HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The ''Codex Hermogenianus'' (Eng. Hermogenian Code) is the title of a collection of
constitutions A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...
(legal pronouncements) of the Roman emperors of the first tetrarchy (
Diocletian Diocletian ( ; ; ; 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed Jovius, was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Diocles to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia (Roman province), Dalmatia. As with other Illyri ...
,
Maximian Maximian (; ), nicknamed Herculius, was Roman emperor from 286 to 305. He was ''Caesar (title), Caesar'' from 285 to 286, then ''Augustus (title), Augustus'' from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his co-emperor and superior, Diocleti ...
Augusti, and Constantius and
Galerius Galerius Valerius Maximianus (; Greek: Γαλέριος; 258 – May 311) was Roman emperor from 305 to 311. He participated in the system of government later known as the Tetrarchy, first acting as '' caesar'' under Emperor Diocletian. In th ...
Caesars), mostly from the years 293–94. Most of the work is now lost. The work became a standard reference in
late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...
, until it was superseded by the
Breviary of Alaric The ''Breviary of Alaric'' (''Breviarium Alaricianum'' or ''Lex Romana Visigothorum'') is a collection of Roman law, compiled by Roman jurists and issued by referendary Anianus (referendary), Anianus on the order of Alaric II, Visigothic King ...
and the Codex Justinianeus.


History

It takes its name from its author, Aurelius Hermogenianus, a prominent jurist of the age who acted as the ''magister libellorum'' (drafter of responses to petitions) to Diocletian in this period. The work does not survive intact in complete form but a brief section may be preserved on a late antique papyrus from Egypt. Nevertheless, from the surviving references and excerpts it is clear that it was a single book work, subdivided into thematic headings (''tituli'') containing largely rescripts to private petitioners, organised chronologically. Of the texts explicitly attributed to the ''Codex Hermogenianus'', the vast majority date from the years 293–294, though some texts may have been added to this core by Hermogenian in subsequent editions of his work. For the fifth-century author Coelius Sedulius claims that Hermogenian, like
Origen Origen of Alexandria (), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an Early Christianity, early Christian scholar, Asceticism#Christianity, ascetic, and Christian theology, theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Early cent ...
, produced three editions of his work in total (though this may relate to his ''Iuris epitomae''). Still, the seven Valentinianic constitutions attributed to the ''CH'' by the author of the ''Consultatio veteris cuiusdam iurisconsulti'' must reflect on-going insertions by subsequent users rather than authorial appendices. Consensus opinion has it that the first edition collected the rescripts of 293 and 294, which Hermogenian had himself authored as ''magister libellorum''. It has been proposed that Hermogenianus produced the second edition after 298, while praetorian prefect, its inclusion of western rescripts reflecting service as ''magister libellorum'' at the court of Maximian (c. AD 295–298), and that the final edition, incorporating extra eastern texts, was achieved c. 320 at the court of Licinius or possibly the Law School of Berytus. If Hermogenian applied the same organisational principle to the ''Codex'' as he did in his ''Iuris epitomae'', then the order of titles is likely to have followed that of the
Praetor's Edict The Praetor's Edict ''(Edictum praetoris)'' in ancient Roman law was an annual declaration of principles made by the new ''praetor urbanus'' – the elected magistrate charged with administering justice within the city of Rome.Such Edicts were also ...
. Scholars' estimates as to the number of titles vary from a minimum of 18 to one of 147, though a majority favour 69. Where evidence as to the circumstances of original publication is preserved, it is overwhelmingly to the giving or subscribing of the constitution, suggesting that Hermogenian's collection was made at source in the imperial archives.


Reception

In the fourth and fifth centuries, for those wishing to cite imperial constitutions, the ''Codex Hermogenianus'' became a standard work of reference, often cited alongside the Codex Gregorianus, to which it seems to have functioned almost as a supplementary volume. The first explicit quotations of the ''CH'' are by the anonymous author of the ''Mosaicarum et Romanarum Legum Collatio'', or ''Lex Dei'' as it is sometimes known, probably in the 390s. Most famously, the Gregorian and Hermogenian Codes are cited as a model for the organisation of imperial constitutions since
Constantine I Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...
in the directive ordering their collection in what was to become the
Codex Theodosianus The ''Codex Theodosianus'' ("Theodosian Code") is a compilation of the laws of the Roman Empire under the Christian emperors since 312. A commission was established by Emperor Theodosius II and his co-emperor Valentinian III on 26 March 429 an ...
, addressed to the senate of Constantinople on 26 March 429, and drafted by
Theodosius II Theodosius II ( ; 10 April 401 – 28 July 450), called "the Calligraphy, Calligrapher", was Roman emperor from 402 to 450. He was proclaimed ''Augustus (title), Augustus'' as an infant and ruled as the Eastern Empire's sole emperor after the ...
's ''quaestor'' Antiochus Chuzon. In the post-Theodosian era both Codes are quoted as sources of imperial constitutions by the mid-fifth-century anonymous author of the ''Consultatio veteris cuiusdam iurisconsulti'' (probably based in Gaul); are cited in marginal cross-references by a user of the '' Fragmenta Vaticana''; and in notes from an eastern law school lecture course on Ulpian's ''Ad Sabinum''. In the Justinianic era, the ''antecessor'' (law professor) Thalelaeus cited the Hermogenian Code in his commentary on Justinian's Code. In the west, some time before AD 506, both codices were supplemented by a set of clarificatory notes (''interpretationes''), which accompany their abridged versions in the
Breviary of Alaric The ''Breviary of Alaric'' (''Breviarium Alaricianum'' or ''Lex Romana Visigothorum'') is a collection of Roman law, compiled by Roman jurists and issued by referendary Anianus (referendary), Anianus on the order of Alaric II, Visigothic King ...
, and were cited as sources in the ''Lex Romana Burgundionum'' attributed to
Gundobad Gundobad (; ; 452 – 516) was King of the Burgundians (473–516), succeeding his father Gundioc of Burgundy. Previous to this, he had been a patrician of the moribund Western Roman Empire in 472–473, three years before its collapse, suc ...
, king of the Burgundians (473–516).


Eclipse

Texts drawn from the ''Codex Hermogenianus'' achieved status as authoritative sources of law simultaneously with the original work's deliberate eclipse by two codification initiatives of the sixth century. First, the abridged version incorporated in the ''Breviary of Alaric'', promulgated in 506, explicitly superseded the original full text throughout Visigothic Gaul and Spain. Then, as part of the emperor
Justinian Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...
's grand codification programme, it formed a major component of the Codex Justinianeus, which came into force in its first edition across the Roman Balkans and eastern provinces in AD 529. This was subsequently rolled out to Latin north Africa, following its reconquest from the Vandals in 530, and then Italy in 554. So, by the mid sixth century the original text of the Hermogenian Code had been consigned to the dustbin of history over most of the Mediterranean world. Only in Merovingian and Frankish Gaul were copies of the full version still exploited between the sixth and ninth centuries, as attested by the insertion of a quotation in two manuscripts of the ''Breviary''.


Legacy

It is because of its exploitation for the ''Codex Justinianeus'' that the influence of the ''Codex Hermogenianus'' is still felt today. As a component of the Justinianic law, it formed part of the
Corpus Juris Civilis The ''Corpus Juris'' (or ''Iuris'') ''Civilis'' ("Body of Civil Law") is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, enacted from 529 to 534 by order of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. It is also sometimes referred ...
of the revived medieval and early modern Roman law tradition. This in turn was the model and inspiration for the civil law codes that have dominated European systems since the Code Napoleon of 1804. It was also used by the compiler of the '' Sententiae Syriacae''.


Editions

There has been no attempt at a full reconstruction of all the surviving texts that probably derive from the ''CH'', partly because of the difficulty of distinguishing with absolute certainty constitutions of Hermogenian from those of Gregorian in the ''Codex Justinianeus'' in the years of the mid 290s, where they appear to overlap. Honoré (1994) provides the full text of all the private rescripts of the relevant period but in a single chronological sequence, not according to their possible location in the ''CH''. The fullest edition of ''CH'' is that by Cenderelli (1965: 143–81), who lists references only where the source is ''CJ'' but otherwise gives the full text, as did Haenel (1837: 57–80), though he included only texts explicitly attributed to ''CH'' by ancient authorities and so did not cite the ''CJ'' material, on the grounds that it was only implicitly attributed. Krueger (1890) edited the Visigothic abridgement of ''CH'', with its accompanying ''interpretationes'' (pp. 234–35), and provided a reconstruction of the structure of the ''CH'', again excluding ''CJ'' material (pp. 242–45), inserting the full text only where it did not otherwise appear in the ''Collectio iuris Romani Anteiustiniani''. Rotondi (1922: 154–58) and Sperandio (2005: 389–95) provide only an outline list of the titles, though the latter offers a useful concordance with Lenel's edition of the ''Edictum Perpetuum''.. Karampoula (2008) reconstructs on the same principles as Cenderelli (1965) but provides text (including Visigothic ''interpretationes'') in a modern Greek version.


Notes


Bibliography

* * * * * , cols 1–80 * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hermogenianus 290s in the Roman Empire 3rd-century books in Latin Roman law codes 293 294