Justinian: New Constitutions - Vol. Two

by Justinian I

The landmark re-codification of ancient Roman law which Christianized Europe By Late Antiquity Roman Law was seriously deteriorated and in a state of confusion. Centuries of non-systematic legal enactments by various Emperors, poorly kept records and numerous conflicting opinions presented by legal experts, especially during the even more tumultuous third to fourth centuries A. D., created a tangled web of laws and profound legal and political abuse. Justinian commissioned teams of legal scholars to completely examine and re-codify all the ancient laws of the Empire (over a thousand years of enactments and thousands of pages). They managed to eliminate the contradiction and confusion inherent in the law and to rewrite a more systematic code of laws which accounted for, but replaced all that had gone before. The Commissions accomplished this task in what can best be described as record time, producing four profound works of law - The Code, The Digest, The Institutes and The New Constitutions - collectively known as the Corpus Juris Civilis. By establishing these new legal texts as the final authority, and essentially eradicating and replacing all that had gone before, Justinian managed to restabilize the ancient western world, saving the Roman Empire in the process. These sets of laws helped prepare the way for the Christianizing of the ancient world and the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire. Samuel P. Scott's vigorous and highly readable translation of Justinian's New Constitutions, the final part of the most comprehensive re-codification of law in the history of the world, is now available for the first time in an affordable two volume paperback edition. Volume Two contains the final Three Collections of Justinians enactments, and includes two appendices and an abbreviated index derived from S. P. Scott's monumental 17 volume work of 1932, The Civil Law.

236 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2005

About the author

From 527, Saint Justinian I, originally Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Justinianus, Byzantine emperor, held the eastern frontier against the Persians; reconquered former Roman territories in Africa, Italy, and Spain; and ruled jointly with Theodora, his wife, to 565.

Belisarius, his general, led campaigns against the Vandals in north and the Ostrogoths.

Saint Theodora, Byzantine empress, ruled jointly with Justinian I, her husband.


Saint Justinian I, traditionally also known as the Great in the Orthodox Church, reigned. During reign, Justinian sought to revive the greatness and the lost historical western half. Justinian constitutes a distinct epoch in the later history, and the ambitious but only partly realized "restoration" marked his reign.

Because of restoration activities, modern historiography sometimes called the "last" Justinian I. The partial recovery of the defunct west expressed this ambition. Belisarius, his general, swiftly eliminated the Vandal kingdom in north. After the kingdom of Ostrogoths for more than half a century, Belisarius, Narses, and other generals subsequently restored Dalmatia and Sicily. Liberius, the prefect, reclaimed the south of the Iberian peninsula and thus established the province. These campaigns again established control over the western Mediterranean and increased the annual revenue over a million solidi. During reign, Justinian also subdued the Tzani, a people on the coast of the Black Sea.

A still more resonant aspect of legacy of Justinian I rewrote the Corpus Juris Civilis, still the basis of uniform civil law in many modern states. His reign also marked a blossoming of culture, and his building program yielded such masterpieces as the church of Hagia Sophia. A devastating outbreak of bubonic plague in the early 540s marked the end of an age of splendor.