The Theodosian Code
The Theodosian Code was created out of need, not want. While Roman Law was a paragon of organization and bureaucracy, after nine centuries of laws piling on top of each other it had reached a breaking point. Lawmakers moved to create a clear, singular book of laws instead of relying on various sources or interpretations. As the Western Roman Empire neared its final collapse, Eastern emperor Theodosius II moved to codify all law stretching back to Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor. A mix of government policy, personal affairs, and religious law, the Theodosian Code became the first official codification of Roman Law since the XII Tables. It was a huge step to take for an empire in crisis, and in its text told much about the declining society which forced its creation. Serving as the basis for law across the empire for a century (only the Eastern Empire after 476 AD), the Code spoke volumes about the heavily autocratic and religious Late Empire. Despite being replaced a century later by the Justinian Code, Theodosius’ endeavor set a standard for codification and the effect of a single law code on a society.
Theodosius II, emperor in Constantinople, announced his intention to create the Code in 429 AD. His far less powerful counterpart in the West, Valentinian III, quickly gave his approval to the creation of this binding code, which would unite the two halves of the empire under the same law code for a short time. The Eastern half of the empire was far more stable in territory and governing power, giving Theodosius the confidence to make this sweeping reform. The Code came at the right time, relieving the overworked legal system which was becoming more and more ambiguous as sometimes contradictory edicts and writings muddled process. Theodosius decided to simplify the law and solidified the transition from many sources of law to one, the emperor. By the late imperial period, the Emperor had essentially become the law, and hugely important imperial decrees such as the Edict of Milan had become standard and undisputed. The Code increased already insurmountable imperial power by officially making emperors the only source of law. It is also likely not a coincidence that the Code only stretches back to the decrees of Constantine I, the first Christian emperor, commemorating a new era for the Empire.
The compilation of the Code was strenuous and long, appropriate for such an ambitious endeavor. Theodosius, shortly after his announcement of the Code’s creation in 429 AD, appointed a committee of jurists to compile the edicts and constitutions of the Christian emperors. The committee would be tightly supervised by Theodosius and his quaestor Antiochus, as they sought to perfect such an important legal reform. In creating this official codification, it would be the first time the Roman government created a code of laws since the XII tables. Nearly a millennia later, working in an expansive empire with an uncertain future, it would take far more work to pacify their society. The process of compiling and publishing the Code took nine years, being finished in 438 AD, and officially made law in 439 AD. This made the Code binding over both halves of the Empire. It was formatted after the Hermogenian and Gregorian Codes, other compilations of imperial decrees from past centuries. Unlike the Theodosian, the Hermogenian and Gregorian Codes do not survive to this day. These codes, originally private collections, were also elevated to legal status in 439 AD, expanding the codification and scope of the law.
As to what exactly is contained within the Theodosian Code, parts remain a mystery. The Code was organized into sixteen books, all dealing with different issues, but some bound with a common theme. Not all of the Code remains to current historians, as large swathes were lost to history. Most of the first six books were lost, and while most of the last ten books remain, some important parts of these books were also lost. The source of these writings was, of course, mostly imperial decrees, however there is evidence that some of the Code was made up of juristic writings with unclear authors. With so much of the text lost or unreadable, it is difficult for modern historians to trace each excerpt to its exact source. The code’s first book solely focuses on government offices and positions such as aedile or praetor and their duties and constraints. The second, third, fourth, and fifth books cover private and civil law, or interactions between individuals. The general theme of the other eleven books is overall unclear with some exceptions. The eighth book mentions laws regarding books and their publishing, as well as laws regarding celibacy for certain church officials. The ninth largely covers criminal actions such as penalties for theft and murder. The sixteenth and last book is considered by far the most important, encompassing the Empire’s full and official stance on Christianity. This chapter of the Code would determine the religious future of Europe for the next millennium. In general, the Code appropriately seeks to cover nearly all aspects of Roman society. This explicit dedication of a whole section of the Code to religion also shows how deeply entrenched Christianity had become in imperial authority and European society as a whole.
It is very important to note the state of Roman society in general which made leaders look towards the Code for stability. This need for stability was especially pressing in the West, which was nearing its final collapse and looked to grasp on to anything for survival. By the 430s, barbarian invasions were rampant and largely uncontrolled in the West, which seemed to be losing an important province at least once each decade. By 439 AD, Rome had abandoned Britain and watched Hispania be overrun. They were in the process of losing the vital province of Gaul, which while part of the Empire in name, was nearly devoid of meaningful Roman military presence or influence. As the Huns pressed various Germanic groups into Roman territory and prepared for their own strike on Rome, disorder and apprehension reigned. The sack of Rome thirty years prior was fresh in the people and the emperor’s mind, and it became far more difficult to enforce the law as the central government became weaker and weaker. Literacy and urbanization were rapidly decreasing, leading into the change from the classical era to the middle ages. Emperor Valentinian III, though a weak emperor, must have seen his Empire collapsing and looked desperately for a solution, or at least something to slow the tides of history. He and his Western advisors had no part in the making of the Code, but still accepted it with no qualms. The Code had just 12 proclamations and edicts from the Western Half of the Empire, compared to 43 from the East. The Code would not offer the order or salvation the West needed. In the year of its implementation the Vandals took Carthage and North Africa, the breadbasket of the Empire. The West never recovered and would finally fall in 476 BC. Meanwhile in the east, Constantinople had become the true capital of the Empire but faced problems of its own. Barbarian invasions had hit the Eastern Empire hard as well, but the East had endured them through far more competent administration and a better financial situation. The stronger government in the East aimed to rule with a firm hand in facing their own troubles. There are frequent references in the Code to black markets and illegal trade which Theodosius sought to regulate and crack down on. Theodosius and his councilors also kept a watchful eye on their citizens. The Code mentions government intervention into the professions of law and medicine, where they sought to regulate in a way that took decisions out of the hands of professionals and into the hands of the Empire. It also included measures for the conscription of labor of citizens as well. The Code also gives insight into the agentes in rebus, a kind of secret police which spied on citizens and officials in order to sniff out ever-present criticism or plots against the emperor. While these laws were binding over both halves of the empire, only the Eastern government really had the power to enforce them. Context in the code allows one to discern the situations in both empires, and the reasons why one half collapsed mere decades later while the other half would endure for a millennium longer.
On the surface, the Theodosian Code does not seem like it had a huge impact on history. After all, the Western Roman empire fell just decades later, and the East replaced the Code with another just a century later. However, when one looks at the books of the Code, there is one that sticks out and endures in particular. The sixteenth and last book of the Code focuses solely on Christianity and rules regarding religion, and offers perhaps the best available look into Christianity in the Roman Empire. In the Code, we see Theodosius attempting to regulate not only which religion his subjects could practice, but which specific strain of it. At this point, the Roman Catholic Church was in an ecclesiastical controversy, with various groups forming different sects based on doctrine and principles. The Roman Empire at this point had made Nicene Christianity its state religion and sought to make its subjects conform to the will of the state church and emperor’s will. The sixteenth book cleared up the Empire’s stance and cracked down on “heresy”, changing religious and spiritual practice into state policy. The Code listed as many as 65 specific heresies, condemned all other sects of Christianity, and made already-observed practices, such as suspending all actions of law for Holy week, officially codified law. As Christianity had spread beyond the empire’s borders by this point, this did not fully eliminate “heretical” sects but heavily hastened their demise. Arian Christianity, the preferred sect of many Germanic groups within the Empire’s borders and the largest sect at the time besides Nicene, would die out by the seventh century. With that being said, the most important part of the Theodosian Code was actually its regulations on other religions. The Code officially banned all religions besides Christianity, excepting Judaism because of its status as an Abrahamic religion. This was the first instance of official, legal intolerance of other religions within Christian law. Christianity, the small, persecuted religion of the poor just centuries earlier, had finally turned the tables. From pogroms to crusades, the impact of this statute on history cannot be understated, even more than a millennium and a half later. The Theodosian Code both solidified and elevated the status of Christianity in Europe and signified a distinct change in the practice of religion in general.
In a few instances, the Theodosian Code became a codified part of later states law codes in part or in full. The Visigothic and Burgundian Kingdoms, Germanic kingdoms carved out of former Roman land, adopted the Theodosian Code as their official law codes immediately after founding. In the Eastern Roman Empire after the Fall of Rome, also known as the Byzantine Empire, the Code would endure as a part of Justinian’s Corpus Iuris Civilis. The imperial constitutions were taken and put into Justinian’s Code unchanged, and Justinian added in classical juristic writings later in order to cover more issues.
While the Theodosian Code did not solve the problems of the Roman Empire, it did prove to be a landmark in both Christian and Roman history and left a robust impact on later societies. Its creation was well-organized and strenuous, a feat for its time. It was only the second codification in Roman history and helped to relieve a cumbersome and overworked system of law which was beginning to show signs of decay. Its translation, done in 1952 by professor Clyde Pharr, made the Code into a useful historical document and a much-needed window into the end of the Roman Empire. Its profound effect on the Christian religion would transform Europe and its people, and influence state religious policy in countless societies to come. An overlooked but essential document, Code’s measures reverberate through history to this day.
Disclaimer: This bibliography comes from a time when I was far worse at correctly citing my sources.
Works Cited
Gutenberg. “Theodosian Code.” Theodosian Code | Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing — EBooks | Read EBooks Online, World Heritage Encyclopedia, self.gutenberg.org/articles/eng/Theodosian_Code.
Long, George. “Codex Theodosianus.” LacusCurtius • Roman Law — Theodosian Code (Smith’s Dictionary, 1875), penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Codex_Theodosianus.html.
Pharr, Clyde, et al. The Theodosian Code and Novels, and the Sirmondian Constitutions. Lawbook Exchange, 2012.
“Roman Timeline of the 5th Century AD.” Ancient Roman History, www.unrv.com/empire/timeline-5th-century.php.
Salway, Benet. “The Publication and Application of the Theodosian Code.” Mélanges De L’École Française De Rome — Antiquité, École Française De Rome, 2 Dec. 2013, journals.openedition.org/mefra/1754.
“THEODOSIANI LIBRI XVI CUM CONSTITUTIONIBUS SIRMONDIANIS ( AD 429–438 ).” Codex Theodosianus, droitromain.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/Codex_Theod.htm.
Z., S. “Review: The Theodosian Code.” The Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 392–394.
