Codex Theodosianus

437. John F. Matthews illustrates the importance of

Theodosius Code when he said, the Theodosian Code
was the rst occasion since the Twelve Tables on which a
Roman government had attempted by public authority to
collect and publish its leges.[5] The code covers political,
socioeconomic, cultural and religious subjects of the 4th
and 5th century in the Roman Empire.[6]
A collection of imperial enactments called the Codex Gregorianus had been written in c. 291-4[1] and the Codex
Hermogenianus, a limited collection of rescripts from c.
295,[1] was published. Theodosius desired to create a
code that would provide much greater insight into law
during the later Empire (321-429). According to Peter
Stein, Theodosius was perturbed at the low state of legal skill in his empire of the East. He apparently started
a school of law at Constantinople. In 429 he assigned a
commission to collect all imperial constitutions since the
time of Constantine.[7] The laws in the code span from
312-438, so by 438 the volume of imperial law had become unmanageable.[8]
During the process of gathering the vast amount of material, often editors would have multiple copies of the same
law. In addition to this, the source material the editors
were drawing upon changed over time. Cliord Ando
A bust of Theodosius II in the Louvre.
notes that according to Matthews, the editors displayed
a reliance on western provincial sources through the late
The Codex Theodosianus (Eng. Theodosian Code) was a 4th century and on central, eastern archives thereafter.[9]
compilation of the laws of the Roman Empire under the
Christian emperors since 312. A commission was estab- After six years an initial version was nished in 435, but
lished by Theodosius II and his co-emperor Valentinian it was not published, instead it was improved upon and
III on 26 March 429[1][2] and the compilation was pub- expanded and nally nished in 438 and taken to the Senlished by a constitution of 15 February 438. It went into ate in Rome and Constantinople. Matthews believes that
force in the eastern and western parts of the empire on 1 the two attempts are not a result of a failed rst attempt,
but instead the second attempt shows reiteration and reJanuary 439.[1]
nement of the original goals at a new stage in the editorial process.[10] Others have put forth alternate theories
to explain the lengthy editorial process and two dierent
1 Development
commissions. Boudewijn Sirks believes that the code
was compiled from imperial copy books found at ConOn March 26, 429, Emperor Theodosius II announced to stantinople, Rome, or Ravenna, supplemented by matethe senate of Constantinople his intentions to form a com- rial at a few private collections, and that the delays were
mittee to codify all of the laws (leges, singular lex) from caused by such problems as verifying the accuracy of the
the reign of Constantine up to Theodosius II and Valen- text and improving the legal coherence of the work.[11]
tinian III. Twenty-two scholars, working in two teams,
The tone of the work reected the rhetorical training that
worked for nine years starting in 429 to assemble what
the
drafters had received and Averil Cameron has dewas to become the Theodosian Code.[3] The chief overscribed it as verbose, moralizing and pretentious.[12]
seer of the work was Antiochus Chuzon, a lawyer and a
Prefect and Consul from Antioch.[4]
Their product was a collection of 16 books containing
more than 2,500 constitutions issued between 313 and
1

6 NOTES

Context

Week, and the doors of all courts of law be closed during

those 15 days (1. ii. tit. viii.).

The Code was written in Latin and referred explicitly to

the two capitals of Constantinople (Constantinopolitana)
and Rome (Roma).[13] It was also concerned with the im- 4 Sources
position of orthodoxy - the Arian controversy was ongoing - within the Christian religion and contains 65 decrees Books 1-5 lack the level of manuscript support availdirected at heretics.[14]
able for books 6-16. The rst ve books of the surOriginally, Theodosius had attempted to commission viving Codex draw largely from two other manuscripts.
leges generales beginning with Constantine to be used as a The Turin manuscript, also known as T, consists of 43,
[19]
supplement for the Codex Gregorianus and the Codex Her- largely discontinuous folios. The second manuscript is
mogenianus. He intended to supplement the legal codes the Breviary of Alaric, and a good part of the Breviarium
with the opinions and writings of ancient Roman Jurists, that is included in book 1 actually contains the original
[19]
much like the Digest found later in Justinians Code. But text of the respective part of the original codex.
the task proved to be too great, and in 435 it was decided The latter part of the Codex, books 6-16, drew largely
to concentrate solely on the laws from Constantine to the from two texts as well. Books 6-8 of the Codex were
time of writing. This decision dened the greatest dier- preserved in the text of a document known as Parsinus
ence between the Theodosian Code and Justinians later 9643.[20] The document circulated early medieval French
Corpus Juris Civilis.
libraries, as well as the other formative document for the
John F. Matthews observes, The Theodosian Code does, latter part of the code, a document held in the Vatican
[20]
however, dier from the work of Justinian (except the (Vat. Reg. 886), also known as V. Scholars consider
this
section
to
have
been
transmitted
completely.[20]
Novellae), in that it was largely based not on existing juristic writings and collections of texts, but on primary
sources that had never before been brought together.[15]
Justinians Code, published about 100 years later, com- 5 English translation
prised both ius, law as an interpretive discipline, and
leges, the primary legislation upon which the interpre- The Theodosian Code was translated into English, with
tation was based.[16] While the rst part, or Codex, of annotations, in 1952 by Clyde Pharr and others.[21]
Justinians Corpus Civilis Juris contained 12 books of constitutions, or imperial laws, the second and third parts, the
Digest and the Institutiones, contained the ius of Classical
6 Notes
Roman jurists and the Institutes of Gaius.
While the Theodosian Code may seem to lack a personal
facet due to the absence of judicial reviews, upon further review the legal code can give us insight into Theodosius motives behind the codication. Lenski quotes
Matthews as noting that the imperial constitutions represented not only prescriptive legal formulas but also descriptive pronouncements of an emperors moral and ideological principles.[17]

Christianity

[1] Codex Theodosianus in The Oxford Dictionary of

Byzantium, Oxford University Press, New York & Oxford,
1991, p. 475. ISBN 0195046528
[2] LacusCurtius Roman Law Theodosian Code (Smiths
Dictionary, 1875)
[3] Lenski, pg. 337-340
[4] Antiochus Chuzon in The Oxford Classical Dictionary.
Online edition. Oxford University Press, 2012. Retrieved
15 November 2013.
[5] Matthews, p. 17

Apart from clearing up confusion and creating a single, [6] Matthews, pg. 10-18
simplied and supercedent code, Theodosius II was also [7] Peter Stein, pp. 37-38
attempting to solidify Christianity as the ocial religion
of the Empire, after it had been decriminalised under [8] Susan Martin, p. 510
Galerius rule and promoted under Constantines. In his [9] Cliord Ando, p. 200
City of God, St. Augustine praised Theodosius the Great,
Theodosius IIs grandfather, who shared his faith and de- [10] Michael Alexander, p. 191
votion to its establishment, as a Christian ruler whose [11] Michael Alexander, p. 191-193
piety was expressed by the laws he had issued in favor of
[12] Cameron, A. (1998) Education and literary culture in
the Catholic Church.[18]
The Codex Theodosianus, is, for example, explicit in ordering that all actions at law should cease during Holy

Cameron, A. and Garnsey, P. (eds.) The Cambridge ancient history: Vol. XIII The late empire, A.D. 337-425.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 683.

[13] Tituli Ex Corpore Codici Theodosiani

[14] Mango, Cyril, (2002) Oxford History of Byzantium. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 105
[15] Matthews, p. 12
[16] Matthews, pp. 10-12

Codex Theodosianus. Liber V - Le Code Thodosien,

Livre V. Texte latin d'aprs l'dition de Th. Mommsen. Traduction franaise, introduction et notes.
d. par Sylvie Crogiez, Pierre Jaillette, Jean-Michel
Poinsotte. Turnout, Brepols, 2009 (Codex Theodosianus - Le Code Thodosien (CTH), vol. 5).

[17] Lenski, pg. 331

[18] Matthew, p. 8
[19] Matthews, pp. 87
[20] Matthews, pp. 86
[21] Clyde Pharr (in collaboration with Theresa S. Davidson
and Mary B. Pharr), The Theodosian Code and Novels and
the Sirmondian Constitutions, a Translation with a Commentary, Glossary and Bibliography (1952). For a description of how this project was carried out, see Linda
Jones Hall, Clyde Pharr, the Women of Vanderbilt, and
the Wyoming Judge: the Story behind the Translation of
the Theodosian Code in Mid-Century America, 8 Roman
Legal Tradition 1, 3 (2012), available at . See also Timothy Kearley, Justice Fred Blume and the Translation of
Justinians Code, 99 Law Library Journal 525, 536-545
(2007), available at .

References
ACTI. Auxilium in Codices Theodosianum Iustinianumque investigandos, Iole Fargnoli (cur.), LED
Edizioni Universitarie, Milano 2009, ISBN 978-887916-403-0
Alexander, Michael C. (Spring 1995). Review:
The Theodosian Code by Jill Harries; Ian Wood.
Law and History Review (University of Illinois
Press) 13 (1): 190192. doi:10.2307/743979.
Buckland, W. W. (1993). A Textbook of Roman
Law from Augustus to Justinian. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 3738.
Lenski, Noel (FebruaryMarch 2003). Review:
Laying Down the Law. A Study of the Theodosian
Code by John Matthews. The Classical Journal
(The Classical Association of the Middle West and
South, Inc.) 98 (3): 337340.
Martin, Susan D. (October 1995). Review: The
Theodosian Code by Jill Harries; Ian Wood. The
American Journal of Legal History (Temple University) 39 (4): 510511.
Matthews, John F. (2000). Laying Down the Law:
A Study of the Theodosian Code. New York, NY:
Yale University Press.
Tellegen-Couperus, Olga (1993). A Short History of
Roman Law. New York, NY: Routledge. pp. 138
141.

8 External links
Primary sources:
Codex Theodosianus (Latin), ancientrome.ru.
Codex Theodosianus (Latin) (only books 1-9), Ed.
Mommsen, Meyer, & Krueger (Latin). Website
upmf-grenoble.fr.
(English) A list of imperial laws of 311 until 431
contains summaries of many laws involving religion from the Theodosian code and other sources,
in chronological order.
(English) Codex Theodosianus XI-7-13; XV-5-1,
12-1; XVI-1-2, 5-1, 5-3, 7-1, 10-4 (on
Religion), English translation Oliver J. Thatcher
e.a., 1907. Website fordham.edu.
Secondary sources:
Codex Theodosianus by George Long in A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray,
London, 1875.
Codex Theodosianus Information on the code and
its manuscript tradition on the Bibliotheca legum regni Francorum manuscripta website. A database
on Carolingian secular law texts (Karl Ubl, Cologne
University, Germany).

9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

9.1

Text

Codex Theodosianus Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Theodosianus?oldid=671283535 Contributors: Llywrch, Raven in Orbit, Adam Bishop, Robbot, Postdlf, Kuralyov, MakeRocketGoNow, An Siarach, Mairi, Giraedata, Grutness, Ghirlandajo, SDC, G.W.,
Rjwilmsi, BerndGehrmann~enwiki, FlaBot, Valentinian, CJLL Wright, YurikBot, Pvasiliadis, Dppowell, Pegship, Anclation~enwiki, Dpwkbw, Flamarande, Hmains, Cplakidas, Neddyseagoon, Richard Keatinge, Hemlock Martinis, Cydebot, Cynwolfe, Xn4, GoldenMeadows,
CommonsDelinker, Ash, Amcde, Corriebertus, Ajwest1983, GrahamHardy, Idioma-bot, Margacst, Brando130, Rei-bot, Broadbot, DumZiBoT, Addbot, Atethnekos, SpBot, Luckas-bot, Xqbot, Erud, Theodosian Code, TCode, Noailles, RjwilmsiBot, WikitanvirBot, ZroBot,
F, Renato de carvalho ferreira, SporkBot, Philafrenzy, Davidiad, BattyBot, YFdyh-bot, Hmainsbot1, Markunit23, Beaglepack, KasparBot
and Anonymous: 22

9.2

Images

File:Theodosius_II_Louvre_Ma1036.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Theodosius_II_Louvre_

Ma1036.jpg License: CC BY 2.5 Contributors: Marie-Lan Nguyen (User:Jastrow), 2009 Original artist: ?

9.3

Content license

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