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ER 2144
The Emperors Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius issue the law which exempt clerics who are tradesmen from the lustral tax payable in gold exacted from tradesmen. The law issued on 5 July 379, included in the Theodosian Code published in 438.
XIII.1.11
 
IMPPP. GRATIANUS, VALENTINIANUS ET THEODOSIUS AAA. AD HESPERIVM P(RAEFECTVM) P(RAETORI)O. Etsi omnes mercatores spectat lustralis auri depensio, clerici tamen intra Illyricum et Italiam in denis solidis, intra Gallias in quinis denis solidis inmunem usum conversationis exerceant. Quidquid autem supra hunc modum negotiationis versabitur, id oportet ad functionem aurariam devocari. DAT. III. NON. IVL. AQVILEIAE AVXONIO ET OLYBRIO CONSS.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 737)
XII.1.11
 
Emperors Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius Augusti to Hesperius, Praetorian Prefect.
Although the payment of the lustral tax payable in gold has in view all merchants, nevertheless, clerics withing Illyricum and Italy shall have the right to follow the occupation of tradesmen exempt from taxation to the extent of ten solidi each; within Gaul, to the extent of fifteen solidi each. If any capital is exmployed in business, beyond this amount, however, it must be subject to the payment of this tax payable in gold.
Given on the third day before the nones of July at Aquileia in the year of the consulship of Auxonius and Olybrius. July 5, 379.
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 386)

Place of event:

Region
  • East
  • Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia
  • Italy south of Rome and Sicily
  • Rome
  • Danubian provinces and Illyricum
City
  • Constantinople

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code
Origin: Constantinople (East), Aquileia (Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
The Theodosian Code is a compilation of the Roman legislation from the times of the Emperor Constantine to the times of Theodosius II. The work was begun in 427 and finished in autumn 437 when it was accepted for publication. It was promulgated in February 438 and came into effect from the beginning of the year 439.
 
The compilation consist of sixteen books in which all imperial constitutions are gathered beginning with the year 312. Books 1-5 did not survive and are reconstructed from the manuscripts of the Lex Romana Visigothorum, i.e. the Breviary of Alaric, the legal corpus published in 506 by the Visigothic king, Alaric, containing excerpts from the Theodosian Code equipped with explanatory notes (interpretationes), post-Theodosian novels and several other juristic texts.
 
A new compilation was undertaken during the reign of the emperor Justinian. A committee of ten persons prepared and promulgated the Codex in 529. It was quickly outdated because of the legislative activities of the emperor and therefore its revised version had to be published in 534. The Codex together with the novels, the Pandecta, a digest of juristic writings, and the Institutes, an introductory handbook are known under the medieval name "Corpus Iuris Civilis".
Edition:
Theodor Mommsen and Paul Martin Meyer (eds.), Theodosiani libri XVI cum constitutionibus Sirmondianis et leges novellae ad Theodosianum pertinentes, 2 vols., Berlin 1905
Paul Krüger (ed.), Codex Iustinianus, Berlin 1877
Gustav Hänel (ed.), Lex Romana Visigothorum, Leipzig 1849
 
Translation:
The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions, a translation with commentary, glossary, and bibliography by C. Pharr, Princeton 1952
Bibliography:
(all those entries with extenstive, recent bibliography)
 
 

Categories:

Described by a title - Clericus
    Public law - Secular
      Economic status and activity - Buying & selling
        Economic status and activity - Indication of wealth
          Economic status and activity - Taxes and services
            Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2144, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2144
            Record by: Marta Szada
            last edited: 2019-08-12 10:22:41
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