The Justice of Constantine: Law, Communication, and Control

8. Appellatio

8 Appellatio Access to Justice Appellate jurisdiction may seem a surprising subject with which to conclude a book dedicated to the administration of Constantine the Great. The appellate system under Constantine,1 however, brings together the separate threads of this study. The provincial administration of the Roman Empire knew no independent judiciary. The men responsible for the civil administration were the same who heard trials. Not only judicial but also broad administrative competence was necessary for the appellate system to succeed. Improvement of the appellate system could improve the availability of justice ; by protecting his subjects from mistrial and error, Constantine could both content them and confirm their belief in his righteousness as emperor and source of all law. To ensure access to appeal, Constantine had to ensure the collaboration of his provincial judges. The control mechanisms sketched in the preceding chapters played a large part in compelling this collaboration. Appeal not only helped to guarantee a just ruling but also checked the conduct of imperial officials. By making the rulings of provincial judges subject to challenge, Constantine induced imperial officials to obey the law—and himself. Not only the provincials of the empire but also Constantine benefited from the availability of appeal: it was to Constantine that / 214 / 1. For a (largely descriptive) survey of Constantine’s appellate legislation, see J. Gaudemet, “Constitutions constantiniennes relative à l’appel,” ZRG 98 (1981), 47–76 (= Droit et Société [1992], 67–96). F. Pergami, L’appello nella legislazione del tardo impero (Milan, 2000), 45–119, offers a juristically oriented survey. everyone looked for justice; it was Constantine who deliberated over the rulings and conduct of his officials; and it was Constantine who ostentatiously dispensed justice and on whom it depended. Access to appeal guaranteed the subjects of the empire judicial rulings in conformance with the norms of Roman law. To this end Constantine vigorously ordered his administrators to permit and conduct appellate proceedings as prescribed by imperial legislation. Constantine rendered appeal more accessible by multiplying appellate instances throughout the empire, an achievement that was effected by investing the high officials of the tetrarchic reorganization of the empire with permanent imperial authority to hear and decide cases of appeal. Constantine concurrently created a new system of appeal to the imperial court, conducted entirely through official correspondence. The changes introduced to appellate jurisdiction relieved the emperor of the burden of a multitude of complaints yet permitted him to claim ultimate responsibility for the success of the system. It was to the advantage of the emperor that ever more persons turned to him for aid; an effective system of appeal enabled Constantine to appear omnipresent throughout the empire, even if in the person of a delegate, and spared provincials the lengthy and costly journey to the imperial court, wherever it happened to reside. Appellate Judges of the Provincial Administration Appellate jurisdiction under Constantine was exercised in the courts of several imperial officials who had been endowed with judicial authority equal to that of the emperor, or in the consistory of the emperor himself. Praetorian prefects, urban prefects, vicars, probably comites provinciarum, and proconsuls all were officials whom Constantine integrated into the appellate system known vice sacra or vice nostra.2 Under the Principate, and until circa 314, jurisdiction vice sacra had been irregularly delegated to a variety of imperial officials. Under Constantine, it became the permanent competence of a chosen circle.3 Officials who judged vice sacra effectively represented the emperor himself. They could receive appeals from provincial governors subordinate to them, and in exceptional circumstances—a possibility often overlooked—might also judge with imperial authority in Appellatio / 215 2. In general on this subject, M. Peachin, Iudex vice Caesaris: Deputy Emperors and the Administration of Justice during the Principate (Stuttgart, 1996). 3. Pergami, Appello, 429–32; cf. 425 n. 85; Peachin, Iudex vice Caesaris, 188–99. the first instance.4 The position of the proconsuls, as both provincial governors and judges vice sacra, necessitated this combination of competencies.5 The inclusion of vicars among the newly created judges vice sacra suggests a hierarchical chain of appeal from governor, to vicar (or comes), to praetorian prefect or emperor, but no such hierarchy was strictly maintained . Appellants frequently appealed from their governor directly to a praetorian prefect or to the emperor himself.6 It was forbidden to appeal to a lower judge, but...