simply adhering to tradition. For centuries emper-
ors, prefects, and jurists adapted Roman law according to current exigencies.
While Constantine was to some extent an ‘innovator’ of the laws, as his nephew
Julian described him, he was simply acknowledging the current state of affairs.
By the early 4th century, the law which in fact operated in the provinces of
the western Roman Empire was an admixture of civil law and local custom,
differing from region to region and sharing little of the sophistication, com-
plexity, and technical precision that characterized purely classical Roman law
from earlier centuries. It is from this perspective that we should understand
the Edictum Theoderici. It did not mark a break from Rome’s classical legal past,
nor—more importantly—did it signify a decline in legal erudition. While the
compilers lacked the artistic and rhetorical skills of jurists like Gaius, Ulpian,
and Tribonian, there is nothing inherently alien or inferior about their work.
On the contrary, they steered a subtle course between the strict formalities of
classical jurisprudence and the demands of local custom. Their efforts offer a
revealing glimpse into the profound social, political, and economic changes
that marked Italy’s passage from antiquity into the Middle Ages.
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69 On these developments see Lafferty, Law and Society, especially ch. 2.