Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
Search Presbyter Records
Search Evidence Records
Print:
ID
ER 2242
The Emperors Arcadius and Honorius issue a law exempting clerics from the tax associated with the buying and selling of food. They should also be exempted from the compulsory public labour. The law issued on 14 July 401, included in the Theodosian Code (16.2.36) published in 438.
16.2.36
 
IDEM AA. POMPEIANO PROC(ONSVLI) AFRIC(AE)
Quicumque catholicae religionis clerici intra eum modum, unde victus emendi vendendique usum lege praefinitum exercent, ab auraria pensione habeantur inmunes. 1. Ab his quoque, quos a publici laboris actu et gradus clericatus et, quod non minus est, sanctior vita defendit, praecipimus temperari. Nec enim ullum eorum, qui excepti legibus probabuntur, subiacere patiamur iniuriae. Et cetera.
DAT. PRID. ID. IUL. MED(IOLANO) POST CONS. STILICHONIS ET AVRELIANI VV. CC.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 847)
16.2.36
 
THE SAME AUGUSTI TO POMPEIANUS, PROCONSUL AFRICA.
If any clerics of the Catholic religion employ the practice of buying and selling food within the limit prescribed by law, they shall be held exempt from the payment of the tax payable in gold. 1. We also direct that those persons shall be exempted from the performance of compulsory public labor who are protected by the rank of cleric and by their very holy life, a factor which is no less important. For We shall not allow to be subject to outrage anyone of those persons who are proved to have been legally exempted. Etc.
GIVEN ON THE DAY BEFORE THE IDES OF JULY AT MILAN IN THE YEAR AFTER THE CONSULSHIP OF THE MOST NOBLE STILICHO AND AURELIANUS [= 14 July 401]
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 446; lightly adapted)

Discussion:

The law concerns a tax applied to all merchants and people who received fees for their work which is known as collatio lustralis (or chrysargyron in Greek). See Seeck 1900.
 
According to Delmaire 2005: 192n1, because the law is addressed to the proconsul of Africa, the reference to vita sanctior might mean that the tax privilege should apply only to the Catholic clerics and not to the Donatist ones. Delmaire also propose that the given date is maybe the date of posting the law in Africa for public display and in fact it was issued year earlier (similarly as 13.1.18 also about the tax).

Place of event:

Region
  • East
  • Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia
  • Latin North Africa
City
  • Constantinople
  • Milan

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code
Origin: Constantinople (East), Milan (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
 
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, "Collatio lustralis", in Paulys Real-Encyclopädie der Classischen Altertumwissenschaft, v. 4.1.2, Stuttgart 1900, col. 370-76

Categories:

Religious grouping (other than Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian) - Donatist
    Described by a title - Clericus
      Public law - Secular
        Economic status and activity - Buying & selling
          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, ER2242, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2242
            Record by: Marta Szada
            last edited: 2019-08-12 10:26:35
            Contact
            Privacy policy
            FAQ
            About the project
            Team