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Excerpt from Roman Private Law, Vol. 1: In the Times of Cicero and of the Antonines
Roman law has formed and to a large extent still forms the substance of much of the law of modern Europe, and indeed of the civilised world generally. Its authentic source is the legislation of Justinian, Roman Emperor at Constantinople from A.D. 527 to 565. The principal part of this legislation was (1) the Digest, i.e. a selection of extracts from the writings of the Roman Jurists, nearly all of the period of about A.D. 100 to 230; (2) the Code, i.e. a selection of laws and decisions of the Emperors, the earliest constitution being one of Hadrian's, and only about a score being earlier than Severus, many being from Justinian himself; (3) the Institutes, i.e. an elementary treatise, largely founded on Gaius' Institutes. These three books, Digest, Code (revised edition), Institutes, were published in the years A.D. 533 and 534. A number of laws were issued by Justinian during the remainder of his life, but principally before A.D. 545 when his great minister Tribonian died. These are called Novels (Novellae Constitutiones). Some few contain important modifications of Private Law.
It is the law as consolidated and enacted by Justinian which (with or without adaptation to modern times and particular countries) forms the subject of most treatises on Roman Law. But this was not the law known and practised in the times with which students of Classical Rome are chiefly concerned, times distant from Justinian three to six centuries. To the law as altered by Justinian I make little reference in the following pages.
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