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ER 2161
The Emperor Constantine issues a law according to which the clerics of curial origin who entered the clergy before the promulgation of the law forbidding decurions to enter the clergy, should be free from any public service. Those, however, who after the promulgation entered the clergy to evade public duties, are to be removed from the office and restored to municipal councils. The law issued on 18 July of 320, included in the Theodosian Code published in 438.
XVI.2.3
 
IDEM A. AD BASSVM P(RAEFECTVM) P(RAETORI)O. Cum constitutio emissa praecipiat nullum deinceps decurionem vel ex decurione progenitum vel etiam instructum idoneis facultatibus adque obeundis publicis muneribus opportunum ad clericorum nomen obsequiumque confugere, sed eos de cetero in defunctorum dumtaxat clericorum loca subrogari, qui fortuna tenues neque muneribus civilibus teneantur obstricti, cognovimus illos etiam inquietari, qui ante legis promulgationem clericorum se consortio sociaverint. Ideoque praecipimus his ab omni molestia libertatis illos, qui post legem latam obsequia publica declinantes ad clericorum numerum confugerunt, procul ab eo corpore segregatos curiae ordinibusque restitui et civilibus obsequiis inservire. P(RO)P(OSITA) XV KAL. AVG. CONSTANTINO A. VI ET CONSTANTIO CAES. CONSS.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 835-36)
XVI.2.3
 
The same Augustus to Bassus, Praetorian Prefect.
A constitution was issued which directs that thenceforth no decurion or descendant of a decurion or even any person provided with adequate resources and suitable to undertake compulsory public services shall take refuge in the name and the service of the clergy, but that in the place of deceased clerics thereafter only those persons shall be chosen as substitutes who have slender fortunes and who are not held bound to such compulsory municipal services. But We have learned that those persons also are being disturbed who became associated with the clergy before the promulgation of the aforesaid law. We command, therefore, that the latter shall he freed from all annoyance, and that the former, who in evasion of public duties have taken refuge in the number of the clergy after the issuance of the law, shall be completely separated from that body, shall be restored to their orders and to the municipal councils, and shall perform their municipal duties.
Posted on the fifteenth day before the kalends of August in the year of the sixth consulship of Constantine Augustus and the consulship of Constantine Caesar. July, 1, 320.
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 441)

Discussion:

A colleague of Constantine in his sixth consulship in 320 was not Constantius (as is in the text) but Constantine (II) Caesar. Constantine and Constantius Caesar were consuls in 326 but in 326 Bassus was not the praetorian prefect but the praefect of the city. Moreover, Seeck noticed that the decurions are not of interest to the prefect of the city. He also thought that the earlier law to which Constantine alludes here is XVI.2.6 from 1 June 329. He proposed then to correct the dating formula of the present law to CONSTANTINO A. VIII ET CONSTANTINO C. IIII COSS., that is to 18 July 329 (Seeck 1919: 61). But the inscription for Iunius Bassus from Aquae Vivae (AE 1964, 203; see Trismegistos 248279) shows that he was the praetorian prefect for 14 years, so from 318 to 331 (when he became a consul). Most probably then the law was issued in 320 and refers not to XVI.2.6 but to another, not extant, law. See Delmaire 2005: 126-127.

Place of event:

Region
  • East
City
  • Constantinople

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code
Origin: Constantinople (East)
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
 
Translations:
The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions, a translation with commentary, glossary, and bibliography by C. Pharr, Princeton 1952
Les lois religieuses des empereurs romains de Constantin à Théodose (312-438), v. 1, Code Théodosien livre XVI, text latin Th. Mommsen, trad. J. Rougé, introduction et notes R. Delmaire avec collab. F. Richard, Paris 2005
Bibliography:
(all those entries with extenstive, recent bibliography)
 
O. Seeck, Regesten der Kaiser und Papste, Stuttgart 1919

Categories:

Described by a title - Clericus
    Impediments or requisits for the office - Social/Economic/Legal status
      Public functions and offices before ordination
        Public functions and offices after ordination - Civic office
          Public law - Secular
            Economic status and activity - Indication of wealth
              Economic status and activity - Indication of poverty
                Further ecclesiastical career - Lay status
                  Administration of justice - Secular
                    Administration of justice - Demotion
                      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, ER2161, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2161
                        Record by: Marta Szada
                        last edited: 2019-08-12 10:23:39
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