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code and all legislation hitherto. The Laws, apparently compiled for school
use shortly after the reign of Leo I (457–74), were translated into Syriac, the
so- called Syro- Roman law book, before the end of the seventh century, and
later into Armenian, Georgian, and Arabic. The demand for and durability
of Christian Roman law were impressive, and this collection perhaps made
its mark in the Church of the East and non- Chalcedonian (miaphysite)
world by being not Justinian’s code, and therefore less tainted by association
with the repressive Chalcedonian Establishment.^28
The first edition of Justinian’s code of imperial law (lex) appeared in 529,
and a revision in 534.^29 Where Theodosius had “appended Christian matters
at the end, as a subject largely new to law,”^30 Justinian’s code started out with
a ringing declaration of Christian orthodoxy. It was accompanied by an im-
mense Digest of the body of private law/legal opinion (ius) which had got so
out of hand over the centuries—about 2,000 books, more than three million
lines boiled down to roughly 150,000^31 —and a handbook aimed at law stu-
dents, the Institutes. Both were published in 533. All these followed Diocle-
tianic rather than Theodosian precedent by reaching back into pagan times,
as far as Hadrian. Justinian could do this because he held that laws he decon-
textualized and repromulgated were baptized Christian even if originally is-
sued by pagans (just as laws he omitted lost their force ipso facto). “To the
emperor,” he declared, “God has subjected the laws themselves by sending him
to men as the living law (lex animata).”^32 Chapter 1 of the Code is titled “On
the supreme Trinity and the Catholic Faith.” Completion of the Digest is as-
cribed to the “inspiration of heaven and favour of the supreme Trinity.”^33 On
the writing of legal commentaries Justinian sought—not quite successfully—
to place limitations,^34 signaling that the polyvocal exegetical period of Roman
jurisprudence was not to be revived. It had been overtaken by—almost—a
fresh revelation, under the emperor’s auspices not those of private jurists.
The crisis precipitated by the Arab conquests did not destroy the legal
tradition. It evolved, as did political and religious life. Justinian’s Corpus con-
28 W. Selb and H. Kaufhold, Das syrische- römische Rechtsbuch (Vienna 2002).
29 C. Humfress, “Law and legal practice in the age of Justinian,” and C. Pazdernik, “Justinianic
ideolog y and the power of the past,” in Maas (ed.), Age of Justinian [1:34] 161–212; S. Corcoran, “Justin-
ian and his two codes,” Journal of juristic papyrolog y 38 (2008) 73–111.
30 S. Corcoran, “The publication of law in the era of the Tetrarchs,” in A. Demandt and others
(eds), Diokletian und die Tetrarchie (Berlin 2004) 62.
31 Constitution Ta n t a (533), prefaced to the Digest [6:15], §1.
32 Justinian, Novels [ed. W. Kroll and R. Schoell, Corpus iuris civilis 3 (Berlin 1912^4 )] 105.2.4
(536); cf. J. H. A. Lokin, “The significance of law and legislation in the law books of the ninth to eleventh
centuries,” in A. E. Laiou and D. Simon (eds), Law and society in Byzantium (Washington, D.C. 1994)
72–76, 81–82.
33 Constitution Ta n t a (533), prefaced to the Digest [6:15], §1 and cf. Preface.
34 Wieacker, Römische Rechtsgeschichte [6:10] 2.300, 325–26; cf. J. F. Haldon, Byzantium in the
seventh century (Cambridge 1990) 260 and n. 24.