OUP blurb: The era of Diocletian and Constantine is a significant period for the Roman empire, wi... more OUP blurb: The era of Diocletian and Constantine is a significant period for the Roman empire, with far-reaching administrative changes that established the structure of government for three hundred years a time when the Christian church passed from persecution to imperial favour. It is also a complex period of co-operation and rivalry between a number of co-emperors, the result of Diocletian's experiment of government by four rulers (the tetrarchs). This book examines imperial government at this crucial but often neglected period of transition, through a study of the pronouncements that the emperors and their officials produced, drawing together material from a wide variety of sources: the law codes, Christian authors, inscriptions, and papyri. The study covers the format, composition, and promulgation of documents, and includes chronological catalogues of imperial letters and edicts, as well as extended discussions of the Gregorian and Hermogenian Codes, and the ambitious Prices Edict. Much of this has had little detailed coverage in English before. There is also a chapter that elucidates the relative powers of the members of the imperial college. Finally, Dr Corcoran assesses how effectively the machinery of government really matched the ambitions of the emperors. The additional notes in this revised edition of the hardback contain details of recent epigraphic work and discoveries, especially from Ephesus, as well as an account of a long ignored rescript of Diocletian.
Pedro López Barja, Carla Masi Doria, and Ulrike Roth (eds), Junian Latinity in the Roman Empire, Volume 1: History, Law, Literature (Edinburgh University Press), pp. 132-152, 2023
This chapter appears in the first volume of a comprehensive treatment of 'Junian Latins' (a form ... more This chapter appears in the first volume of a comprehensive treatment of 'Junian Latins' (a form of freed status for slaves under Roman law), deriving from a workshop held in Santiago de Compostela in September 2019. The volume is available as Open Access from Edinburgh University Press. This chapter (itself based upon a contribution to the Festschrift for Detlef Liebs published in 2011) provides a survey of all explicit (and some implicit) textual references to Junian Latins from the third century AD and through the early mediaeval period as far as the revival of Justinianic law (c.AD1100). These texts comprise mostly normative legal materials, starting with the so-called "Tituli ex corpore Ulpiani", and include the Theodosian and Justinian Codes and their derivatives on into the medieval period, both east and west. There are also other items, such as occurrences in documents and glossaries. There will in addition be information on the use of the term 'dediticius', which appears along with 'Latin' in many of the same texts, and in part has a similar trajectory of transmission (both statuses being abolished by Justinian).
In J. Hahn and V. Menze (eds), The Wandering Holy Man: the Life of Barsauma, Christian Asceticism and Religious Conflict in Late Antique Palestine (University of California Press: Oakland CA), 2020
Barsauma’s visits to Constantinople and interactions with the emperors and their officials are ke... more Barsauma’s visits to Constantinople and interactions with the emperors and their officials are key features in the later part of the narrative in the Life, that help to define Barsauma as a champion of true Orthodoxy from the non-Chalcedonian view-point. These episodes also deal with persons and events attested in other ancient evidence and so can enable us to assess the author’s sources, knowledge and intentions in managing, manipulating, or even inventing his material. For the purposes of this study, I presume that the sections about Barsauma and the emperors have a single author, and side-step any debates about interpolated or revised chapters. My analysis is divided into three sections. In the first I discuss the relations between Barsauma and Theodosius II (r. 402-450), in particular the Barsauma letters issued in the context of the Second Council of Ephesus. In the second, I discuss the contrasting situation of relations between Barsauma and the court and officials of Marcian (r. 450-457) and his wife, Pulcheria (Augusta 414-453), and the events surrounding the Council of Chalcedon. The final section is much briefer, considering the the Life’s unusual view of Valentinian III (r. 425-455). I pass over another imperial, the Augusta Eudocia, since she appears with a rather different role in a distinct part of the Life concerning Barsauma’s interactions with the Jews in the Holy Land, which episodes are well discussed in Drijver’s chapter elsewhere in the volume.
In: S. Destephen, B. Dumézil and H. Inglebert (eds), Le Prince chrétien de Constantin aux royautés barbares (iv-viii siècle) (Travaux et mémoires 22/2, Paris) pp. 3-27, 2018
This essay illustrates changes in official epigraphy in the later Roman empire, principally throu... more This essay illustrates changes in official epigraphy in the later Roman empire, principally through the prism of the physical remains of public pronouncements, which remained prominent in the urban landscape until the epigraphic collapse of the seventh century. While the emperor and his officials appear more proactive, this does not entirely replace the impetus of petitioners, although the civic prominence of the Principate comes to be supplanted by ecclesiastical participation. Imperial titulature remains conservative for a long time, but there are subtle shifts from Constantine onwards, even if Christianization only becomes fully explicit in the sixth century. Finally, Greek comes to dominate, with only vestigial Latin.
Cet article examine la façon dont Maxence a tenté de s’ériger en véritable empereur romain, insta... more Cet article examine la façon dont Maxence a tenté de s’ériger en véritable empereur romain, installé à Rome alors même qu’il tentait de s’insérer dans le nouveau monde de la tétrarchie de son temps. Pour ce faire, sont évaluées aussi bien les relations de Maxence avec le Sénat, l’église chrétienne, le peuple romain et les soldats, que sa stratégie politique telle qu’elle peut être comprise à travers les vestiges archéologiques ambigus des monuments contemporains ou encore les regalia récemment découvertes. L’installation de l’empereur à Rome a offert à ce dernier une certaine légitimité idéologique et ouvert des opportunités ; mais elle a également mis en évidence des faiblesses stratégiques significatives qui ont montré que Rome devenait désormais une résidence incommode et impropre pour les empereurs du ive siècle, puisque la présence de l’empereur dans la Ville devenait problématique pour les deux parties.
This paper examines the ways in which Maxentius attempted to establish himself as a truly Roman emperor, while based in Rome herself, even as he also engaged with the new world of the contemporary tetrarchs. Maxentius's relationship with the Senate, the Christians, the Roman people and the soldiers are all assessed, as also what can be understood of his policies from the ambiguous archaeology of contemporary buildings and even the recently discovered ‘regalia’. Being based in Rome provided him with some ideological strengths and opportunities, but also significant strategic weaknesses, that revealed Rome to be at once an unsuitable and an unnecessary seat for the emperors of the fourth century, while the proximity of emperor and city proved to be uncomfortable for both.
Published in S. Lohsse, S. Marino & P. Buongiorno (eds), Texte wiederherstellen, Kontexte rekonstruieren. Internationale Tagung über Methoden zur Erstellung einer Palingenesie, Münster, 23.–24. April 2015 (Acta Senatus Reihe B: Studien und Materialien, 2; Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart) pp139-160, 2017
This volume is based upon papers given at the workshop held at the University of Muenster in Apri... more This volume is based upon papers given at the workshop held at the University of Muenster in April 2015.
Roman History: Six Studies for Fergus Millar (Ed. N. Purcell) = Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 2017
This paper, reflecting Fergus Millar’s work on linguistic and cultural diversity in the Roman emp... more This paper, reflecting Fergus Millar’s work on linguistic and cultural diversity in the Roman empire, surveys the evolving relationship of Latin and Greek as languages for Roman law. Normative texts remained predominantly Latin until the completion of Justinian’s codification (534), even though that was a genuinely bilingual product. However, following the already existing pattern in the Greek east, a vast corpus of Greek materials was then quickly created to teach the codification in the official law schools. Designed to aid engagement with the source-texts, these ended up superseding them. Roman legal Greek, a mixture of Latin terminology plus standardized Greek vocabulary, became stabilized. After 534, new legislation was most often in Greek, necessitating parallel Latin materials to help Latin-speaking students, although sixth-century collections of Novels (“new laws”) were still bilingual. In practice, however, in most of Justinian’s empire, a lawyer (such as Dioscorus of Aphrodito) could function with limited Latin. Soon Roman law would bifurcate into two monolingual traditions, Greek in the east, Latin in the west.
Published in S. Janniard, C. Freu and A. Ripoll (eds.), Libera curiositas. Mélanges d'histoire romaine et d'Antiquité tardive offerts à Jean-Michel Carrié (Bibliothèque de l’Antiquité Tardive 31; Turnhout) pp. 97-114, 2016
This article publishes one of two surviving folios of an 11th century manuscript of the Justinian... more This article publishes one of two surviving folios of an 11th century manuscript of the Justinian Code (Würzburg Universitätsbibliothek M.p.j.f.m.2), which represents a southern Italian tradition of copying intact Codes, soon to be abandoned. The folio is the earliest known witness to the text of Justinian’s constitutions re-establishing Roman rule in Africa (CJ 1, 27, 1-2). It provides the fullest evidence for the subscript of CJ 1, 27, 1, showing that its date of issue was 1st April 534. For one textual crux, the correct identification of the seven provinces of the new prefecture, the manuscript provides only indirect evidence. However, the author here argues that there were separate provinces of Zeugitana and Carthage, but only a single province of Mauretania (Caesariensis). The manuscript often confirms Krüger’s editorial choices for his CJ editions (1877). In particular, it is remarkably accurate in its transmission of the numerals in the notitia of civil offices and salaries. However, some confused passages, mirrored also in the other witnesses, show that the textual tradition must have been corrupted at an early date. The article ends by providing a transcription of the folio with an apparatus criticus and an English translation.
B. Frier (ed.), The Codex of Justinian. A New Annotated Translation, with Parallel Latin and Greek Text (Cambridge), vol. 2, pp. 1407-1485, 2016
This is the translation of the first twenty titles of Book Six of the Codex of Justinian as revis... more This is the translation of the first twenty titles of Book Six of the Codex of Justinian as revised from Blume's version by Simon Corcoran, with input from Michael Crawford and Benet Salway. The remaining titles of Book Six were prepared by Bruce Frier, Dennis Kehoe and Thomas McGinn.
B. Frier (ed.), The Codex of Justinian. A New Annotated Translation, with Parallel Latin and Greek Text (Cambridge) vol. 1, pp. xcvii-clxiv, 2016
This chapter gives a brief introductory history of the Codex of Justinian divided under the follo... more This chapter gives a brief introductory history of the Codex of Justinian divided under the following headings: Justinian, the man and his projects; Justinian’s legal policy 528-534; the making of the Codex, the sources – types of imperial constitution – editorial practice – shape and organization; the life of the Codex in the Empire; the life of the Codex in the early medieval West; the revivification of the Codex in the eleventh century; the medieval Vulgate and the Bologna School; humanism and the beginnings of textual criticism; towards the modern Codex edition; the nature of Krüger’s editions; Appendix - the manuscripts [listing the early manuscripts from the sixth century to c.1100].
J. Herrin and J. Nelson (eds), Ravenna: Its Role in Earlier Medieval Change and Exchange (Institute of Historical Research; London) pp. 163-197, 2016
The volume, in which this chapter appears, is based upon a colloquium "Ravenna: its significance ... more The volume, in which this chapter appears, is based upon a colloquium "Ravenna: its significance in European culture", held at the Senate House, London, in June 2013.
S. Procházka, L. Reinfandt and S. Tost (eds), Official Epistolography and the Language(s) of Power. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference of the NFN Imperium and Officium (Papyrologica Vindobonensia 8; Vienna) pp. 219-236, 2015
A. Papaconstantinou with N. McLynn and D. Schwartz (eds.), Conversion in Late Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond. Papers from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, University of Oxford, 2009-2010 (Farnham) pp. 67-94, 2015
This article seeks to show how imperial legislation promoting religious conformity, whether by pr... more This article seeks to show how imperial legislation promoting religious conformity, whether by preventing or imposing religious beliefs or practices, developed from the time of the Decian persecution down to the comprehensive anti‐pagan enactments of Justinian. The main focus is on the relationship of Christians with pagans and Jews. In particular, attention is paid to the rapid changes of imperial perspective during the period of the Great Persecution, its relaxation, and Constantineʹs adoption of Christianity.
R. Stone and C. West (eds), Hincmar of Rheims. Life and Work (Manchester) pp. 129-155, 2015
Hincmar is notable for citing Roman legal texts more extensively than his contemporaries. However... more Hincmar is notable for citing Roman legal texts more extensively than his contemporaries. However, the range of sources available to him was limited, mostly deriving from the tradition of the Breviary of Alaric, especially in a form augmented by religious material from Theodosian Code Book 16. Much of this material was mediated through two of his “working” manuscripts (Berlin SB Phillipps 1741 and its derivative BN Par. Lat. 12445), whose contents reflect two active periods of collecting and use, the later 850s and 868-871. The other significant source in the latter period was Julian’s Epitome of the Novels, the principle way Justinianic law was known in the early mediaeval west. For Hincmar, the Roman legal materials were always less important than Biblical or canonical texts, often gaining status only as being laws the church had approved. Further, except where encapsulating church privilege, the substantive law of Rome generally mattered less than its procedural rules, which were key tools in legal disputes, as in that with Hincmar of Laon. Finally, although eschewing the Isidorian forgery tradition, Hincmar was canny at selective quotation to suit his purposes, even to the extent of minor textual emendation.
K. Radner, (ed.), State Correspondence in the Ancient World from New Kingdom Egypt to the Roman Empire (Oxford Studies in Early Empires; New York) pp. 172 - 209, 2014
Correspondence was a vital feature of the Roman Empire’s government. The emperor’s letters could ... more Correspondence was a vital feature of the Roman Empire’s government. The emperor’s letters could become a potent tool of interest to more than just their original recipients or addressees, and many of them therefore came to enjoy a long and varied afterlife, especially in the form of Roman law codices in which most of the available sources survive. This chapter analyzes these streams of tradition as well as the basic mechanisms of Roman state communication.
The chapter appears in the volume produced from two collaborative workshops held at UCL (April 2011, July 2012), as part of the project "Mechanisms of Communication in an Ancient Empire: The Correspondence between the King of Assyria and his Magnates in the 8th C. BC".
Mélanges de l’École française de Rome – Antiquité (MEFRA) 125-2, pp. 285-304, 2013
The Gregorian and Hermogenian Codes do not survive and so have to be imagined from their remains ... more The Gregorian and Hermogenian Codes do not survive and so have to be imagined from their remains recycled into other late antique legal works, in particular the Justinian Code. Additional illumination may also be provided if the recent identification of some fragments (Fragmenta Londiniensia Anteiustiniana) as coming from the Gregorian Code is correct. From the various sources, it is clear that the Hermogenian Code consisted almost solely of private rescripts issued by Diocletian and his colleagues in the two years 293 and 294, while the Gregorian Code, consisting mainly but not only of private rescripts, covered the period from Hadrian up to some point in the 290s. Both were arranged thematically under titles (the Gregorianus also in Books), further developing principles of organization from earlier juristic collections, that had brought together both praetorian and non-praetorian legal topics. The two codes were also probably the first legal works to appear in the new “codex” rather than roll format. While the Hermogenian Code was produced by a jurist prominent at Diocletian’s court from texts he himself wrote in the emperors’ names, it is not certain that this was so for the Gregorianus, of whose compiler we know nothing. Nor are the publication dates and relative sequence of the two codes clear, although both must have appeared by c.300. There is no evidence that either existed in more than one formal edition. Whether or not sponsored by Diocletian, the codes mark two important features of Diocletian’s reign. First, they disseminated more widely than ever before a huge range of imperial legal rulings in a coherent and ordered way, serving the needs of not only the state (officials and governors) and professionals (advocates, law-teachers), but also of a citizen population, nominally Roman, but still unfamiliar with Roman legal norms, and eager for any legal advantage. Secondly, the codes mark the supersession of earlier authoritative forms of law-making or exposition (lex, senatus consultum, juristic writing) and demonstrate the emperor’s dominance in the creation and interpretation of normative legal texts.
G. Bonamente, N. Lenski, and R. Lizzi Testa (eds), Costantino prima e dopo Costantino: Constantine Before and After Constantine (Munera 35; Bari) pp. 3-15 , 2012
S. Crogiez-Pétrequin and P. Jaillette (eds.), Société, économie, administration dans le Code Théodosien (Villeneuve d'Ascq) pp. 265-284, 2012
The Caesariani were officials of the res privata, against whose corrupt excesses several laws of ... more The Caesariani were officials of the res privata, against whose corrupt excesses several laws of the late third and early fourth centuries were directed. Most of the few such laws in the Theodosian Code are attributed to Constantine and appear part of his consistent policy of controlling fiscal abuses. However, there survive also various epigraphic texts on the same subjects. Not only are they unusual as long Latin pronouncements erected in the Greek East, but they are among the very few such texts present in multiple copies and found at overlapping sites. The only dating information they give and other correlations between them suggest that they were issued in the summer of 305 by Galerius and actively promulgated as a coherent dossier in his portion of the empire. One of these texts, the Edictum de Accusationibus, is also attested in the Theodosian Code (IX, 5, 1), attributed to Constantine in 314. Inconsistencies in the Code details and the correct interpretation of the epigraphic evidence mean that both date and emperor as given in the Code must be rejected. This serves to remind us of the problems of relying so much upon the Theodosian Code. Thus there survives much legislation of Constantine, but little of Galerius due to a large lacuna in our evidence for the period prior to 313, the start-date of the Theodosian Code. Further, because of the corruptions and confusions already present in the material and the subsequent editorial decisions of the Theodosian commissioners, the texts that appear in the Code, especially their headings and subscripts, may be extremely unreliable.
This article gives a preliminary account of seventeen small parchment fragments, which have been ... more This article gives a preliminary account of seventeen small parchment fragments, which have been the subject of detailed study by members of the team of the Projet Volterra since the end of 2009. The fragments have been identified as coming from a legal text in Latin, indeed possibly all from the same page, written in a fifth-century uncial book-hand, but with some numeration and glosses in Greek. The fragments contain part of a rubricated title, as well as the headings and subscripts to several imperial rescripts of third-century emperors (Caracalla, Gordian III and the Philips are explicitly named), organized in a broadly chronological sequence without intervening commentary. Three rescripts overlap with texts known from the Justinian Code (C.7.62.3, 4, and 7). It is argued here that the work in the fragments is from neither the first nor second editions of the Justinian Code, nor from a juristic miscellany (similar to the Fragmenta Vaticana, Lex Dei, or Consultatio). Despite the apparently anomalous presence of a tetrarchic rescript (otherwise typically attributed to the Hermogenian Code), the conclusion is that these fragments most plausibly represent the only known remains of a manuscript of the lost Gregorian Code. An appendix gives some sample texts, including all the material overlapping with the Justinian Code.
OUP blurb: The era of Diocletian and Constantine is a significant period for the Roman empire, wi... more OUP blurb: The era of Diocletian and Constantine is a significant period for the Roman empire, with far-reaching administrative changes that established the structure of government for three hundred years a time when the Christian church passed from persecution to imperial favour. It is also a complex period of co-operation and rivalry between a number of co-emperors, the result of Diocletian's experiment of government by four rulers (the tetrarchs). This book examines imperial government at this crucial but often neglected period of transition, through a study of the pronouncements that the emperors and their officials produced, drawing together material from a wide variety of sources: the law codes, Christian authors, inscriptions, and papyri. The study covers the format, composition, and promulgation of documents, and includes chronological catalogues of imperial letters and edicts, as well as extended discussions of the Gregorian and Hermogenian Codes, and the ambitious Prices Edict. Much of this has had little detailed coverage in English before. There is also a chapter that elucidates the relative powers of the members of the imperial college. Finally, Dr Corcoran assesses how effectively the machinery of government really matched the ambitions of the emperors. The additional notes in this revised edition of the hardback contain details of recent epigraphic work and discoveries, especially from Ephesus, as well as an account of a long ignored rescript of Diocletian.
Pedro López Barja, Carla Masi Doria, and Ulrike Roth (eds), Junian Latinity in the Roman Empire, Volume 1: History, Law, Literature (Edinburgh University Press), pp. 132-152, 2023
This chapter appears in the first volume of a comprehensive treatment of 'Junian Latins' (a form ... more This chapter appears in the first volume of a comprehensive treatment of 'Junian Latins' (a form of freed status for slaves under Roman law), deriving from a workshop held in Santiago de Compostela in September 2019. The volume is available as Open Access from Edinburgh University Press. This chapter (itself based upon a contribution to the Festschrift for Detlef Liebs published in 2011) provides a survey of all explicit (and some implicit) textual references to Junian Latins from the third century AD and through the early mediaeval period as far as the revival of Justinianic law (c.AD1100). These texts comprise mostly normative legal materials, starting with the so-called "Tituli ex corpore Ulpiani", and include the Theodosian and Justinian Codes and their derivatives on into the medieval period, both east and west. There are also other items, such as occurrences in documents and glossaries. There will in addition be information on the use of the term 'dediticius', which appears along with 'Latin' in many of the same texts, and in part has a similar trajectory of transmission (both statuses being abolished by Justinian).
In J. Hahn and V. Menze (eds), The Wandering Holy Man: the Life of Barsauma, Christian Asceticism and Religious Conflict in Late Antique Palestine (University of California Press: Oakland CA), 2020
Barsauma’s visits to Constantinople and interactions with the emperors and their officials are ke... more Barsauma’s visits to Constantinople and interactions with the emperors and their officials are key features in the later part of the narrative in the Life, that help to define Barsauma as a champion of true Orthodoxy from the non-Chalcedonian view-point. These episodes also deal with persons and events attested in other ancient evidence and so can enable us to assess the author’s sources, knowledge and intentions in managing, manipulating, or even inventing his material. For the purposes of this study, I presume that the sections about Barsauma and the emperors have a single author, and side-step any debates about interpolated or revised chapters. My analysis is divided into three sections. In the first I discuss the relations between Barsauma and Theodosius II (r. 402-450), in particular the Barsauma letters issued in the context of the Second Council of Ephesus. In the second, I discuss the contrasting situation of relations between Barsauma and the court and officials of Marcian (r. 450-457) and his wife, Pulcheria (Augusta 414-453), and the events surrounding the Council of Chalcedon. The final section is much briefer, considering the the Life’s unusual view of Valentinian III (r. 425-455). I pass over another imperial, the Augusta Eudocia, since she appears with a rather different role in a distinct part of the Life concerning Barsauma’s interactions with the Jews in the Holy Land, which episodes are well discussed in Drijver’s chapter elsewhere in the volume.
In: S. Destephen, B. Dumézil and H. Inglebert (eds), Le Prince chrétien de Constantin aux royautés barbares (iv-viii siècle) (Travaux et mémoires 22/2, Paris) pp. 3-27, 2018
This essay illustrates changes in official epigraphy in the later Roman empire, principally throu... more This essay illustrates changes in official epigraphy in the later Roman empire, principally through the prism of the physical remains of public pronouncements, which remained prominent in the urban landscape until the epigraphic collapse of the seventh century. While the emperor and his officials appear more proactive, this does not entirely replace the impetus of petitioners, although the civic prominence of the Principate comes to be supplanted by ecclesiastical participation. Imperial titulature remains conservative for a long time, but there are subtle shifts from Constantine onwards, even if Christianization only becomes fully explicit in the sixth century. Finally, Greek comes to dominate, with only vestigial Latin.
Cet article examine la façon dont Maxence a tenté de s’ériger en véritable empereur romain, insta... more Cet article examine la façon dont Maxence a tenté de s’ériger en véritable empereur romain, installé à Rome alors même qu’il tentait de s’insérer dans le nouveau monde de la tétrarchie de son temps. Pour ce faire, sont évaluées aussi bien les relations de Maxence avec le Sénat, l’église chrétienne, le peuple romain et les soldats, que sa stratégie politique telle qu’elle peut être comprise à travers les vestiges archéologiques ambigus des monuments contemporains ou encore les regalia récemment découvertes. L’installation de l’empereur à Rome a offert à ce dernier une certaine légitimité idéologique et ouvert des opportunités ; mais elle a également mis en évidence des faiblesses stratégiques significatives qui ont montré que Rome devenait désormais une résidence incommode et impropre pour les empereurs du ive siècle, puisque la présence de l’empereur dans la Ville devenait problématique pour les deux parties.
This paper examines the ways in which Maxentius attempted to establish himself as a truly Roman emperor, while based in Rome herself, even as he also engaged with the new world of the contemporary tetrarchs. Maxentius's relationship with the Senate, the Christians, the Roman people and the soldiers are all assessed, as also what can be understood of his policies from the ambiguous archaeology of contemporary buildings and even the recently discovered ‘regalia’. Being based in Rome provided him with some ideological strengths and opportunities, but also significant strategic weaknesses, that revealed Rome to be at once an unsuitable and an unnecessary seat for the emperors of the fourth century, while the proximity of emperor and city proved to be uncomfortable for both.
Published in S. Lohsse, S. Marino & P. Buongiorno (eds), Texte wiederherstellen, Kontexte rekonstruieren. Internationale Tagung über Methoden zur Erstellung einer Palingenesie, Münster, 23.–24. April 2015 (Acta Senatus Reihe B: Studien und Materialien, 2; Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart) pp139-160, 2017
This volume is based upon papers given at the workshop held at the University of Muenster in Apri... more This volume is based upon papers given at the workshop held at the University of Muenster in April 2015.
Roman History: Six Studies for Fergus Millar (Ed. N. Purcell) = Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 2017
This paper, reflecting Fergus Millar’s work on linguistic and cultural diversity in the Roman emp... more This paper, reflecting Fergus Millar’s work on linguistic and cultural diversity in the Roman empire, surveys the evolving relationship of Latin and Greek as languages for Roman law. Normative texts remained predominantly Latin until the completion of Justinian’s codification (534), even though that was a genuinely bilingual product. However, following the already existing pattern in the Greek east, a vast corpus of Greek materials was then quickly created to teach the codification in the official law schools. Designed to aid engagement with the source-texts, these ended up superseding them. Roman legal Greek, a mixture of Latin terminology plus standardized Greek vocabulary, became stabilized. After 534, new legislation was most often in Greek, necessitating parallel Latin materials to help Latin-speaking students, although sixth-century collections of Novels (“new laws”) were still bilingual. In practice, however, in most of Justinian’s empire, a lawyer (such as Dioscorus of Aphrodito) could function with limited Latin. Soon Roman law would bifurcate into two monolingual traditions, Greek in the east, Latin in the west.
Published in S. Janniard, C. Freu and A. Ripoll (eds.), Libera curiositas. Mélanges d'histoire romaine et d'Antiquité tardive offerts à Jean-Michel Carrié (Bibliothèque de l’Antiquité Tardive 31; Turnhout) pp. 97-114, 2016
This article publishes one of two surviving folios of an 11th century manuscript of the Justinian... more This article publishes one of two surviving folios of an 11th century manuscript of the Justinian Code (Würzburg Universitätsbibliothek M.p.j.f.m.2), which represents a southern Italian tradition of copying intact Codes, soon to be abandoned. The folio is the earliest known witness to the text of Justinian’s constitutions re-establishing Roman rule in Africa (CJ 1, 27, 1-2). It provides the fullest evidence for the subscript of CJ 1, 27, 1, showing that its date of issue was 1st April 534. For one textual crux, the correct identification of the seven provinces of the new prefecture, the manuscript provides only indirect evidence. However, the author here argues that there were separate provinces of Zeugitana and Carthage, but only a single province of Mauretania (Caesariensis). The manuscript often confirms Krüger’s editorial choices for his CJ editions (1877). In particular, it is remarkably accurate in its transmission of the numerals in the notitia of civil offices and salaries. However, some confused passages, mirrored also in the other witnesses, show that the textual tradition must have been corrupted at an early date. The article ends by providing a transcription of the folio with an apparatus criticus and an English translation.
B. Frier (ed.), The Codex of Justinian. A New Annotated Translation, with Parallel Latin and Greek Text (Cambridge), vol. 2, pp. 1407-1485, 2016
This is the translation of the first twenty titles of Book Six of the Codex of Justinian as revis... more This is the translation of the first twenty titles of Book Six of the Codex of Justinian as revised from Blume's version by Simon Corcoran, with input from Michael Crawford and Benet Salway. The remaining titles of Book Six were prepared by Bruce Frier, Dennis Kehoe and Thomas McGinn.
B. Frier (ed.), The Codex of Justinian. A New Annotated Translation, with Parallel Latin and Greek Text (Cambridge) vol. 1, pp. xcvii-clxiv, 2016
This chapter gives a brief introductory history of the Codex of Justinian divided under the follo... more This chapter gives a brief introductory history of the Codex of Justinian divided under the following headings: Justinian, the man and his projects; Justinian’s legal policy 528-534; the making of the Codex, the sources – types of imperial constitution – editorial practice – shape and organization; the life of the Codex in the Empire; the life of the Codex in the early medieval West; the revivification of the Codex in the eleventh century; the medieval Vulgate and the Bologna School; humanism and the beginnings of textual criticism; towards the modern Codex edition; the nature of Krüger’s editions; Appendix - the manuscripts [listing the early manuscripts from the sixth century to c.1100].
J. Herrin and J. Nelson (eds), Ravenna: Its Role in Earlier Medieval Change and Exchange (Institute of Historical Research; London) pp. 163-197, 2016
The volume, in which this chapter appears, is based upon a colloquium "Ravenna: its significance ... more The volume, in which this chapter appears, is based upon a colloquium "Ravenna: its significance in European culture", held at the Senate House, London, in June 2013.
S. Procházka, L. Reinfandt and S. Tost (eds), Official Epistolography and the Language(s) of Power. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference of the NFN Imperium and Officium (Papyrologica Vindobonensia 8; Vienna) pp. 219-236, 2015
A. Papaconstantinou with N. McLynn and D. Schwartz (eds.), Conversion in Late Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond. Papers from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, University of Oxford, 2009-2010 (Farnham) pp. 67-94, 2015
This article seeks to show how imperial legislation promoting religious conformity, whether by pr... more This article seeks to show how imperial legislation promoting religious conformity, whether by preventing or imposing religious beliefs or practices, developed from the time of the Decian persecution down to the comprehensive anti‐pagan enactments of Justinian. The main focus is on the relationship of Christians with pagans and Jews. In particular, attention is paid to the rapid changes of imperial perspective during the period of the Great Persecution, its relaxation, and Constantineʹs adoption of Christianity.
R. Stone and C. West (eds), Hincmar of Rheims. Life and Work (Manchester) pp. 129-155, 2015
Hincmar is notable for citing Roman legal texts more extensively than his contemporaries. However... more Hincmar is notable for citing Roman legal texts more extensively than his contemporaries. However, the range of sources available to him was limited, mostly deriving from the tradition of the Breviary of Alaric, especially in a form augmented by religious material from Theodosian Code Book 16. Much of this material was mediated through two of his “working” manuscripts (Berlin SB Phillipps 1741 and its derivative BN Par. Lat. 12445), whose contents reflect two active periods of collecting and use, the later 850s and 868-871. The other significant source in the latter period was Julian’s Epitome of the Novels, the principle way Justinianic law was known in the early mediaeval west. For Hincmar, the Roman legal materials were always less important than Biblical or canonical texts, often gaining status only as being laws the church had approved. Further, except where encapsulating church privilege, the substantive law of Rome generally mattered less than its procedural rules, which were key tools in legal disputes, as in that with Hincmar of Laon. Finally, although eschewing the Isidorian forgery tradition, Hincmar was canny at selective quotation to suit his purposes, even to the extent of minor textual emendation.
K. Radner, (ed.), State Correspondence in the Ancient World from New Kingdom Egypt to the Roman Empire (Oxford Studies in Early Empires; New York) pp. 172 - 209, 2014
Correspondence was a vital feature of the Roman Empire’s government. The emperor’s letters could ... more Correspondence was a vital feature of the Roman Empire’s government. The emperor’s letters could become a potent tool of interest to more than just their original recipients or addressees, and many of them therefore came to enjoy a long and varied afterlife, especially in the form of Roman law codices in which most of the available sources survive. This chapter analyzes these streams of tradition as well as the basic mechanisms of Roman state communication.
The chapter appears in the volume produced from two collaborative workshops held at UCL (April 2011, July 2012), as part of the project "Mechanisms of Communication in an Ancient Empire: The Correspondence between the King of Assyria and his Magnates in the 8th C. BC".
Mélanges de l’École française de Rome – Antiquité (MEFRA) 125-2, pp. 285-304, 2013
The Gregorian and Hermogenian Codes do not survive and so have to be imagined from their remains ... more The Gregorian and Hermogenian Codes do not survive and so have to be imagined from their remains recycled into other late antique legal works, in particular the Justinian Code. Additional illumination may also be provided if the recent identification of some fragments (Fragmenta Londiniensia Anteiustiniana) as coming from the Gregorian Code is correct. From the various sources, it is clear that the Hermogenian Code consisted almost solely of private rescripts issued by Diocletian and his colleagues in the two years 293 and 294, while the Gregorian Code, consisting mainly but not only of private rescripts, covered the period from Hadrian up to some point in the 290s. Both were arranged thematically under titles (the Gregorianus also in Books), further developing principles of organization from earlier juristic collections, that had brought together both praetorian and non-praetorian legal topics. The two codes were also probably the first legal works to appear in the new “codex” rather than roll format. While the Hermogenian Code was produced by a jurist prominent at Diocletian’s court from texts he himself wrote in the emperors’ names, it is not certain that this was so for the Gregorianus, of whose compiler we know nothing. Nor are the publication dates and relative sequence of the two codes clear, although both must have appeared by c.300. There is no evidence that either existed in more than one formal edition. Whether or not sponsored by Diocletian, the codes mark two important features of Diocletian’s reign. First, they disseminated more widely than ever before a huge range of imperial legal rulings in a coherent and ordered way, serving the needs of not only the state (officials and governors) and professionals (advocates, law-teachers), but also of a citizen population, nominally Roman, but still unfamiliar with Roman legal norms, and eager for any legal advantage. Secondly, the codes mark the supersession of earlier authoritative forms of law-making or exposition (lex, senatus consultum, juristic writing) and demonstrate the emperor’s dominance in the creation and interpretation of normative legal texts.
G. Bonamente, N. Lenski, and R. Lizzi Testa (eds), Costantino prima e dopo Costantino: Constantine Before and After Constantine (Munera 35; Bari) pp. 3-15 , 2012
S. Crogiez-Pétrequin and P. Jaillette (eds.), Société, économie, administration dans le Code Théodosien (Villeneuve d'Ascq) pp. 265-284, 2012
The Caesariani were officials of the res privata, against whose corrupt excesses several laws of ... more The Caesariani were officials of the res privata, against whose corrupt excesses several laws of the late third and early fourth centuries were directed. Most of the few such laws in the Theodosian Code are attributed to Constantine and appear part of his consistent policy of controlling fiscal abuses. However, there survive also various epigraphic texts on the same subjects. Not only are they unusual as long Latin pronouncements erected in the Greek East, but they are among the very few such texts present in multiple copies and found at overlapping sites. The only dating information they give and other correlations between them suggest that they were issued in the summer of 305 by Galerius and actively promulgated as a coherent dossier in his portion of the empire. One of these texts, the Edictum de Accusationibus, is also attested in the Theodosian Code (IX, 5, 1), attributed to Constantine in 314. Inconsistencies in the Code details and the correct interpretation of the epigraphic evidence mean that both date and emperor as given in the Code must be rejected. This serves to remind us of the problems of relying so much upon the Theodosian Code. Thus there survives much legislation of Constantine, but little of Galerius due to a large lacuna in our evidence for the period prior to 313, the start-date of the Theodosian Code. Further, because of the corruptions and confusions already present in the material and the subsequent editorial decisions of the Theodosian commissioners, the texts that appear in the Code, especially their headings and subscripts, may be extremely unreliable.
This article gives a preliminary account of seventeen small parchment fragments, which have been ... more This article gives a preliminary account of seventeen small parchment fragments, which have been the subject of detailed study by members of the team of the Projet Volterra since the end of 2009. The fragments have been identified as coming from a legal text in Latin, indeed possibly all from the same page, written in a fifth-century uncial book-hand, but with some numeration and glosses in Greek. The fragments contain part of a rubricated title, as well as the headings and subscripts to several imperial rescripts of third-century emperors (Caracalla, Gordian III and the Philips are explicitly named), organized in a broadly chronological sequence without intervening commentary. Three rescripts overlap with texts known from the Justinian Code (C.7.62.3, 4, and 7). It is argued here that the work in the fragments is from neither the first nor second editions of the Justinian Code, nor from a juristic miscellany (similar to the Fragmenta Vaticana, Lex Dei, or Consultatio). Despite the apparently anomalous presence of a tetrarchic rescript (otherwise typically attributed to the Hermogenian Code), the conclusion is that these fragments most plausibly represent the only known remains of a manuscript of the lost Gregorian Code. An appendix gives some sample texts, including all the material overlapping with the Justinian Code.
Alice Rio (ed.), Law, Custom, and Justice in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Proceedings of the 2008 Byzantine Colloquium (Centre for Hellenic Studies Occasional Publications; King's College London) pp. 77-113, 2011
Nine entries in O. Nicholson (ed.), The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity (Oxford, 2018): ‘Coll... more Nine entries in O. Nicholson (ed.), The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity (Oxford, 2018): ‘Collatio Legum Romanarum et Mosaicarum’ (p. 171a), ‘Consultatio Veteris Cujusdam Jurisconsulti’ (pp. 408b-409a), ‘Diocletian’ (pp. 485b-487a), ‘Fragmenta Londiniensia Anteiustiniana’ (p. 609b), ‘Fragmenta Vaticana’ (pp. 609b-610a), ‘Law of Citations’ (p. 889a-b), ‘Paul, Sententiae of’ (p. 1147b), ‘Prices Edict, Tetrarchic’ (p. 1229a-b), ‘Zenophilus, Domitius’ (pp. 1609b-1610a).
R.S. Bagnall, K. Brodersen, C.B. Champion, A. Erskine, and S.R. Huebner, The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (Chichester) pp. 1595-6., 2013
The Codex Gregorianus and Codex Hermogenianus were collections of imperial rescripts compiled in ... more The Codex Gregorianus and Codex Hermogenianus were collections of imperial rescripts compiled in the reign of Diocletian.Keywords:Late Antiquity;legal history;Roman historyLate Antiquity;legal history;Roman history
The purpose of this piece is to suggest approaches for giving a balanced assessment of the genesi... more The purpose of this piece is to suggest approaches for giving a balanced assessment of the genesis and application of legislation, as we consider the interaction of imperial power with pagan festivals and Hellenic culture. I therefore offer here general observations about the interpretation of imperial texts, especially in the light of the forms in which they survive, illustrated by an examination of one particular title " On Pagans, Sacrifices and Temples " , present in all three imperial codes of the V/VI centuries.
This paper seeks to draw a contrast between Rome and Ravenna around the year 1000 in their knowle... more This paper seeks to draw a contrast between Rome and Ravenna around the year 1000 in their knowledge and use of Justinianic and pre-Justinianic texts. Consideration is given to the copying and compilation of normative texts, both the Justinianic corpus itself and other Roman-based miscellanies (Summa Perusina, Collectio Gaudenziana), and to their use in charters and court-hearings. Although Rome and Ravenna shared a strong notarial tradition deriving ultimately from the Byzantine reconquest Italy, they also demonstrate distinctions in the dynamism of their engagement with this legacy during the period of Ottonian renovatio.
This poster explores the possibility that two milestones from Heraclea-Perinthus in Turkish Thrac... more This poster explores the possibility that two milestones from Heraclea-Perinthus in Turkish Thrace (AE 1998.1180-1) commemorate Diocletian as divus shortly after his death c.312. If so, they provide almost the only contemporary attestation of his apotheosis.
A joint workshop between the REDHIS (REDiscovering the HIdden Structure) project at Pavia and the... more A joint workshop between the REDHIS (REDiscovering the HIdden Structure) project at Pavia and the "Projet Volterra" in London, held at UCL, on 4 and 5 December 2015.
Volterra sessions at the LEEDS IMC 6-9 July, 2015
“The Roman legal heritage between continuity a... more Volterra sessions at the LEEDS IMC 6-9 July, 2015
“The Roman legal heritage between continuity and reformation in the tenth and eleventh centuries”
During the eleventh century there was an explosion of interest in and use of Roman law and the Justinianic codification, which led in due course to the establishment of a pre-eminent law school at Bologna and the canonization of the Vulgate text in the twelfth century. How and why this happened when and where it did, and what was the nature of the existing legal and intellectual world out of which this could occur are key questions of medieval scholarship.
The Volterra Roman law project at UCL is sponsoring two sessions at the Leeds IMC 2015 on the theme of the Roman legal heritage on the cusp of this development in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The papers of the first session (Session 712: Tuesday, 7 July 2015, 14.15-15.45; Magali Coumert, Michael Crawford, Tammo Wallinga) focus specifically the manuscript tradition of the Theodosian and Justinianic collections and their derivatives. Those of the second session (Session 812: Tuesday, 7 July 2015, 16.30-18.00: Simon Corcoran, Leidulf Melve, Piotr Alexandrowicz) focus specifically on the knowledge and exploitation of Roman law in secular and ecclesiastical collections, the use or manipulation of Roman law in legal disputes or documents in lay and ecclesiastical contexts, and the existence or nature of legal expertise or specialization during this period.
"20-22 June, Dept. of History, UCL.
Two AHRC-funded research projects have over the last decade ... more "20-22 June, Dept. of History, UCL.
Two AHRC-funded research projects have over the last decade formed a substantial part of the research of the Department of History, UCL, in the areas of antiquity and the early Middle Ages: the Projet Volterra, Law, Empire and after, AD 193-1076; and the Lexicon of Festus. Among the aims of the first is to promote the study of Roman law and its afterlife in a full social, political, legal and intellectual context, particularly by the analysis of the transmission of legal understanding; of the second to make the mass of information in the Lexicon available to researchers in a useable form, and to stimulate debate on Festus’ own work, on the antiquarian tradition from which he was drawing and on the subsequent history of the text.
As it has turned out, much of the achievement of both projects has been to show that the current scholarly consensus on large parts of the textual tradition of both bodies of material is mistaken; and it has become apparent that work on Festus in the Carolingian period forms an essential part of the story of the transmission of a knowledge of Roman law. In particular, the Projet Volterra has identified what are probably fragments of the Codex Gregorianus and shown in the case of the Fragmenta Vallicelliana that the transmission of the Codex Justinianus is much more complicated than generally thought; and the Lexicon of Festus project has identified further material in the incunabula of the Epitome of Paul that probably derives from Festus and shown that the current view of the relationship between the apographs of the Farnese manuscript and the editio princeps is certainly wrong.
At the same time, research undertaken by Dr Gutierrez and Professor Calboli in Bologna and by Dr Boumis and Professor De Nonno in Rome has made major advances in renewing our understanding of the study of Festus in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries; and the debate started by the work of Charles Radding and Antonio Ciaralli on the history of Roman law in the Middle Ages shows no signs of subsiding, with crucial ongoing work by Wolfgang Kaiser.
"
Handout from a brief presentation at the annual Graduate Student Forum of the Society for Neo-Lat... more Handout from a brief presentation at the annual Graduate Student Forum of the Society for Neo-Latin Studies, held at Merton College, Oxford (10 March 2016).
Melvyn Bragg chairs a discussion on Justinian's codification and its legacy with Caroline Humfres... more Melvyn Bragg chairs a discussion on Justinian's codification and its legacy with Caroline Humfress, Paul du Plessis and Simon Corcoran. You can listen to the broadcast, or download the slightly longer podcast, that includes some additional discussion recorded immediately after the programme.
The Codex of Justinian is, together with the Digest, the core of the great Byzantine compilation of Roman law called the Corpus Iuris Civilis. The Codex compiles legal proclamations issued by Roman emperors from the second to the sixth centuries CE. Its influence on subsequent legal development in the medieval and early modern world has been almost incalculable. But the Codex has not, until now, been credibly translated into English. This translation, with a facing Latin and Greek text (from Paul Krüger's ninth edition of the Codex), is based on one made by Justice Fred H. Blume in the 1920s, but left unpublished for almost a century. It is accompanied by introductions explaining the background of the translation, a bibliography and glossary, and notes that help in understanding the text. Anyone with an interest in the Codex, whether an interested novice or a professional historian, will find ample assistance here.
The first authoritative English translation of the Codex of Justinian, one of the central documents of the Western legal tradition Provides explanatory material through extensive introductions, a glossary, and thorough annotation, making it easier to understand the often arcane details of Roman private and administrative law Provides facing Latin and Greek texts for the benefit of expert scholars
"De legibus novellis ad Theodosianum pertinentibus. Promulgation, réception, compilation des nove... more "De legibus novellis ad Theodosianum pertinentibus. Promulgation, réception, compilation des novelles post-théodosienne - Promulgation, Reception, Compilation of the Post-Theodosian Novels". Co-organized with Pierre Jaillette (Université de Lille - SHS), with the collaboration of Stephane Benoist (Université de Lille - SHS), Benet Salway (University College London) and Simon Corcoran (Newcastle University).
LE PRINCE CHRÉTIEN de Constantin aux royautés barbares (IVe-VIIIe siècle), 2018
La conversion du monde antique au christianisme ne modifia pas la position centrale du Prince au ... more La conversion du monde antique au christianisme ne modifia pas la position centrale du Prince au sein de son État. Loin de remettre en cause les fondements traditionnels du pouvoir, la nouvelle religion offrit des arguments supplémentaires pour légitimer le souverain dans la mesure où il incarnait et appliquait les valeurs du christianisme dans sa vie personnelle comme dans son action publique. Les élites chrétiennes mirent rapidement au service du pouvoir la rhétorique de la justification divine tant pour exalter le souverain que l’inviter à conformer ses actes à la parole du Christ. Dans la représentation du pouvoir par les contemporains lettrés et dans son autoreprésentation à travers les textes, les monuments et les images, le souverain assuma le modèle mis à sa disposition, quitte à en jouer pour servir les besoin de l'heure. Après avoir abordé en 2008 la question de la christianisation du monde antique analysée dans ses aspects documentaires et régionaux, puis en 2013 celle du passage des dieux civiques aux saints patrons qui constitua moins une succession fonctionnelle qu’un hiatus dans la vie communautaire, l’université de Paris Nanterre a mené en octobre 2016 une réflexion collective, internationale et transversale sur les relations entre le Prince et le christianisme dans le contexte de l’Empire tardif et des royaumes issus de sa dislocation. Le propos fut non seulement de mesurer l’influence de la religion dans l’idéalisation du pouvoir, mais encore d’étendre les perspectives de recherche aux principaux domaines d’exercice de l’autorité suprême. L’image du Prince se refléta en effet dans ses rapports avec les élites et avec les marges, avec les fidèles chrétiens et non-chrétiens, avec ses adversaires intérieurs et extérieurs. Entre le IVe et le VIIIe siècle, la notion de Prince chrétien constitua peut-être moins une donnée du réel qu'un revendication à illustrer et à défendre.
CONVEGNO IN MODALITA' DUALE
LINK PER ACCEDERE --> https://unipd.zoom.us/s/83361609407
Convegno i... more CONVEGNO IN MODALITA' DUALE LINK PER ACCEDERE --> https://unipd.zoom.us/s/83361609407
Convegno internazionale organizzato nell'ambito del progetto "ForMa - The Forgotten Manuscripts", diretto da Paola Lambrini.
A Conference on the Liber Iudiciorum
Yale Law School: 12-14 November 2021
Conference on Zoom: Pr... more A Conference on the Liber Iudiciorum Yale Law School: 12-14 November 2021
Uploads
Books by Simon Corcoran
Papers by Simon Corcoran
This chapter (itself based upon a contribution to the Festschrift for Detlef Liebs published in 2011) provides a survey of all explicit (and some implicit) textual references to Junian Latins from the third century AD and through the early mediaeval period as far as the revival of Justinianic law (c.AD1100). These texts comprise mostly normative legal materials, starting with the so-called "Tituli ex corpore Ulpiani", and include the Theodosian and Justinian Codes and their derivatives on into the medieval period, both east and west. There are also other items, such as occurrences in documents and glossaries. There will in addition be information on the use of the term 'dediticius', which appears along with 'Latin' in many of the same texts, and in part has a similar trajectory of transmission (both statuses being abolished by Justinian).
This paper examines the ways in which Maxentius attempted to establish himself as a truly Roman emperor, while based in Rome herself, even as he also engaged with the new world of the contemporary tetrarchs. Maxentius's relationship with the Senate, the Christians, the Roman people and the soldiers are all assessed, as also what can be understood of his policies from the ambiguous archaeology of contemporary buildings and even the recently discovered ‘regalia’. Being based in Rome provided him with some ideological strengths and opportunities, but also significant strategic weaknesses, that revealed Rome to be at once an unsuitable and an unnecessary seat for the emperors of the fourth century, while the proximity of emperor and city proved to be uncomfortable for both.
The chapter appears in the volume produced from two collaborative workshops held at UCL (April 2011, July 2012), as part of the project "Mechanisms of Communication in an Ancient Empire: The Correspondence between the King of Assyria and his Magnates in the 8th C. BC".
This chapter (itself based upon a contribution to the Festschrift for Detlef Liebs published in 2011) provides a survey of all explicit (and some implicit) textual references to Junian Latins from the third century AD and through the early mediaeval period as far as the revival of Justinianic law (c.AD1100). These texts comprise mostly normative legal materials, starting with the so-called "Tituli ex corpore Ulpiani", and include the Theodosian and Justinian Codes and their derivatives on into the medieval period, both east and west. There are also other items, such as occurrences in documents and glossaries. There will in addition be information on the use of the term 'dediticius', which appears along with 'Latin' in many of the same texts, and in part has a similar trajectory of transmission (both statuses being abolished by Justinian).
This paper examines the ways in which Maxentius attempted to establish himself as a truly Roman emperor, while based in Rome herself, even as he also engaged with the new world of the contemporary tetrarchs. Maxentius's relationship with the Senate, the Christians, the Roman people and the soldiers are all assessed, as also what can be understood of his policies from the ambiguous archaeology of contemporary buildings and even the recently discovered ‘regalia’. Being based in Rome provided him with some ideological strengths and opportunities, but also significant strategic weaknesses, that revealed Rome to be at once an unsuitable and an unnecessary seat for the emperors of the fourth century, while the proximity of emperor and city proved to be uncomfortable for both.
The chapter appears in the volume produced from two collaborative workshops held at UCL (April 2011, July 2012), as part of the project "Mechanisms of Communication in an Ancient Empire: The Correspondence between the King of Assyria and his Magnates in the 8th C. BC".
“The Roman legal heritage between continuity and reformation in the tenth and eleventh centuries”
During the eleventh century there was an explosion of interest in and use of Roman law and the Justinianic codification, which led in due course to the establishment of a pre-eminent law school at Bologna and the canonization of the Vulgate text in the twelfth century. How and why this happened when and where it did, and what was the nature of the existing legal and intellectual world out of which this could occur are key questions of medieval scholarship.
The Volterra Roman law project at UCL is sponsoring two sessions at the Leeds IMC 2015 on the theme of the Roman legal heritage on the cusp of this development in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The papers of the first session (Session 712: Tuesday, 7 July 2015, 14.15-15.45; Magali Coumert, Michael Crawford, Tammo Wallinga) focus specifically the manuscript tradition of the Theodosian and Justinianic collections and their derivatives. Those of the second session (Session 812: Tuesday, 7 July 2015, 16.30-18.00: Simon Corcoran, Leidulf Melve, Piotr Alexandrowicz) focus specifically on the knowledge and exploitation of Roman law in secular and ecclesiastical collections, the use or manipulation of Roman law in legal disputes or documents in lay and ecclesiastical contexts, and the existence or nature of legal expertise or specialization during this period.
Leeds IMC: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc
Two AHRC-funded research projects have over the last decade formed a substantial part of the research of the Department of History, UCL, in the areas of antiquity and the early Middle Ages: the Projet Volterra, Law, Empire and after, AD 193-1076; and the Lexicon of Festus. Among the aims of the first is to promote the study of Roman law and its afterlife in a full social, political, legal and intellectual context, particularly by the analysis of the transmission of legal understanding; of the second to make the mass of information in the Lexicon available to researchers in a useable form, and to stimulate debate on Festus’ own work, on the antiquarian tradition from which he was drawing and on the subsequent history of the text.
As it has turned out, much of the achievement of both projects has been to show that the current scholarly consensus on large parts of the textual tradition of both bodies of material is mistaken; and it has become apparent that work on Festus in the Carolingian period forms an essential part of the story of the transmission of a knowledge of Roman law. In particular, the Projet Volterra has identified what are probably fragments of the Codex Gregorianus and shown in the case of the Fragmenta Vallicelliana that the transmission of the Codex Justinianus is much more complicated than generally thought; and the Lexicon of Festus project has identified further material in the incunabula of the Epitome of Paul that probably derives from Festus and shown that the current view of the relationship between the apographs of the Farnese manuscript and the editio princeps is certainly wrong.
At the same time, research undertaken by Dr Gutierrez and Professor Calboli in Bologna and by Dr Boumis and Professor De Nonno in Rome has made major advances in renewing our understanding of the study of Festus in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries; and the debate started by the work of Charles Radding and Antonio Ciaralli on the history of Roman law in the Middle Ages shows no signs of subsiding, with crucial ongoing work by Wolfgang Kaiser.
"
The Codex of Justinian is, together with the Digest, the core of the great Byzantine compilation of Roman law called the Corpus Iuris Civilis. The Codex compiles legal proclamations issued by Roman emperors from the second to the sixth centuries CE. Its influence on subsequent legal development in the medieval and early modern world has been almost incalculable. But the Codex has not, until now, been credibly translated into English. This translation, with a facing Latin and Greek text (from Paul Krüger's ninth edition of the Codex), is based on one made by Justice Fred H. Blume in the 1920s, but left unpublished for almost a century. It is accompanied by introductions explaining the background of the translation, a bibliography and glossary, and notes that help in understanding the text. Anyone with an interest in the Codex, whether an interested novice or a professional historian, will find ample assistance here.
The first authoritative English translation of the Codex of Justinian, one of the central documents of the Western legal tradition
Provides explanatory material through extensive introductions, a glossary, and thorough annotation, making it easier to understand the often arcane details of Roman private and administrative law
Provides facing Latin and Greek texts for the benefit of expert scholars
Les élites chrétiennes mirent rapidement au service du pouvoir la rhétorique de la justification divine tant pour exalter le souverain que l’inviter à conformer ses actes à la parole du Christ. Dans la représentation du pouvoir par les contemporains lettrés et dans son autoreprésentation à travers les textes, les monuments et les images, le souverain assuma le modèle mis à sa disposition, quitte à en jouer pour servir les besoin de l'heure.
Après avoir abordé en 2008 la question de la christianisation du monde antique analysée dans ses aspects documentaires et régionaux, puis en 2013 celle du passage des dieux civiques aux saints patrons qui constitua moins une succession fonctionnelle qu’un hiatus dans la vie communautaire, l’université de Paris Nanterre a mené en octobre 2016 une réflexion collective, internationale et transversale sur les relations entre le Prince et le christianisme dans le contexte de l’Empire tardif et des royaumes issus de sa dislocation.
Le propos fut non seulement de mesurer l’influence de la religion dans l’idéalisation du pouvoir, mais encore d’étendre les perspectives de recherche aux principaux domaines d’exercice de l’autorité suprême. L’image du Prince se refléta en effet dans ses rapports avec les élites et avec les marges, avec les fidèles chrétiens et non-chrétiens, avec ses adversaires intérieurs et extérieurs. Entre le IVe et le VIIIe siècle, la notion de Prince chrétien constitua peut-être moins une donnée du réel qu'un revendication à illustrer et à défendre.
LINK PER ACCEDERE --> https://unipd.zoom.us/s/83361609407
Convegno internazionale organizzato nell'ambito del progetto "ForMa - The Forgotten Manuscripts", diretto da Paola Lambrini.
Padova, 22-23 ottobre 2021
L'evento si svolgerà IN PRESENZA, ma sarà possibile partecipare anche attraverso il seguente link Zoom:
https://unipd.zoom.us/s/83361609407
Per ragioni organizzative, chi fosse interessato ad assistere al convegno in presenza è pregato di comunicarlo all'indirizzo convegno.forma@gmail.com
Yale Law School: 12-14 November 2021
Conference on Zoom: Preregistration Required
https://law.yale.edu/dawn-hispanic-legal-tradition