We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Plato and the Theodosian Code.
- Authors
Schmidt‐Hofner, Sebastian
- Abstract
The codification project initiated in 429 ad that resulted in the Theodosian Code was originally designed to integrate three types of law: one, imperial constitutions since Constantine; two, the legal material collected in the tetrarchic Codices Gregorianus and Hermogenianus; and three, a florilegium of juristic writings and responsa. The ultimate aim was to condense all this in a single comprehensive law book that would govern the entire life of the empire and its subjects. As this paper shows, such a project had no precedent in Roman legal history and in fact ran counter to the traditional multiplicity of legal sources in Rome. This prompts a question: from where did the intellectual fathers of the codification project drew inspiration for such a revolutionary idea? In the paper's second part, I argue that one important model for the codification project of 429 could have been the legal code Plato designed for the ideal state of the Laws.
- Subjects
PLATO, 428-347 B.C.; THEODOSIAN code; ROMAN law; CODIFICATION of law; LEGAL bibliography
- Publication
Early Medieval Europe, 2019, Vol 27, Issue 1, p35
- ISSN
0963-9462
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/emed.12313