The querela inofficiosi testamenti is attested in Byzantine legal compilations, where provisions of Roman law were rendered into Greek. However, non-normative sources also provide insight into how this legal mechanism operated in practice. One of the most significant principles of testamentary law—namely, the inheritance rights of the testator’s closest blood relatives—is clearly reflected in multiple…
Scholarly research accepts as a clear fact that the Edict of Milan, issued by Constantine the Great in February 313, made Christianity a religio licita, i.e. an accepted religion in the Roman Empire. The Edict of Cunctos populos, issued by the Emperor Theodosius the Great in February 380, is not nearly so clear-cut: while the…
This paper examines the criminal law provisions of the Prochiron, a legal compilation in 40 titles enacted by the Macedonian rulers between the last quarter of the 9th century and the early 10th century. Title XXXIX, Περὶ ποινῶν (“On Punishments”), comprises 86 chapters devoted to criminal law. The Macedonian legislation aimed to purify the ancient…
No written system of a Byzantine ‘Constitution’ appeared throughout the Byzantine period, whereas several written laws covered aspects of state law. The “titles” (chapters) 2 and 3 of the Eisagoge (Εἰσαγωγή) are considered the first and only Byzantine written legal text with a constitutional context. The Eisagoge was part of the “cleansing of the laws”…