Code of Théodose

The Code Théodosien ( Codex Theodosianus in Latin) is a collection of imperial decisions (Roman law) promulgated by the Roman Emperor Théodose II.

First official collection of this kind, carried out on order of the emperor of the East Théodose II which prescribed to gather in a work the general constitutions emitted since the reign of Constantin Ier. The Code was promulgated with Constantinople on February 15th 438, as testifies some the Novelle I De Theodosiani Codicis auctoritate addressed to the prefect to the court of the Florentius East. Chapter 3 of this Novelle indicates that starting from the calends of nobody January could call upon texts not appearing in the Code; chapter 6 stipulates that the laws not referred in the Code at the date of its publication will be rejected like false , except for the relative tendencies with the military, tax and administrative businesses.

The senate of Rome took note officially of the work on December 25th 438.

The Codex Theodosianus came into effect on January 1st, 439.

The realization of the Théodosien Code

Théodose II decided to make carry out the first official collection of imperial ordinances, while prescribing to gather in a work the general constitutions emitted since the reign of Constantin Ier. The need for a coding then felt by the capacity probably answered various needs. The ones, which formally were certainly never expressed, translate a double will of the State: on the one hand, that to affirm its existence in times of relative political uncertainty - even if the leave Orientis knows a relative stability then - and major changes; other, that to register its action in this long life to which refer regularly the laws when they affirm, while resorting to expressions which are perhaps not only the reflection of the style sometimes emphatic of the texts of the imperial chancellery, the idea of eternity of the Empereur and of the perenniality of its legislation. The others are openly evoked in the provisions taken to carry out the work.

The promulgation of the Théodosien Code is actually the result of a step which it is necessary to replace in its globality.

Five measurements adopted by the emperor between 425 and 438 make it possible to recall it. February 27th 425, Théodose II makes an energetic provision to regulate the teaching of the Liberal arts with Constantinople: it decides to draw aside from “vulgar ostentation all those without exception which, usurping the title of Masters, took the practice to join together around them, publicly, in rooms and classes, pupils gathered of everywhere”, the threat of expulsion if they do not yield with his injunction and sets up, for submission to “glorious adolescence”, a made up auditorium speakers, sophists and of grammairiens teaching in Greek and Latin to which will be assistant - “such will be the will of the emperor” underlines the text - a professor which “will scan the mysteries of the Philosophie and two professors who will expose the formulas of the Droit and the Loi S.” This lesson, specifies the law, will be exempted in buildings specific to each one of them, so that “the noise of the ones and others does not importune main and pupils” and “that the mixture of the languages and the voices does not divert the ears and the spirits of certain pupils of the study of the letters. ”

Three weeks later, on March 15th, a single constitution preserved at title 21 of Book VI pennies the heading Of professoribus, which in urbe light Constantinopolitana docentes ex meruerint comitivam (she is addressed to the prefect of the Town of Constantinople Theophilus) grants the title of count of first order a certain number of teachers appointed by name, among which Leontius law professor; the title will be also conceded “with those which will have exerted with competence during twenty years in the auditorium”: it is to some extent about one promotion by seniority aiming at rewarding the good Masters. These measurements constitute the base which will allow shortly after the opening of the building site leading to the development then the promulgation of the coding which will bear the name of the emperor. The third provision, that of March 26th 429, envisaged the realization, under the aegis of a commission of nine members chaired by Antiochus, former questeur of the palate and Préfet of the court, of two works: one, conceived on model of codes Gregorian and hermogénien (codes which is the fruit of private initiatives), “would gather by chronological order all the constitutions suggested by famous Constantin, the princes which succeeded to him and ourselves acts of Théodose, constitutions based on the force of the edicts or their universal and crowned nature”. The other would be a monumental combination of the codes Gregorian and hermogénien, Code théodosien once published and opinions of the lawyers, “to show with all what must be followed and what must be avoided. ” Comparable in its principle with the compilation known under the name of “Fragments of the Vatican”, the work would be used to the specialists and for the experts of the right: it would support neither errors nor ambiguities.

It was a daring project, which supposed to gather thousands of constitutions; it was a project difficult to implement, taking into account the varied nature of the imperial provisions and the formal modifications which they had been able to take during posting. Which version of the texts was it then necessary to record? It was finally a devourer project of time: it would indeed force to gather texts filed in various deposits, by hoping moreover that their material conditions of conservation did not deteriorate them. The commission put itself at work, but it could not however hope to see its work succeeding quickly: several years would be passed before the works are not born.

However, a little more than six years after, on December 20th 435, Théodose II took a new measurement often interpreted like a radical inflection of the initial program. Here what in particular the fourth provision provides:

“That all the edictal and general constitutions which one ordered the validity or posting in the provinces or precise places, constitutions that divine Constantin and the princes which succeeded to him as ourselves promulgated, are distinguished by titles indicating their contents, so that most recent can appear clearly not only by calculation of the consulates and the days but also by the order of their composition. And if one of them must be divided into several chapters, each one of them will be separated from different and will be placed under the suitable title; will be cut off from each constitution what does not relate to the force of the sanction, and the right alone will be preserved”.

Stripped what does not refer to the sanctio - this part of the law which establishes the sorrow against those which do not respect the law, as the Institutiones indicate it - the laws, reduced to their device, will be thus immediately understandable.

The interpretation of the laws of 429 and 435 caused very erudite debates: should it be considered that of 435 put definitively fine at the project of 429 or that, vis-a-vis the unequal rate/rhythm with which work advanced, it now envisaged to publish the collection of laws as soon as possible and to defer to later putting into circulation of the light work of and juice ? At all events, the provision of 435 somewhat modifies the prospects for that of 429: the texts published indeed do not correspond to the original version of the provisions, since “those charged to undertake this work” were authorized “to cut off the useless words, to add the terms necessary, to modify the ambiguous passages and to amend incongruities. ”

Entrusted at a commission of sixteen members - of which some formed already part of that indicated in 429 - the mission was concluded in record time: a specimen of the Code lately completed indeed was given in October 437 to the young emperor of Occident Valentinien III at the time of its celebrated weddings with Constantinople with Licinia Eudoxia, girl of Théodose II; as will recall it in 438 Anicius Achillius Glabrio Faustus, one of the members of the Western delegation which had accompanied Valentinien III: “the happiness of the eternal princes progresses and grows at a point such as it provides with the ornaments of peace those which it defends by the weapons. Last year, whereas I accompanied, mark of my devotion, the very happy union of the crowned people, the prince very crowned our Théodose lord wanted, once the weddings concluded with happiness, to also add to its universe a testimony of dignity, namely: it ordered to lay down the rules to be followed in the universe according to the precepts of the laws gathered in a work of sixteen books which it wanted to see devoted to its very crowned name. This measurement, the prince eternal our Valentinien lord, approved it by the devotion of a associate and the affection of a son. ”

The Code was promulgated with Constantinople on February 15th 438, as testifies some the Novelle I De Theodosiani Codicis auctoritate : addressed to the prefect of the court of the Florentius East, this provision - the fifth - indicates, in its 3, qu chapter' starting from the calends of nobody January could not call upon texts not appearing in the Code and specifies, in its chapter 6, that “the laws not referred in the Code at the date of its publication will be rejected like false”; an exception: relative tendencies with the military, tax and administrative businesses.

The senate of Rome took note officially of the work on December 25th 438 at a meeting held in the residence of Anicius Achillius Glabrio Faustus and whose unfolding is known to us by the Gesta senatus romani of Theodosiano publicando : this document, discovered in 1820, is without any doubt exceptional, since it is about the only shorthand which reached us of the thousands of meetings that the Senate of Rome held since its origins. In paragraph 3 of this official report published by the care of Flavius Laurentius, exceptor amplissimi senatus - secretary of meeting -, one reads this:

The clarissime and illustrates Anicius Achillius Glabrio Faustus, former prefect of the City - it was it with three recoveries -, prefect of the court and consul ordinary, known as: the emperor us having thus convened, illustrates me and it prefect of the court of the East of this time, it ordered his divine hand which are given to the one and the other a specimen of the code, to send with respect in all its universe; thus, among his first concerns, the very crowned prince ordered that is offered to the knowledge of your Sublimity the object of its precaution. By order of the two princes, I directly received the code in clean hands. The constitutionnaires are present: if it likes your Size, that your Size orders that are read again for you these same laws for which they gave the order that it is made by it thus, so that we obey without reserve with the attachment which is appropriate for the very advised precepts of the eternal princes.

Faustus carried out then the reading of the law of 429, before indicating that it would take care that the Code is copied in three specimens - one intended for the prefecture of the court, the second with the urban prefecture, the third with the constitutionnaires; an additional specimen will be reproduced by the constitutionnaires and dispatched by their care in the province of Africa.

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