Codex Gregorianus

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The Codex Gregorianus (corresponds to the Eastern Roman name; in Westrom : Gregorianus , Corpus Gregoriani ; generally short: CG ) is a private collection of legal writings and imperial constitutions with legal force written around the turn of the 3rd to the 4th century.

History of the Codex

The work was probably created in 291 at the instigation of the Roman emperor Diocletian , who commissioned Gregorius, one of the heads of his chancellery a libellis , to collect and publish all imperial decisions since Hadrian . The mostly used term for the work as a “private collection” should not hide the fact that the Codex had an official character. With it, not only was the order to collect existing legal and legal material for archiving purposes, but primarily the work also had a binding legal effect. Diocletian did not have the Codex submitted to the Senate for ratification, but even this fact does not speak against the official character of the work, because jurisprudence, along with its literary production, had become a component of imperial bureaucratic competence. In this respect the Codex is an imperial constitution.

Towards the end of the 3rd century, Roman private law comprised two large fonts. On the one hand, there were legally binding classic legal writings ( iura ), on the other hand, imperial decisions ( leges ), in particular rescripts , i.e. notifications of civil applications that regulated individual legal issues. From a hierarchical point of view, the imperial constitutions took precedence over the classic legal writings. The writings of the lawyers came from the high and late classical epoch. Were represented here Gaius and Ulpius Marcellus , legal scholars of the late Classical high, besides also Papinian and Ulpian , the representative of the Late Classic. Diocletian's concern was that both masses should be made generally accessible. Since the Codex quickly gained recognition after its completion, Diocletian commissioned the Codex Hermogenianus , which was created in AD 293/294 . It was written by Hermogenian (also known for the iuris epitomae ), head of the chancellery ( magister libellorum ) of the emperor's top authority in the years from 293 to 295 AD.

After completion, the work was divided into 15 or 16 books ( libri ), each with 20 to 40 titles. Nothing is known about the compiler himself, who was apparently called Gregorius or - what is more unlikely - Gregorianus, except that he must have had outstanding legal skills and adhered to the Roman traditions with a didactic method that was often instructive. With regard to the design of the work, Detlef Liebs points out that Gregorius structured the material very broadly and new legal genres emerged in the process. Contrary to Fritz Schulz , Liebs also assumes that no comparable compilations have been created until then. In terms of its content, the compilation represents something new insofar as Gregorius also included foreign substance in the work, such as libri XX , treatises on De constitutionibus , from the Beirut law school . The materials are arranged according to a "modified digest system" (today the codex system), which methodologically has already moved far from the high-class digest works. Due to the lack of original script versions and also secondary traditional literature, it is particularly difficult for source research to clarify the question of whether Gregorius intervened in the content. Nonetheless, it comes to the conclusion that pre-aggregorian texts, which were later incorporated into the Codex Iustinianus, had been shortened for the Codex and partly deleted. Various texts had also been reduced to content information and, with regard to pre-Pertinacian constitutions, were no longer reproduced in large parts; instead, reproductions were taken from the classical legal literature.

The merged material was not preserved, but was incorporated into the Codex Iustinianus created in 534 , part of the later so-called Corpus iuris civilis . Excerpts from it found their way into the anonymous works Mosaicarum et Romanarum legum collatio and Consultatio veteris cuiusdam iurisconsulti as well as the Fragmenta Vaticana in the 4th and 5th centuries . A resumption of the central ideas of the Codex Gregorianus can be seen in the official constitution collection of the Emperor Theodosius II , who had the Codex Theodosianus (438) published in the 5th century , provided with more than 3000 constitutions since the reign of the Emperor Constantine . This codex mainly contained administrative law, which is why it is an excellent source for research into the administrative conditions of late antiquity. It is also published that the text of the Codex Gregorianus had a decisive influence on the content of the Sententiae Syriacae .

The Fragmenta Londiniensia Anteiustiniana , seventeen fragments of parchment, were identified in 2009–2010 as presumable remains of the Codex Gregorianus.

Legal historical embedding

The first two centuries AD were marked by economic growth and prosperity for Rome. An epoch of radical state reforms began via Diocletian of Constantine , which brought with it a great deal of central bureaucratization, which occasionally earned the systems the label of a “coercive state”. This benefited the development of Roman private law. The praetor administered the administration of justice, but judgments were pronounced by the private judge ( iudex ). State legislation played a subordinate role, on the contrary, respondent lawyers continued to develop private law factually, which resulted in an efficient legal class. At the beginning of the third century, the essential legal achievements were accomplished, because there was hardly anything to add to the great edict commentaries and commenting problem literature , the disputationes and quaestiones .

The rescript offices of Diocletian and his legal collections of the codices Gregorianus and Hermogenianus are therefore generally regarded as the end of this classical legal culture. Jurists comparable to Ulpian, Paulus or Modestin no longer appeared. Instead, a gradual vulgarization of Roman legal thought began. Reasons for this can be found in the abundance of legal literature as well as in the politically increasing destabilization and the associated economic decline . The pursuit of clarity, proximity to the people and efficiency in the legal system led to the cassation of outdated court structures such as the form process , which was replaced by the imperial jurisdiction. The officials of the cognition procedure no longer proceeded according to the edict, but on instructions under administrative law. The same evaded scientific and legal influence. The mancipatio or in iure cessio were replaced by the rules of the traditio and doctrines were limited to a few authorities . In addition, obsolete legal strata such as the juxtaposition of ius civile , honorarium and gentium were overcome.

Further processing of the excerpts from books 35 to 38 of the Ulpian libri ad Sabinus contained in the codex - they were addressed to the founder of the Sabinian and Proculian law school , Masurius Sabinus (1st century) - can be found in the Scholia Sinaitica assigned to the Berytus legal school . In addition to two from the Codex Hermogenianus, twenty-three Gregorian rescripts found their way into the Lex Romana Visigothorum of the Tolosan king Alaric . Ten of the Gregorian and both of the Hermogenian rescripts were provided with an interpretatio that originally served to explain the classic legal texts and today also provides information about the meaning and content of late ancient Roman law.

See also

literature

  • Max Conrat (Cohn): On the culture of Roman law in the west of the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries after Christ , Mélanges Fitting I, Montpellier 1907, pp. 289-320.
  • Jan Dirk Harke : Roman law. From the classical period to the modern codifications . Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57405-4 ( floor plans of the law ), § 1 no. 21 (p. 16 f.).
  • Herbert Hausmaninger , Walter Selb : Römisches Privatrecht , Böhlau, Vienna 1981 (9th edition 2001) (Böhlau-Studien-Bücher) ISBN 3-205-07171-9 , p. 48.
  • Nicole Kreuter: Roman private law in the 5th century AD: the interpretation of the Visigoth Gregorianus and Hermogenianus , also: Dissertation, University of Freiburg (Breisgau), 1990/91, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-428-07551 -X .
  • Wolfgang Kunkel , Martin Schermaier : Roman legal history , 14th edition. UTB, Cologne / Vienna 2005, § 12 ( The Law of the Late Roman Period , Chapter 4, The Renaissance of Classical Law ), p. 196.
  • Detlef Liebs : The jurisprudence in late antique Italy (260–640 AD) , Freiburger Rechtsgeschichtliche Abhandlungen, New Series, Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, pp. 134-137.
  • Ulrich Manthe : History of Roman law (= Beck'sche series. 2132). Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-44732-5 , pp. 106-110.
  • Fritz Schulz : History of Roman Law , (first appeared in English translation under the title History of Roman legal science , 1946), Weimar, Boehlau, 1961, pp 208 et seq.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Taken up in CTh 1,5,5.
  2. ^ Interlinear glosses on Vat. 266a, 272, 285 and 288.
  3. ↑ Cons. 1.6; 2.6; 9.14; 15th
  4. ↑ Max Kaser : The Roman civil procedure law. Handbook of Classical Studies. Department 10: Ancient Legal History. Volume 3.4. Munich 1966. 2nd edition 1996 edited by Karl Hackl. ISBN 3-406-40490-1 ., 434 A. 28 ff.
  5. ↑ a b c Herbert Hausmaninger , Walter Selb : Römisches Privatrecht , Böhlau, Vienna 1981 (9th edition 2001) (Böhlau-Studien-Bücher) ISBN 3-205-07171-9 , p. 48.
  6. ↑ a b c Detlef Liebs : The jurisprudence in late antique Italy (260–640 AD) , Freiburger Rechtsgeschichtliche Abhandlungen, New Series, Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, pp. 134-137.
  7. ↑ Detlef Liebs: Court lawyers from the Roman emperors to Justinian , Bavarian Academy of Sciences, meeting reports year 2010, issue 2, CH Beck, Munich, p. 82 ff. ( Online ).
  8. ↑ Fritz Schulz : History of Roman Law , (first appeared in English translation under the title History of Roman legal science , 1946), Weimar, Boehlau, 1961, pp 208 et seq.
  9. ↑ Dieter Simon SZ 87 (1970), p. 368 ff., 377 (390); continue to agree: Detlef Liebs, Edoardo Volterra and Dieter Nörr .
  10. ^ Jan Dirk Harke : Roman law. From the classical period to the modern codifications . Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57405-4 ( floor plans of the law ), § 1 no. 21 (p. 16 f.).
  11. ↑ Ulrich Manthe : History of Roman Law (= Beck'sche series. 2132). Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-44732-5 , pp. 108-110.
  12. ↑ Walter Selb: "Sententiae Syriacae". Session reports of the philosophical-historical class of the Austrian Academy of Sciences - OeAW, Volume 567. Publications of the Commission for Ancient Legal History, Volume 7. Verlag der OeAW. Vienna 1990. ISBN 3-7001-1798-1 . Pp. 189-192.
  13. ^ Nicole Mai: Ancient Roman legal text rediscovered . Spectrum of Science, January 27, 2010, accessed August 23, 2018.
  14. ^ Simon Corcoran and Benet Salway: Fragmenta Londiniensia Anteiustiniana: Preliminary Observations . In: Roman Legal Tradition , 8 (2012), pp. 63–83, ISSN 1943-6483.
  15. ↑ Distinctive features of "centralization" were: introduction of a secret state police under Diocletian ( agentes in rebus ); Introduction of the imperial representatives ( praefecti praetorio ) and administrative institutions ( dioceses ) as well as legal reorganization of the provinces under Constantine; The most important imperial court offices from Constantine onwards: the magister officiorum , which headed all imperial chancelleries ( scrinia ), such as the Libell chancellery , the quaestor sacri palatii , which was responsible in particular for the preparation of legal measures , the comes sacrarum largitiorum , which was responsible for the finance system across the empire was responsible and comes rerum privatarum , to which the imperial domain administration was subordinate (see: Herbert Hausmaninger, Walter Selb: Römisches Privatrecht (Böhlau-Studien-Bücher). Böhlau, Vienna 1981 (9th edition 2001), ISBN 3-205- 07171-9 , p. 14.).
  16. ↑ a b Ulrich Manthe: History of Roman Law (= Beck's series. 2132). Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-44732-5 , pp. 106-108.
  17. ^ Fritz Sturm : Ius gentium. Imperialist whitewashing of Roman jurists , in: Römische Jurisprudenz - Dogmatik, Tradition, Reception / Festschrift for Detlef Liebs on his 75th birthday, ed. by Karlheinz Muscheler , Duncker & Humblot, Berlin (= Freiburger Rechtsgeschichtliche Abhandlungen. New series, volume 63), pp. 663–669.
  18. ^ Wolfgang Kunkel / Martin Schermaier : Römische Rechtsgeschichte , 14th edition. UTB, Cologne / Vienna 2005, § 12 ( The Law of the Late Roman Period , Chapter 4, The Renaissance of Classical Law ), p. 196.
  19. ↑ Nicole Kreuter: Roman Private Law in the 5th Century AD: The Interpretation of the Visigothic Gregorianus and Hermogenianus (Freiburg legal-historical treatises), Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1993, introduction.