Emperor knows best Anchoring Justinian’s Novellae in practice, past and present ReMA thesis Ancient History 40 ECTS Dr. L.E. Tacoma Date: 1 – 7 – 2018 Word count: 29,986 (excluding block quotes of primary sources) Key Tengeler Student ID: 1251805 E-mail: [email protected] Table of contents Introduction: Justinian the legislator ................................................................................................. 3 Chapter 1: The circle of law ................................................................................................................. 8 The Novellae ....................................................................................................................................... 9 The creation of law ......................................................................................................................... 13 From prima facie to manu divina (and beyond) ........................................................................ 14 The responsive emperor and symbolic source of legislation .......................................................... 18 The quaestor and moral laws ....................................................................................................... 22 Legislative dialogue and collective drafting .................................................................................. 24 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 28 Chapter 2: The power of precedent.................................................................................................. 31 Historiography of the past ............................................................................................................ 32 Wisdom of the forefathers ............................................................................................................. 34 Once upon a Roman past… .......................................................................................................... 39 Regional histories .......................................................................................................................... 41 Office histories ............................................................................................................................... 43 Institutional histories .................................................................................................................... 45 A Grand Design flaw ..................................................................................................................... 47 Romanitas in New Rome ................................................................................................................ 52 Anchoring the Roman state........................................................................................................... 56 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 58 Chapter 3: Christian father and Roman ruler ................................................................................. 62 The pious caretaker ........................................................................................................................ 63 God, the laws, and the emperor ..................................................................................................... 64 Servant of God ............................................................................................................................... 65 Servant of the people ...................................................................................................................... 69 Striving for perfection ................................................................................................................... 72 The emperor’s Nature .................................................................................................................... 73 Historicising change ...................................................................................................................... 75 God, Nature, and the Roman past ................................................................................................. 77 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 79 1 Conclusion: Anchoring the Novellae ................................................................................................ 81 Appendix ............................................................................................................................................. 85 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 93 Primary sources .............................................................................................................................. 93 Secondary sources .......................................................................................................................... 94 2 Introduction: Justinian the legislator Emperor Justinian (r.527 to 565) was one of the most famous and infamous emperors of Late Antiquity. He ruled the eastern empire for almost half a century and did not sit still during that time. He is seen as the last emperor to make a serious attempt at restoring the former territories of the western empire to his rule, he is celebrated as the builder of innumerable churches reviving Roman architecture, and he is venerated as a great law-giver, codifying Roman law in the Codex Justinianus, still a foundational text of the western legal tradition. Justinian’s legal activity was unprecedented.1 Only half a year into his reign, his administration already began codifying Roman law, a massive task of collecting and streamlining all kinds of legal pronouncements. When the second edition of the Code was completed in 534, the emperor victoriously pronounced: a tempered compendium of the ancient laws, which until now were weighed down by old age, has at last stood forth in new beauty: which nobody before our rule had ever hoped for, nor did anyone think it even possible by human intelligence. For it is marvellous that consistency could be imposed upon Roman law – which, from the founding of the City until the time of our rule, that is, almost 1400 years, vacillated in internal contradictions extending even into the laws of the emperors - so that nothing contrary or repetitive should be discovered in it, and so that no twin laws ruling on the same subject should anywhere appear.2 Roman law was brought completely in harmony. But was it really? And for how long would it remain that way? Emendations followed quickly. The imperial administration argued new laws remained necessary to perfect the body of law the Codex had established. Eventually, more of these single laws have survived from Justinian’s reign than from any other emperor. That his legal output was indeed extraordinary and not just a case of fortunate preservation is confirmed by the Byzantine ruler Leo, who wrote around 900 CE that Justinian had been a failed and defective legislator, because he did not know when to stop.3 More tellingly, Justinian himself impatiently addressed the complaint that he had too easily indulged in making new laws. In the preamble of Novella 60, he defended himself fiercely when ‘some people complained 1 For convenience sake, I use ‘Justinian’ and ‘imperial administration’ interchangeably as the actors behind legislation, because they are written in the emperor’s name and represent imperial policy. The exact role of the emperor in the creation of the Novellae will be discussed in chapter 1. 2 Constitutio Tanta pr.: leges antiquas iam senio praegravatas per nostram vigilantiam praebuit in novam pulchritudinem et moderatum pervenire compendium: quod nemo ante nostrum imperium umquam speravit neque humano ingenio possibile esse penitus existimavit. Erat enim mirabile Romanam sanctionem ab urbe condita usque ad nostri imperii tempora, quae paene in mille et quadringentos annos concurrunt, intestinis proeliis vacillantem hocque et in imperiales constitutiones extendentem in unam reducere consonantiam, ut nihil neque contrarium neque idem neque simile in ea inveniatur et ne geminae leges pro rebus singulis positae usquam appareant. Translation from P. Amory, People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554 (Cambridge 1997) 140. 3 C. Humfress, ‘Law and Legal Practice in the Age of Justinian’ in: M. Maas ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian (Cambridge, NY 2005) 161-184: 175. 3 about the large amount of laws that are issued by Us every time’. Those people just did not think their accusation through: they did not realise these laws were desperately needed! Private collections bundled these laws and dubbed them the ‘new laws’, Novellae. In contrast with the laws cited in the Codex, they are preserved in full and have the shape of letters to high officials or to the inhabitants of Constantinople. They provide a unique insight in the strong rhetorical nature of legislation normally hidden from our eyes. Now, how are we to understand this mass of laws and how did Justinian justify all these innovations? Instinctively it makes sense that these laws were to introduce rules, so the most obvious answer would be that Justinian issued many laws because he wanted to introduce many