Corpus Juris Civilis
Justinian’s legal commissions, in which Tribonian played the leading part, codified Roman law in the Code, the Digest and the Institutes; rediscovered in the West in the late 11th century, the collection became the foundation of civil law in Europe.
- Date
- 7 April 529 – 16 November 534exact date · duration: ≈ 6 yearsDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Constantinopletoday: Istanbul, Turkey · Balkans and Anatolia
- Participants
- Justinian I, Byzantine Empire
- Threads
- Early medieval Europe (500–1000)
- Also known as
- Code of Justinian; Кодекс Юстиниана; Дигесты; Digest; Pandects; Corpus iuris civilis
In February 528 Justinian appointed a commission to gather the valid imperial constitutions into a single code; the first Codex was promulgated on 7 April 529. A second commission under Tribonian then condensed the writings of the classical jurists into the fifty books of the Digest (Pandects), which came into force on 30 December 533 together with the Institutes, a textbook for law students that also had the force of law. A revised edition of the Code followed on 16 November 534; Justinian’s later laws, the Novels, were collected after his death.
The work was written in Latin, which was still the language of government, although most subjects of the Eastern Empire spoke Greek. In Byzantium it was later recast in Greek in the Basilika; in the West it was rediscovered at Bologna around 1100 and, as the Corpus Juris Civilis (a name first used in the 16th century), shaped the civil and canon law of Europe.
Connections
Related events
- Construction of Hagia Sophia23 February 532 – 27 December 537 · Balkans and AnatoliaThe codification was completed while Hagia Sophia was being built — two monuments of Justinian’s renewal of the empire
Same participants
- Theodoric takes Ravenna490 – 5 March 493 · Western and Central Europevia Byzantine Empire
- Vandalic WarJune 533 – March 534 · Africavia Justinian I
Same place
- Founding of Constantinople11 May 330 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Council of Chalcedon8 October – 1 November 451 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Plague of Justinian541–549 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Jordanes and Procopius describe the Sclaveni and the Antesbetween 550 and 554 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Avar–Persian siege of Constantinople29 June – 7 August 626 · Balkans and Anatolia
- First Arab siege of Constantinople674–678 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Second Arab siege of Constantinoplebetween 15 July and 15 August 717 – 15 August 718 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’ attack on Constantinople18 June – 4 August 860 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Oleg’s campaign against Constantinople907 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 9112 September 911 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Igor’s campaigns against Byzantium11 June 941 – 944 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 944between 944 and 945 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Olga’s visit to Constantinople and her baptism9 September – 18 October 957 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Sack of Constantinople12–13 April 1204 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Reconquest of Constantinople25 July 1261 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Fall of Constantinople29 May 1453 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Accession of Suleiman the Magnificent30 September 1520 · Balkans and Anatolia
Adjacent events in the thread
- Benedict of Nursia founds Monte Cassinobetween 529 and 530 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Benedict of Nursia founds Monte Cassinobetween 529 and 530
- Gothic War (535–554)535–554
- Baptism of Clovisbetween 496 and 508
Eastern Europe
- Early Slavic cultures: Prague-Korchak, Penkovka and Kolochinc. 450 – c. 700
- Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv: the legendary founding of Kyivbetween 500 and 700
Africa
- Vandalic WarJune 533 – March 534
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Corpus Juris Civilis
- Wikipedia (English): Code of Justinian
- Wikipedia (Russian): Corpus iuris civilis
- Wikipedia (Russian): Кодекс Юстиниана
- Honoré T. Tribonian. — London: Duckworth, 1978.
- Дигесты Юстиниана / отв. ред. Л. Л. Кофанов. — М.: Статут, 2002–2005. — Т. 1–7.
- Wikidata: Q187719