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ID
ER 2259
The Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian issue a law confirming formerly promulgated laws with privileges for clerics. The law issued on 4 August 425 (?), included in the Theodosian Code (16.2.46) published in 438.
16.2.46
 
IMPP. THEOD(OSIVS) A. ET VALENTINIANUS CAES. GEORGIO PROC(ONSULI) AFRIC(AE).
Post alia: privilegia praeteritarum legum ecclesiae sive clericis delata serventur. Et cetera.
DAT. PRID. NON. IVL. AQVIL(EIAE) D. N. THEOD(OSIO) A. XI ET VAL(ENTINI)ANO CAES. CONSS. (=6 July 425; should be 4 August 425?)
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 852)
16.2.46
 
EMPEROR THEODOSIUS AUGUSTUS AND VALENTIANIAN CAESAR TO GEORGIUS, PROCONSUL OF AFRICA.
After other matters: The privileges granted to the Church and to the clerics by previous laws shall be preserved. Etc.
GIVEN ON THE DAY BEFORE THE NONES OF JULY AT AQIUlEIA IN THE YEAR OF THE ELEVENTH CONSULSHIP OF OUR LORD THEODOSIUS AUGUSTUS AND THE CONSULSHIP OF VALENTINIAN CAESAR (=6 July 425; should be 4 August 425?)
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 449)

Discussion:

The law is an excerpt from the Sirmondian Constitution 6, just like 16.2.47, 16.5.62, 16.5.63, and 16.5.64. 16.5.63 is dated to 4 August 425 and is also directed to the proconsul of Africa, so this is probably the correct date for the present law. The other excerpts were directed to pretorian prefects of Gauls and Rome and are dated to July; the pretorian prefects should receive the laws before the proconsuls, so the correction of date of the present law is necessary. See Delmaire 2005: 213-14.

Place of event:

Region
  • East
  • Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia
  • Gaul
City
  • Constantinople
  • Aquileia

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, Arian
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)

Categories:

Described by a title - Clericus
    Public law - Secular
      Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2259, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2259
      Record by: Marta Szada
      last edited: 2019-08-12 10:27:06
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