A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

.JUSTINIANUS. JUSTINIANUS. 667
reform and consolidation. From the time oT Con- h6w short was destined'to be the duration of his
stantine, the fresh and vigorous spirit of the clas- own new code! (Const. Summa Reipublicae.)
sical jurists seems to have vanished. Many of the At the end of the following year (Const. Deo
most-active intellects were now turned away from Auctore, dated Dec. 15. A. D. 530), Tribonian,
legal to religious discussions. Jurisprudence, no who had given proof of his great ability in drawing
longer the pursuit of the minister and statesman, up the code, was authorised to select fellow-labourers
became the handicraft of freedmen.:(Mamert. to assist him in the other division of the underPanegyr. x. 20.) The law was oppressed by its taking —a part of Justinian's plan which the emown weight. The complexity of practice, the long peror justly regarded as the most difficult, but also
series of authoritative writings, the unwieldy bulk as the most important and the most glorious. Triof express enactments, and the multitude of volu- bonian was endowed with rare qualifications for
minous commentators, were sufficient to bewilder such an appointment. He was himself deeply
the most resolute jurist. In the midst of conflicting learned in law, and possessed in his library a matchtexts, it was hard to find out where the true law less collection of legal sources. He had passed
lay. By the citation law of Theodosius II. and through many gradations of rank, knew mankind
Valentinian III. (Theod. Cod. 1. tit. 4. s. 3), the well, and was remarkable for energy and persevermajority of juristic suffrages was substituted for the ance. " His genius," says Gibbon, " like that of
victory of scientific reasoning. [GAIUS, p. 196.] Bacon, embraced as its own all the business and
The schools of law established by Theodosius II. knowledge of the age." In pursuance of his comat Rome and Constantinople (Cod. 11, tit.' 18) mission, he selected the following sixteen coadwere unable to revive the practical energy of former jutors: Constantinus, comes sacrarum largitionum;
times. A host of pedants and pretenders came into Theophilus, professor at Constantinople; Dorotheus,
existence. Some quoted at second-hand the names professor at Berytus; Anatolius, professor at Beof ancient jurists, whose works they had never read, rytus:; Cratinus, professor at Constantinople, and
while others derided all appeal to scarce and anti- eleven advocates who practised in the courts of the
quated books, which they boasted that they. had praefecti praetorio, namely, Stephanus, Menna,
never seen. To them the name of an old jurist Prosdocius, Eutolmius, Timotheus, Leonidas, Leonwas no better than the name of some outlandish tius, Plato, Jacobus, Constantinus, Joannes. This
fish. (Amm. Marcell. xxx. 4; Jac. Gothofredus, commission proceeded at once to lay under contriProlegomena ad Theod. Cod. i.) bution the works of those jurists who had received
Such were the evils which Justinian resolved to from former emperors " auctoritatem conscribendaremedy. In his conceptions of the measures neces- rum interpretandique legumn." They were ordered
sary for this purpose he was more vast than all to divide their materials, under fitting titles, into
who had preceded him, and he was more successful fifty books, and to pursue the arrangement of the
in the complete execution of his plan. It. seems first code and the perpetual edict. Nothing that
to have been his intention to establish a perfect was valuable was to be excluded, nothing that was
system of written legislation for all his dominions; obsolete was to be admitted, and neither repetition
and, to this end, to make two great collections, one nor inconsistency was to be allowed. This "juris
of the imperial constitutions, the other of all that enucleati codex" was to bear the name Digesta or
was valuable in the works of jurists. He was per- Pandectae, and to be compiled with the utmost
sonally not unacquainted with the theory and the care, but with all convenient speed. Rapid indeed
working of the law; for, in his youth, he had de- was the progress of the commissioners. That
voted careful attention to the study of jurisprudence which Justinian scarcely hoped to see completed
ft Constantinople; and, in his manhood, had dis- in less than ten years, was finished in little more
charged the duties of the'most important offices in than three; and on the 30th of Dec. A. D. 533,
the state. received from the imperial sanction the authority
The first work attempted by Justinian, as the of law. It comprehends upwards of 9000 extracts,
most practical and the most pressing, was the col- in the selection of which the compilers made use of
lection of imperial constitutions. This he com- nearly 2000 different books, containing more than'menced in A.D.- 528, in the second year of his 3,000,000 (trecenties decem millia) lines (versus
reign. The task was entrusted to a commission of or orlXoL). (Const. Tanta, Const. A'8oWKEv.)
ten, who are named in the following order:' Jo- This extraordinary work has been blamed by
annes, Leontius, Phocas, Basilides, Thomas, Tri- men of divers views on divers accounts. Tribonian
bonianus, Constantinus, Theophilus, Dioscorus, and his associates, regarding rather practical utility
Praesentinus. (Const. Haec quae aiecessario.)'In than the curiosity of archaeologists, did not scruple
compiling preceding constitutions, and making'use at times so to adulterate the extracts they made,
of the Gregorian, Hermogenian, and Theodosian that a theorizer in legal history might easily be
Codes, the- commission -was armed with very ample misled if he trusted implicitly to their accuracy.
powers. It was authorized to correct and retrench, Hence the emblemata Triboniani have been to many
as well as to consolidate and arrange. The com- critics a fertile topic of reprehension. The commissioners executed their task speedily. In the plaints of others are levelled against scientific rather
following year, on the 7th'of April, A. D. 529, the than historical delinquencies. Unity and system,
emperor confirmed the "Novum Justinianeum:* say they, could result only from a single complete
Codicem," giving it legal force from the 16th of code of remodelled laws, and not from the lazy
April following, and abolishing from the same date plan of two separate collections, made out of indeall preceding collections. Little did he then'think pendent pre-existing writings; and though, from
the circumstances of the time, Justinian may have
been forced to adopt the latter alternative, it was
* This is the adjective used by Justinian him- unphilosophical to commence with the constitutions
self. The purer Latin form would be "Justini- in-place of the jurists. Those principles which lie
anus Codex," like "Theodosianus Codex." at the foundation of- jurisprudence pervade the