The Digest of Justinian, Volume 1

THE WHOLE BODY OF LAW

T H E WHOLE BODY OF LAW * T H E E M P E R O R CAESAR FLAVIUS J U S T I N I A N U S , ALAMANN I C U S GOTTHICUS F R A N C I C U S G E R M A N I C U S A N T I C U S A L A N I C U S VANDALICUS A F R I C A N U S , P I O U S , F O R T U N A T E , R E N O W N E D , VICTOR AND T R I U M P H E R , E V E R AUGUSTUS, G R E E T S T H E O P H I L U S , DOROTHEUS, THEODORUS, I S I D O R U S AND ANATOLIUS, AND T H A L E L A E U S AND C R A T I N U S , VZRZ ZLLUSTRES , PROFESSORS, AND SALAMINIUS, MOST E L O Q U E N T MAN, PROFESSOR. That the whole body of law of our state has now been reformed and arranged, partly in four books of the Znstitutes or Elements, partly in fifty of the Digest or Encyclopaedia , and partly in twelve of the imperial constitutionesl-who knows this better than you do? Everything, indeed, which had to be either ordered at the outset or explained after the completion of the work, with a glad acknowledgment of what was done, has now been set forth by means of our discourses, made both in the Greek language and in that of the Romans: These we wish to be made to endure for ever. You, the appointed professors of legal knowledge, ought also to know what it is that we think necessary to be handed on to students and at what times, so that they may be made most competent and most learned. Therefore, we think that the present imperial discourse ought to be addressed to you particularly, so that your wisdoms, and also other professors who may choose to practice the same art in future times, may be able, by observing our rules, to tread the illustrious path of legal erudition. It is doubtless necessary, indeed, that Znstitutes should claim the first place in all studies, providing as they do the first steps in every branch of knowledge within a moderate compass. Now of the fifty books of our Digest, we hold the opinion that thirty-six alone sufficeboth for your exposition and for the instruction of the young. And this seems to us the proper time to make clear the order and the methods to be followed, to remind you of the things you used to transmit in former times, and to point out both the usefulness and the seasonableness of our new composition, so that nothing may be left unknown of this type of skill. 1. Earlier, indeed, as your wisdoms are aware, out of all the great multitude of legal writings, extending to two thousand books and three million lines, students, on the advice of their teachers, made use of no more than six books, and those confused and very rarely containing laws of practical use; the other books had gone out of use and become inaccessible to everyone. These six books included the Znstitutes of our own Gaius, and four separate books: the first on the old law relating to a wife's property, the second on tutelages, and the third and fourth on wills and legacies; and even these they did not use as a whole and in order, but passed by many parts of them asif superfluous. To studentsreading in their firstyear this work was not given according to the order observed in the Perpetual Edict, but haphazard *The Latin page carries no title. 1.This is the work known as the Codex of Justinian. THE WHOLE BODY OF LAW and put together as if at random, with the profitable and the unprofitable mixed up together, the greater share being given to the unprofitable. In the second year the order adopted was perverse: They were given the first part of the law with particular topics left out, although it was irregular to read, after the Institutes, anything else than what is placed first in the laws and deserves to be called the first part. After the reading of this material-not continuously but in a selection, and that mostly...