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ER 2167
The Emperor Constantius and Constans issue a law granting exemptions from obligatory services to the clerics who have no possessions. The law issued on 26 February 342, included in the Theodosian Code published in 438.
XVI.2.11
 
IDEM AA. AD LONGINVM P(RAE)F(ECTVM) AEGYPTI. Iam pridem sanximus, ut catholicae legis antistites et clerici, qui in totum nihil possident ac patrimonio inutiles sunt, ad munera curialia minime devocentur. Verum comperimus pro nulla utilitate publica perfectione eos inquietari. Ideoque praecipimus filios eorum, quicumque minus idonei et intra legitimam aetatem esse repperiuntur, nullam molestiam sustinere. DAT. IIII KAL. MART. CONSTANTIO A. VII ET CONSTANTE A. CONSS.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 838, changed after Delmaire 2005: 142)
XVI.2.11
 
THE SAME AUGUSTI TO LONGINIANUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT. We formerly sanctioned that bishops and clerics of the Catholic faith who possess nothing at all and are useless with respect to patrimony shall not be summoned to compulsory public services as decurions. But We learn that they are being disturbed in their life of perfection, to no public advantage. Therefore, We direct that their sons also who are not financially responsible and who are found to be below the legal age shall sustain no molestation.
GIVEN ON THE FOURTH DAY BEFORE THE KALENDS OF MARCH IN THE YEAR OF THE SEVENTH CONSULSHIP OF CONSTANTIUS AUGUSTUS AND THE CONSULSHIP OF CONSTANS AUGUSTUS. [February 26, 354; 342]
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 442)

Discussion:

The consular date given by the text is incorrect because the seventh consulship of Constantius was in 354 with Constantius Caesar. Mommsen and Seeck correct it: CONSTANTIO A. III ET CONSTANTE A. II, that is 26 February 342. Moreover, the prefect of Egypt in 356 was Sebastianus.
 
Mommsen incorrectly adopted the version of the name "Longinianus" instead of "Longinus", attested in one of the manuscripts. Longinus is known to be a prefect of Egypt between 341 and 343 from the festal letters of Athanasius of Alexandria. See Delamaire 2005: 142.

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)

Categories:

Social origin or status - Social elite
    Family life - Offspring
      Described by a title - Clericus
        Public law - Secular
          Economic status and activity - Indication of poverty
            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, ER2167, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2167
              Record by: Marta Szada
              last edited: 2019-08-12 10:24:23
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