Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

246 9. roman law
The Codex Theodosianus consists of sixteen books, each of which is subdivided
into between eleven and forty-eight titles systematically ordered
according to subject matter. In every title the laws or the excerpts thereof
follow each other in chronological order. The first book concerns the
sources of law and the higher offices of state, hence the constitution generally,
though omitting the emperor himself. The second book deals with
civil procedure and begins to address private law, which occupies the next
three books as well. Book 6 is then directed to the law relating to the upper
classes and the higher office-holders; book 7 to military law; book 8 to the
law relating to lower officials and some supplementary private law matters.
Book 9 turns to crime and criminal procedure; 10 to the ius fisci; 11 to taxation
and appeals, together with evidence; 12 to local government. Book 13
governs the public duties of those engaged in business and the liberal professions;
14 the food supply to the towns, especially to the two capital cities;
15 public entertainments; and 16 ecclesiastical law.
In contrast to the Codex Gregorianus, of whose fourteen or possibly
fifteen books thirteen had been devoted to private law, in the Theodosianus
private law occupied only four out of sixteen. The reason for this difference
lies partly in the materials which were in play, in that, while the earlier Codex
gathered mainly rescripts to individual petitioners, Theodosius’ commissioners
collected only leges generales, even though this did not exclude many
that were ephemeral in nature, such as the annual amnesties at Easter. 32
Nevertheless, the changed emphasis reflects the greater importance of
public law in the later period and its inclination towards bureaucratic solutions
– or perhaps simply the dominance of the bureaucracy. It is not to be
forgotten that the bureaucracy itself was the force behind the entire
project, while the Codex Gregorianus and the Codex Hermogenianus had been
works of private enterprise. The Codex Theodosianus is thus an invaluable
source for our understanding of the state and administration in the late
Roman empire, though in private law it leaves much to be desired. Quite
apart from the Codex’s initial imbalance, it is perhaps no coincidence that
books 2 to 5 on private law survive only in part (about one-third of what
was originally included), while the public law books have come down in full
and in remarkably good manuscripts. 33
The preparation and publication of the Codex did not bring the momentum
of the legislative machine to a halt. Even in the late 430s in the east,
and in the west chiefly in the 440s and 450s, Novels were issued in large
numbers. Immediately valid in the legislator’s own half of the empire, these
took effect in the other half only if ratified. 34 That happened only once. On
3 June 448 Valentinian III ratified a series of thirty-five Novels, 35 which his
32 C.Th. ix.38.3–8. 33 Siems (1984) 51f.; Viden (1984). 34 Nov. Theod. 1.6f.
35 Nov. Valent. 26.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008