Codex Gregorianus and Codex Hermogenianus | Simon Corcoran
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1 Codex Gregorianus and used the rescripts he himself wrote as magister libellorum (master of petitions) to Diocletian. Codex Hermogenianus This makes the code appear at least semi- SIMON CORCORAN official. Although Gregorius, about whom nothing is known, has sometimes also been The Codex Gregorianus and Codex Her- identified as magister libellorum, he may rather mogenianus were collections of imperial have been working outside the court. The rescripts compiled in the reign of DIOCLETIAN. scatter of material of the 290s attributable to As the earliest Roman legal works created in the one or the other code makes their publication new “codex” format (as opposed to rolls), they sequence uncertain. The Gregorianus was also served as models for later imperial codes perhaps published ca. 292 CE, followed by the (CT 1.1.5; CJ Const. Haec), from which comes Hermogenianus ca. 295, with several later the practice of referring to definitive legal com- “editions.” However, a single edition each in pilations as “codes.” Aside from some recently the mid- to late 290s is also possible. The codes identified fragments (Corcoran and Salway mark the end of authoritative juristic writing 2010), neither code exists today. Their nature and the establishment of an imperial monopoly and content have to be deduced from edited of legal interpretation. excerpts reused in later legal works, principally the CODEX JUSTINIANUS. Each code consisted REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS solely of imperial constitutions arranged chro- nologically under thematic titles, whose struc- Corcoran, S. (2000) The empire of the tetrarchs: ture reflected the Praetor’s Edict and earlier imperial pronouncements and government AD juristic writings. The subject matter was 284–324: 25–42 and 85–94, rev. ed. mainly private law, with limited coverage of Oxford. public or criminal law. Corcoran, S. and Salway, B. (2010) “A lost law-code The Gregorianus consisted of at least rediscovered? The Fragmenta Londiniensia thirteen books and contained principally Anteiustiniana.” In Zeitschrift der Savigny Stiftung fu¨r Rechtsgeschichte: romanistische private rescripts, but also some letters and Abteilung 127: 677–8. edicts, from Hadrian down to the reign of Honore´, T. (1994) Emperors and lawyers: 139–85, Diocletian. The Hermogenianus consisted of a 2nd ed. Oxford. single book, comprising almost solely private Kru¨ger, P. et al. (1890) Collectio librorum iuris rescripts of the years 293 and 294. Its compiler anteiustiniani III: 236–45. Berlin (reconstruction was the jurist Aurelius Hermogenianus, who of the two codes). The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine, and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 1595–1596. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah13041.