Codex Theodosianus

File:Paris, BnF Ms Latin 9643 fol 62v-63r Excerpt (7.10-7.11) from the Codex Theodosianus.jpg

Excerpt (7.10-7.11) from a 6th-century manuscript of books 6-8 of the Codex Theodosianus.

The Codex Theodosianus ("Theodosian Code") is a compilation of the laws of the Roman Empire made by the Christian emperors from 311 A.D. until 437 A.D. A commission was established by Emperor Theodosius II and his co-emperor Valentinian III on 26 March 429 and the compilation was published by a constitution of 15 February 438. It went into force in the eastern and western parts of the empire on 1 January 439. About one-quarter of the original text of the codex is also found in the Breviary of Alaric (also called Lex Romana Visigothorum), promulgated on 2 February 506 by Visigoth King Alaric II.

Development

File:Theodosius II Louvre Ma1036.jpg

A bust of Theodosius II in the Louvre

On 26 March 429, Emperor Theodosius II announced to the Senate of Constantinople his intention to form a committee to codify all of the laws (leges, singular lex) from the reign of Constantine up to Theodosius II and Valentinian III. The laws in the code span from 311 to 438, so by 438 the "volume of imperial law had become unmanageable". Twenty-two scholars, working in two teams, worked for nine years starting in 429 to assemble what was to become the Theodosian Code. The chief overseer of the work was Antiochus Chuzon, a lawyer and a prefect and consul from Antioch.

Their product was a collection of 16 books containing more than 2,500 constitutions issued between 311 and 437, while, at the same time, omitting obsolete provisions and superfluous phrases, and making additions, emendations, and alterations. John F. Matthews illustrated the importance of Theodosius' code when he said, "the Theodosian Code was the first occasion since the Twelve Tables on which a Roman government had attempted by public authority to collect and publish its leges." The code covers political, socioeconomic, cultural, and religious subjects of the 4th and 5th centuries in the Roman Empire.

A collection of imperial enactments called the Codex Gregorianus had been written in c. 291–4 and the Codex Hermogenianus, a limited collection of rescripts from c. 295, was published. The Sirmondian Constitutions may also represent a small-scale collection of imperial laws. However, Theodosius desired to create a more comprehensive code that would provide greater insight into law during the later empire (321–429). Peter Stein states, "Theodosius was perturbed at the low state of legal skill in his empire of the East." Theodosius started a school of law at Constantinople. In 429, he assigned a commission to collect all imperial constitutions since the time of Constantine.

While gathering the vast amount of material, editors often had multiple copies of the same law. In addition to this, the source material the editors were drawing upon changed over time. Clifford Ando notes that according to Matthews, the editors "displayed a reliance on western provincial sources through the late 4th century and on central, eastern archives thereafter."

After 6 years, an initial version was finished in 435 but was not published. Instead, it was improved upon and expanded and finally finished in 438 and taken to the Senate in Rome and Constantinople. Matthews believes that the two attempts are not the result of a failed first attempt; however, the second attempt shows "reiteration and refinement of the original goals at a new stage in the editorial process". Others have put forth alternate theories to explain the lengthy editorial process and two different commissions. Boudewijn Sirks believes that "the code was compiled from imperial copy books found at Constantinople, Rome, or Ravenna, supplemented by material at a few private collections, and that the delays were caused by such problems as verifying the accuracy of the text and improving the legal coherence of the work."

The tone of the work reflected the rhetorical training that the drafters had received, and Averil Cameron has described it as "verbose, moralizing and pretentious".

Context

The code was written in Latin and referred explicitly to the two capitals of Constantinople (Constantinopolitana) and Rome (Roma). It was also concerned with the imposition of orthodoxy – the Arian controversy was ongoing – within the Christian religion and contains 65 decrees directed at heretics.

Initially, Theodosius attempted to commission leges generales beginning with Constantine as a supplement for the Codex Gregorianus and the Codex Hermogenianus. He intended to supplement the legal codes with the opinions and writings of ancient Roman jurists, much like the digest found later in Justinian's Code. But the task proved too great, and in 435, it was decided to concentrate solely on the laws from Constantine to the time of writing.

Matthews observes, "The Theodosian Code does, however, differ from the work of Justinian (except the 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." Justinian's Code, published about 100 years later, comprised both ius, "law as an interpretive discipline", and leges, "the primary legislation upon which the interpretation was based". While the first part, or codex, of Justinian's 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 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 gives insight into Theodosius' motives behind the codification. Lenski quotes Matthews as noting that the "imperial constitutions represented not only prescriptive legal formulas but also descriptive pronouncements of an emperor's moral and ideological principles".

Christianity

Apart from clearing up confusion and creating a single, simplified, and supersedent code, Theodosius II also attempted to solidify Christianity as the Empire's official religion after it had been decriminalised under Galerius' rule and promoted under Constantine's. In his City of God, St. Augustine praised Theodosius the Great, Theodosius II's grandfather, who shared his faith and devotion, as "a Christian ruler whose piety was expressed by the laws he had issued in favor of the Catholic Church".

The Codex Theodosianus is, for example, explicit in ordering that all actions at law should cease during Holy Week, and the doors of all courts of law be closed during those 15 days (1. ii. tit. viii.). It also instituted laws punishing homosexuality, which represented a departure from policy under the period of the Roman Republic, under which homosexuality was tolerated and perhaps mocked but was not illegal.

The first laws granting tax exemption to the church appear in the Codex and are credited to Constantine and his son Constantius II. These laws specify land owned by clergy, their family members, and churches were exempt from compulsory service and tax payments with the exception of land personally owned by the clerics.

Jews and Judaism

The code had a contradictory posture regarding Jews and Judaism. In general, its language is marked by the rhetorical conventions of the patristic contra Iudaeus tradition, describing Judaism as a "feral" and "nefarious sect" and as a "polluting contagion." One provision, 16.8.19, reclassified Judaism as a superstitio and described it as a "perversity alien to the Roman Empire." The code restricted Jewish participation in public life, barred Jews from positions in the military, in the legal profession, and in the imperial service.

Jews were lumped together with pagans and heretics as groups demarcating the limits of acceptable Roman religio, as orthodoxy came to mean not only the right way of being Christian, but the right way of being Roman. However, the code simultaneously contained provisions that set Jews apart from other groups. Historian Paula Fredriksen notes that in the rhetoric of late Roman law, heretics were denounced as "insane" false Christians and pagans as clear outsiders, and that the legal rhetoric sought to establish clear and stable boundaries between groups. The code protected Jewish religious assembly and forbade the appropriation or destruction of synagogues. A ruling of Theodosius I, preserved at 16.8.9, states that the Jewish sect was "prohibited by no law." Fredriksen reads this tension as placing Jews in an ambiguous position within the Christian Roman legal order, one she describes as "an unstable and inconstant tolerance, one that would follow them into the Middle Ages and beyond."

Sources

File:St. Gallen, Ms Cod. Sang. 731 fol 1r Title page for Codex Theodosianus in the Breviary of Alaric.jpg

Title page of the Breviary of Alaric in the 8th-century Wandalgarius Codex

Books 1-5 lack the manuscript support available for books 6–16. The first five books of the surviving Codex draw largely from two other manuscripts. The Turin manuscript, or "T", consists of 43 largely discontinuous folios. The second manuscript is the Breviary of Alaric, and a good part of the Breviarium that is included in book 1 contains the original text of the respective part of the original codex.

The latter part of the Codex, books 6–16, also drew largely from two texts. Books 6–8 of the Codex were preserved in the text of a document known as Parsinus 9643. The document circulated in early medieval French libraries, as well as the other formative document for the latter part of the code, a document held in the Vatican (Vat. Reg. 886), also known as "V". Scholars consider this section to have been transmitted completely.

Editions

The reference edition of the Codex Theodosianus is:

• Mommsen-Meyer, Theodosiani libri XVI cum constitutionibus Sirmondianis et leges Novellae ad Theodosianum pertinentes, Berlin, Weidemann, 1905.

Other editions/commentaries

• Codex Theodosianus (in Latina). Genève: Johann Arnold. 1586.
• Iacobus Gothofredus (1616). De statu paganorum sub christianis imperatoribus: seu commentarius ad titulum X de paganis libri XVI codicis Theodosiani (in Latina). Heidelberg: Gotthard Vögelin.

English translation

The Theodosian Code was translated into English, with annotations, in 1952 by Clyde Pharr, Theresa Sherrer Davidson, and others. This translation was very favorably received by scholars.1986, pp. 133-222.

See also

• Epigenius
• International Roman Law Moot Court

References

Sources

• ACTI. Auxilium in Codices Theodosianum Iustinianumque investigandos, Iole Fargnoli (cur.), LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano 2009, Template:ISBN
• Harries, Jill; Wood, Ian (1993). The Theodosian Code: Studies in the Imperial Law of Late Antiquity. Bristol Classical Press. ISBN 978-1853997402.
• Alexander, Michael C. (1995). "Review: The Theodosian Code by Jill Harries; Ian Wood". Law and History Review. 13 (1). University of Illinois Press: 190–192. doi:10.2307/743979. JSTOR 743979. S2CID 144610759.
• Berger, Adolf (1953). Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law. Vol. 43 (Part 2). Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0-87169-435-2. OCLC 873814450. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) (reprinted in 1991)
• Buckland, W. W. (1993). A Textbook of Roman Law from Augustus to Justinian. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 37–38.
• Cameron, Averil (1998). "Education and literary culture". In Cameron, Averil; Garnsey, Peter (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History: Volume 13, The Late Empire, AD 337–425. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-05440-9.
• Elliott, T.G. (1978). "The Tax Exemptions Granted to Clerics by Constantine and Constantius II". Phoenix. 32 (4): 333. doi:10.2307/1087959. JSTOR 1087959.
• Frakes, Robert (n.d.). "Why the Romans Are Important in the Debate About Gay Marriage". History News Network. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
• Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony; Eidinow, Esther, eds. (2012). "Antiochus Chuzon". The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199545568.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-954556-8. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
• Jones Hall, Linda (2012). "Clyde Pharr, the Women of Vanderbilt, and the Wyoming Judge: the Story behind the Translation of the Theodosian Code in Mid-Century America" (PDF). Roman Legal Tradition. 8. ISSN 1943-6483.
• Kazhdan, Alexander Petrovich; Talbot, Alice-Mary Maffry (1991). "Codex Theodosianus". The Oxford dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford: University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6.
• Kearley, Timothy (2007). "Justice Fred Blume and the Translation of Justinian's Code" (PDF). Law Library Journal. 99: 525, 536–545.
• Kearley, Timothy (2018). Lost in Translations: Roman Law Scholarship and Translation in Early Twentieth-century America. Carolina Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-5310-0722-5.
• Kearley, Timothy (2022). Roman Law, Classical Education, and Limits on Classical Participation in America into the Twentieth-Century. Veterrimus Publishing. ISBN 978-1-7361312-1-3.
• Honoré, Tony (2005). "Theodosian Code". The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford University Press. p. 1501. ISBN 978-0-19-860641-3. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
• Honoré, Tony (1 August 1986). "III. The Making of the Theodosian Code". Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Romanistische Abteilung. 103 (1): 133–222. doi:10.7767/zrgra.1986.103.1.133. ISSN 2304-4934. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
• Lenski, Noel (February–March 2003). "Review: Laying Down the Law. A Study of the Theodosian Code by John Matthews". The Classical Journal. 98 (3). The Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Inc.: 337–340.
• Long, George (1875). "Codex Theodosianus". In William Smith (ed.). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. London: John Murray. pp. 302–303.
• Mango, Cyril (2002). Oxford History of Byzantium'. Oxford: University Press.
• Martin, Susan D. (October 1995). "Review: The Theodosian Code by Jill Harries; Ian Wood". The American Journal of Legal History. 39 (4). Temple University: 510–511. doi:10.2307/845507. JSTOR 845507.
• Matthews, John F. (2000). Laying Down the Law: A Study of the Theodosian Code. New York: Yale University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt211qwgm. ISBN 978-0-300-23948-5. JSTOR j.ctt211qwgm.
• Pharr, Clyde; Davidson, Theresa Sherrer; Pharr, Mary Brown (2001) [1952]. The Theodosian Code and Novels, and the Sirmondian Constitutions. The Lawbook Exchange. ISBN 978-1-58477-146-3.
• Riedlberger, Peter (2020). Prolegomena zu den spätantiken Konstitutionen. Nebst einer Analyse der erbrechtlichen und verwandten Sanktionen gegen Heterodoxe [Prolegomena to the late antique constitutions. Including an analysis of hereditary and related sanctions against the heterodox] (in Deutsch). Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog. ISBN 978-3-7728-2886-7.
• Tellegen-Couperus, Olga (1993). A Short History of Roman Law. New York: Routledge. pp. 138–141.
• Woodward, Bernard Bolingbroke; Cates, William Leist Readwin (1872). Encyclopaedia of Chronology: Historical and Biographical. Lee and Shepard.
• Smith, William; Wayte, William; Marindin, G. E., eds. (1890). "Breviarium Alaricianum". A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.
• Stein, Peter (13 May 1999). Roman Law in European History. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511814723. ISBN 978-0-521-64372-6. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
• Codex Theodosianus. Liber V – Le Code Théodosien, Livre V. Texte latin d'après l'édition de Th. Mommsen. Traduction française, introduction et notes. Éd. par Sylvie Crogiez, Pierre Jaillette, Jean-Michel Poinsotte. Turnout, Brepols, 2009 (Codex Theodosianus – Le Code Théodosien (CTH), vol. 5).

External links

Primary sources

• Codex Theodosianus (Latin), ancientrome.ru.
• Codex Theodosianus (Latin) Ed. Mommsen, Meyer, & Krueger (Latin). Website upmf-grenoble.fr.
• Template:In lang 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.
• Template:In lang 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 website. A database on Carolingian secular law texts (Karl Ubl, Cologne University, Germany).