(483-565)
[Illustration: Justinian. [TN]]
Flavius Anicius Justinianus, nephew on the mother's side of the Emperor
Justin, was born in 482 or 483 A.D., in the village of Tauresium, in
Illyria. His original name was Upranda. Although of obscure parentage,
and indeed slave-born, he shared the success of his maternal uncle,
Justin, being invited at an early age to Constantinople, where he
received an early education. When his uncle assumed the purple, in 518,
he appointed Justinian commander-in-chief of the army of Asia. His
tastes, however, inclining him rather to civic pursuits, he declined
this appointment, and remained attached to the court of Constantinople.
In 521, he was named consul, and during the remaining years of the reign
of his uncle he continued to exercise great influence. In 527 the
Emperor Justin, by the advice of the senate, proclaimed him his partner
in the empire. Justin survived this step but four months, and in the
same year Justinian was proclaimed sole emperor, and crowned along with
his wife, the famous Theodora, whom, despite her more than dubious
antecedents as an actress, he had raised to the position as his wife.
Justinian on his accession was in his forty-fifth year. His reign, which
extends over thirty-eight years, is the most brilliant in the history of
the late empire. Although himself without the taste or the capacity for
military command, he had the good fortune or the skill to select the
ablest generals of the last days of Roman military ascendency. Under the
direction of his generals, and especially of the celebrated Narses and
Belisarius, his reign may be said to have restored the Roman Empire, at
least in outward appearance, to its ancient limits, and to have reunited
the East and the West under a single rule. In his first war--that with
Persia--he concluded a treaty by which the crisis that had so long
threatened, was at least warded off; but the rejoicings which celebrated
its termination had, owing to a domestic revolution, almost proved fatal
to the authority of Justinian himself. A conflict of the so-called Blue
and Green factions in the circus, in 532, was but an outburst of
political discontent, which went so far as to elect a rival emperor,
Hypatius. Justinian himself was struck with dismay, and had made
preparations for flight; but the vigor and determination of Theodora
arrested the revolt. Narses, with a relentless hand, repressed the
tumults, 30,000 victims having, it is said, fallen in a single day. By
the arms of Belisarius, the Vandal kingdom of Africa was re-annexed to
the Empire; and the same general, conjointly with Narses, restored the
imperial authority in Rome, in Northern Italy, and in a large portion of
Spain. One of the most extraordinary, though in the end ineffective
works of the reign of Justinian, was the vast line of fortification
which he constructed, or renewed and strengthened, along the eastern and
southeastern frontier of his empire. These works of defence, and the
construction of many public buildings both in his capital and in other
cities of the Empire, involved an enormous expenditure, and the fiscal
administration of Justinian, in consequence, pressed heavily on the
public resource.
It is, however, as a legislator that Justinian has gained his most
enduring renown. His good fortune in obtaining the services of able
generals was not greater than that which attended him in the field of
law and legislation. Brilliant as were the triumphs of Narses and
Belisarius, they were indeed short-lived in comparison with the work
done by the celebrated Tribonian and his coadjutors in the way of
reforming and codifying the law. Immediately on his accession Justinian
set himself to collect and codify the principal imperial constitutions
or statutes enacted prior to, and in force at, the date of his
accession. In this respect he followed the example set by his
predecessor, Theodosian. The code in which these constitutions were
collected was published in 528-29, and it contained a general provision
by which all previous imperial enactments were repealed. But Justinian's
ambition in the matter of consolidating the laws went much further.
Imperial constitutions made up but a comparatively small part of the
body of the law. The bulk of it (what might be called the common law)
was contained in the writings of the jurists, that is, of text-writers
and commentators. Of these writers there were at this time many hundreds
of volumes in existence, and, owing to want of agreement in the opinion
of the various writers, the law was in a state of great uncertainty, not
to say confusion.
To remedy this evil, Justinian resolved upon the publication of a single
treatise in which the commentaries and other writings of the jurists
might be digested and harmonized. The preparation of this great work was
intrusted to Tribonian, with the assistance of Theophilus, a celebrated
professor of law at Berytus (modern Beyrout), and two other professors,
and it was completed in the almost incredibly short period of four
years. It was published in fifty books, under the title Digesta or
Pandectae. While the Digest was in course of preparation Justinian
resolved on the composition of a third work--viz., a systematic and
elementary treatise on the law which might serve as a text-book for the
use of students, and as an introduction to the larger work. The
preparation of this was also intrusted to Tribonian and his colleagues,
and having been completed a few days before the Digest, was published in
four books on the same day (December 31, 534), under the title of
Institutiones. It is based upon the Institutes of Gaius, and is familiar
to all modern lawyers under the name of "Justinian's Institutes."
Meantime, while both the Digest and the Institutes were being prepared,
the Code of 529 above mentioned was withdrawn from circulation and
republished in 534 with some alterations, and especially with the
addition of fifty new constitutions (known as the Quinquaginta
Decisiones) which had in the interim been pronounced by Justinian. This
new edition, in twelve books, is known as the Codex Repetitiae
Proelectionis, and is the one which has come down to us, no copy of the
earlier codex being extant. All these works (Code, Digest, Institutes)
were written originally in Latin, and all of them were prepared with
care and skill, and testify to the great ability of Tribonian and his
co-editors. Upon the publication of the "Digest" Justinian declared by a
constitution that all previous law-books and decisions were to be held
as superseded and it was forbidden to refer to them in the practice of
the courts. During the subsequent years of his reign Justinian
pronounced from time to time several new constitutions or laws, some of
them making very important changes in certain departments of the law.
These (mostly in Greek) were collected and published under the title of
"Novellae" (_i.e._, "The Novels" or "New Works"). There were, so far as
can be ascertained, about one hundred and seventy of these Novels. The
Institutes, Digest, Code, and Novels together make up what is known as
the Corpus Juris Civilis.
The character of Justinian has been much canvassed, and opinions are not
agreed about it. Procopius, in two separate works, has painted him in
very different lights. Making allowance, however, for much exaggeration
of his abilities by contemporary writers, it may be said that he
contrasts favorably with most of the emperors, whether of the earlier or
of the later Empire. If his personal virtues be open to doubt (and
certainly vanity, avarice, and inconstancy were in no small degree
characteristic of him), he, on the other hand, displayed undoubted
ability as a ruler, and, in the main, just and upright intentions. He
was easy of access, patient of hearing, courteous and affable in
discourse, and perfect master of his temper. In the conspiracies against
his authority and person he often showed both justice and clemency. He
excelled in the private virtues of chastity and temperance; his meals
were short and frugal; on solemn fasts he contented himself with water
and vegetables, and he frequently passed two days and as many nights
without tasting any food. He allowed himself little time for sleep, and
was always up before the morning light. His restless application to
business and to study, as well as the extent of his learning, have been
attested even by his enemies. He was, or professed to be, a poet and
philosopher, a lawyer and theologian, a musician and an architect; but
the brightest ornament of his reign is the compilation of Roman law
which has immortalized his name. He died on November 14, 565, at the age
of eighty-three, and in the thirty-eighth year of his reign.
A few words must be said about the legislative reforms carried through
by Justinian. He was not only a collector and a codifier of the laws; he
also introduced in many directions the most fundamental changes into the
substantive law itself. The following were the most important changes.
(1) He ameliorated the condition of slaves--depriving their masters of
the power of putting them to death. He declared that any one who put a
slave to death by his own hand should be guilty of homicide. (2) He
greatly revolutionized the law of intestate succession by giving to
cognati (relatives on the mother's side) an equal share with agnati
(relatives on the father's side) of the same degree. These two changes
in the law were probably in a large measure induced by the circumstances
of his birth. (3) He made considerable changes in the law of divorce,
and as to the property of spouses. (4) He reformed civil procedure in
the way of making it uniform, and introducing a system of small-debt
courts.