Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 3: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
History
Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 3: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
Biography
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the Code of 529 above mentioned was withdrawn from circulation and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as superseded and it was forbidden to refer to them in the practice of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.
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