Time Of Justinian Research Articles

The Monastery near Kıyıköy in European Turkey

The monastery near today’s Kıyıköy settlement on the Black Sea coast is a very interesting rock-cut complex. It probably inherited an ancient sanctuary near the ancient Thracian and Roman city of Salmydessos, which became an important Christian center in the vicinity of Constantinople. In this text, we briefly review the historical information about the city, then describe the monastery, because there has been only one scientific publication since 1970 and the monastery is very difficult to access. We apply the three plans of the monastery that have been published since the 19th century to trace the change in the condition of the rock and the rooms that have been added. Then we analyze the architectural program and types of decoration of the three-nave basilica and the sacred spring, which have no exact analogue and are comparable both to examples from antiquity and to the best temples in the Byzantine capital. Based on this analysis, we assume three construction periods – ancient, from the time of Justinian and from the end of the iconoclastic period after the destruction of the city by the Bulgarian Khan Krum.

From the Treasuries of the Macedonian Orthodox Church—The Archbishopric of Ohrid: Notes on the Sacral Collection and Art Works

From the Treasuries of the Macedonian Orthodox Church—The Archbishopric of Ohrid: Notes on the Sacral Collection and Art Works

I. The Threefold Summons at Late Antique Church Councils

Abstract The threefold summons of an absent defendant in the context of synodal proceedings – which had been admittedly formed by influence from the respective process in Roman law – is an important component of the ecclesiastical judicial procedure. In this paper I examine in detail all the extensive narratives of threefold summonses preserved in conciliar acts of the fifth and sixth centuries, that is, the cases of Nestorius of Constantinople and John of Antioch at the council of Ephesus (431), the case of the archimandrite Eutyches at the Resident Synod of Constantinople (448), the case of Athanasius of Perrhe at the local synods of Hierapolis (early 440s) and Antioch (445) as well as at the Council of Chalcedon (451), the case of Dioscorus of Alexandria at the Council of Chalcedon, and the case of Anthimus of Constantinople at the Resident Synod of Constantinople (536). In the final part I proceed to an assessment of this process’ evolution over the period in question. The principal conclusion is that by the time of Justinian the ecclesiastical threefold summons procedure had become consolidated and systematised.

Rimsko stvarno pravo u uporednoj analizi Gajevih Institucija i Justinijanovih Institucija

In this paper comparison of the provisions of Roman property law in the Institutes of Gaius and the Institutes of Justinian has been made. The aim of this paper is to find out which provisions of the Institutes of Gaius were reciprocated in the Institutes of Justinian, and which were not, and whether certain provisions were taken with modification and what the modification consists of. In this way, it will be determined which institutes of Roman property law remained unchanged until Justinian's time, which underwent changes, and which, due to changes in social relations, don't exist anymore. The comparative method will analyze the most important legal concepts and institutes of Roman property law from the Institutes.

DONATION IN PROSPECT OF DEATH (DONATIO MORTIS CAUSA)

Donation in prospect of death represents a legal transaction witha long legal tradition. This institute shares common Roman legal roots with atestament and legacy. In different time periods of the development of Roman law,donatio mortis causa had variable legal nature, with the dominance of the onecreated in the time of Justinian’s law wherein donatio mortis causa representeda legacy. It was an unencumbered desposal of a donor for the benefit of a doneewith effect after the death of the donor, under the condition the donee outlivedthe donor. As such, donatio mortis causa could be revoked.The disputable legal nature had marked further development of a donation inprospect of death.Hence, ACC accepted double nature of a donation in prospectof death, as a legacy and as a donation contract, while SCC accepted Romanconception. Such divergent interpretation has remained to date, since donatiomortis causa has not been regulated neither by current contract nor inheritancelaw. It is, generally, believed that donatio mortis causa represents a type ofdonation contract inter vivos, wherein the handing over of the object of donationhas been postponed until the death of the donor. It is a donation contract enteredinto under suspensive condition that occurs at the moment of death of the donor,and the condition is for the donee to ourlive the donor. If the donee happens todie before the donor, his heirs have a right to request handing over of the objectof donation.Donatio mortis causa contract, as a rule, is irrevokable.

Decomposing Legal Personhood

The claim that corporations are not people is perhaps the most frequently voiced criticism of the United States Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. There is something obviously correct about this claim. While the nature and extent of obligations with respect to group agents like corporations and labor unions is far from clear, it is manifest in moral understanding and deeply embedded in legal practice that there is no general requirement to treat them like natural persons. Group agents may be denied rights to marry, vote, or run for public office. More generally the need to guard against discrimination, the core injustice in racism and sexism, has no direct application to the case of group agents. There is also something obviously incorrect about the claim that corporations are not people. The legal practice of treating some group agents as persons under law is ancient, found already in Roman law at the time of Justinian. In this essay I propose that reflection on this tension reveals that fundamental revision to the doctrine of legal personhood is needed. More specifically I propose that legal personhood be decomposed into at least two elements—standing and liability—and that legal systems reject the principle that an entity possesses one just in case it possesses the other. The import of this change ramifies broadly. Decomposing legal personhood not only enables a satisfactory account of the status of corporations and labor unions, who as such have liability but not standing, it also enables a satisfactory account of the status of those who as such have standing but not liability: severely mentally disabled persons, very young children (including fetuses), and non-human animals with phenomenal consciousness but lacking capacities to understand reasons and justifications.

Vertoon die Corpus Iuris Civilis Kenmerke van 'n Abstrakte Stelsel van Eiendomsoordrag?

It is generally accepted that an abstract system for the transfer of property is applied in South Africa. Characteristic of an abstract system is that the different legal acts which form part of the process, namely the obligatory agreement, delivery of the thing concerned or registration and the real agreement are separated from each other. The real agreement is an agreement between the transferor and the transferee based on a meeting of the minds; it is directed at the transfer of ownership by delivery and should be distinguished from the underlying causa (for example an obligatory agreement). The real agreement merely consists of the transferor’s intention to transfer property and the transferee’s intention to receive property. A second characteristic of the real agreement is that it should meet its own requirements. It is therefore not dependent on the validity of the preceding obligation or any other legal act. This means that ownership will pass from the transferor to the transferee even though the underlying obligatory agreement is invalid. 
 The real agreement is an invention of the German jurist Friedrich Carl von Savigny. The purpose with this article is to ascertain whether or not Roman law at the time of Justinian reflects any of the characteristics of an abstract system and the real agreement (which is generally associated with an abstract system). Can it be said that Savigny based his theory on Roman law? It appears from this paper that a clear distinction was drawn in Roman law between the causa (obligatory agreement) and delivery (traditio). Ownership in movable and immovable property did not
 pass directly by virtue of the conclusion of the contract of sale or donation (causa) - the thing concerned had to be delivered to the transferee in a legally accepted way as well. Although there is no clarity regarding the question of whether or not a valid causa was a requirement for the transfer of ownership, it can be stated with a fair amount of certainty that the causa had to be valid in those cases where delivery was effected by virtue of sale and donation. If the causa was invalid, ownership did not pass, even though the parties had the intention to pass ownership. In this regard Roman law at the time of Justinian reflects the characteristics of a causal system. However, if the thing was delivered on account of a dos or solutio by virtue of a stipulatio (and maybe also mutuum), there was no prior obligatory agreement and traditio was not affected by the causa at all. Ownership had passed merely by virtue of the intention to transfer and to receive ownership. In other words, Roman law portrays characteristics of an abstract system in these situations. 
 Regarding the question whether or not the reciprocal intention to transfer and to receive ownership had been construed as an independent agreement which should be distinguished from the obligatory agreement, it appears that that was not the case. Because of the dual nature of the contract of sale in Roman law (it created an obligation but it was also iusta causa traditionis), it was accepted that the intention to transfer and to receive ownership was actually contained in the obligatory agreement. It did not exist on its own as a separate agreement (except in cases of a dos, solutio and mutuum). However, it emerges that the intention was emphasised more and more and that it was gradually loosened from the causa. The loosening, however, existed merely in the vision that the intention to pass ownership (as contained in the causa) can continue to exist on its own even though the causa appears to be invalid. The bond between causa and traditio was not yet finally broken, because it was still the intention at the time of the obligatory agreement that effected the passing of ownership. The conclusion is that there was no sign of a real agreement which merely consisted of the reciprocal intention to transfer and receive ownership and which existed independently from the underlying obligatory agreement.

To march in phalanx, to jump with weights, to knead the bread, to tread the grapes. What is the aulos for?

The present article aims to study the musical accompaniment of physical activities such as work, athletic or military practices. Such accompaniment, mainly by the aulos, is verified over a millennium both in iconographic and literary sources from the Homeric poems to late Antique texts and mosaics from the time of Justinian. This work seeks to identify an internal logic of this cultural phenomenon and to investigate whether the reasons for this musical usage over this long period, in varied situations, including labour, athletic and military activities, follows the same general trans-historical logic, or whether the likeness is only superficial. Therefore, it analyses the musical repertoire of work songs, and the related iconography of the vintage or bread-kneading. Furthermore, it looks for the cultural explanations formulated in Antiquity for the presence of aulos-music in sporting competition and military activities. It concludes that on the level of rhythm and melody there was a form of permanence regarding the internal logic.

“Oral Tradition” as Legal Fiction: The Challenge of Dechen Ts’edilhtan in Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia

Often understood as synonymous with “oral history” in Indigenous title and rights cases in Canada, “oral tradition” as theorized by Jan Vansina is complexly imbricated in the European genealogy of “scientific history” and the archival science of Diplomatics with roots in the development of property law and memory from the time of Justinian. Focusing on Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia, which resulted in the first declaration of Aboriginal title in Canada, this paper will discuss Tsilhqot’in law (Dechen Ts’edilhtan) in the context of the court’s deployment of Vansina’s theory and its genealogy, and conclude that “oral tradition” functions as a legal fiction enabling the court to remain in the familiar archive of its own historiography while claiming to listen to the Elders.

The importance of Justinian's codification work in the field of marital relations

This paper tries to describe theoretically some of the numerous questions regarding the marriage in Justinian's time (525-565). By finishing the work of his predecessors (Gregorian, Hermogenian, Theodosius), Justinian codified the whole of Roman law. Of course, when we speak about Justinian, we also have in mind Tribonian and other members of his team. He introduced many innovations in family, i.e. marital relations: cognate kinship (blood kinship) replaced agnate kinship; the head of a family had no more 'right of life or death' (ius vitae ac necis) over the family members; marriage was reformed and a lot of restrictions were abolished as well as many pagan rituals involved in the act of getting married, and the divorce was no more 'duty but right'. Under the influence of Christianity that was spread in the first century among slaves and the poor and the moral purity that had been preached by Christianity - Justinian continued the policy of his predecessors (August, Constantine, Theodosius) towards strengthening marriage and family. Even in the period of spreading Christianity across the Roman Empire, ancient Roman religious rituals were becoming less common due to decreased importance of religion and ethics. Roman legislation in that period did not insist on formalities in the process of getting married; it insisted on a mutual agreement of a bride and bridegroom and after that the marriage was contracted as a 'legal union' - consensus facit nuptias - as the Romans said. In the Justinian time, although the marriage was under a great influence of Christianity, it required no church blessing for a contracted marriage. That condition will be introduced by Leo the Wise in the 9th century for the Eastern Roman Empire. According to Justinian, a marriage is 'the relationship of a husband and wife that contains permanent life community'. The procedure and the attached activities that accompany the act of getting married (engagement, dowry, premarital gift, prenuptial contract or instrimentum dotale, for the persons of higher classes) were contained in the provisions of Institution, Digest, Codex and Novellae and these have been referred to in the discussion about the topic in questions. Historical, comparative, legal and dogmatic methods have been used for the purpose of producing this paper. CONCLUSION: An analysis of provisions from the mentioned parts of Justinian's codification has lead us to a conclusion that they were the foundations for matrimonial legislation (with respect to both concluding marriage and divorce) in most states of the former Byzantine empire. Even today, only a secular marriage concluded before relevant state authorities is considered to be valid. Those wishing to be married in church are free to do so in the presence of the clergyman in charge, but this act has no legal effect.

Legiones rebeldes y su destrucción premeditada: el caso de Tétrico, emperador gálico, comparado en las fuentes

En este artículo se presenta el caso de las legiones romanas en el Imperio Gálico, el estado paralelo occidental durante la Anarquía Militar del siglo III ; tras asesinar a varios altos funcionarios y emperadores estas tropas habían llegado a un punto de indisciplina tal que el propio Tétrico decidió traicionar a su ejército para que fuese destruido y rendirse, buscando su salvación en la clemencia de Aureliano. Se analiza aquí ese episodio histórico y es comparado con otros dos casos similares, relacionados con la usurpación de Magnencio en Occidente y la conquista bizantina de África en tiempos de Justiniano.

The Armenian Episcopacy in Mamluk Jerusalem in the Aftermath of the Council of Sis (1307)

From the earliest days of Christianity in Armenia, Jerusalem was an important centre of pilgrimage, culture, and faith. An Armenian hierarchy free from the authority of the Imperial Greek church had existed in Jerusalem possibly from the time of Justinian and an Armenian episcopacy from the time of the Arab conquests. According to Armenian tradition, first recorded in M. Č‘amč‘ian's History of the Armenians, in 1311 Bishop Sargis of Jerusalem (sed. 1281–1313) dramatically changed the nature of that office, when he declared himself and his entire charge independent of both the spiritual overlordship of the Catholicossate of Sis and the political protection of the Armenian kingdom founded in Cilicia. The catalyst for the rupture was the Cilician Church's decision in favour of union with Rome taken with the encouragement of the Armenian monarchy at the Council of Sis in 1307. According to Č‘amč‘ian, Bishop Sargis, rejecting the Armenian kingdom's demands of obedience, turned to the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and received from him an edict declaring that henceforth the Armenian bishop of Jerusalem would be able to exercise full Patriarchal rights, namely, the ability to appoint bishops and to use the red patriarchal seal to ratify documents.

L'uso di Coricio in pseudo-Gregorio di Nissa, In sanctum Ephræm

The authenticity of the eulogy of St Ephraem attributed to Gregory of Nyssa (BHG 583; CPG 3193) has often been doubted. The author has indeed taken and adapted various passages of two homilies of the rhetor Choricius of Gaza, who lived at the time of Justinian. This provides definitive proof that the text is not by Gregory and was not compiled earlier than in the mid sixth century.

BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON THE ROMAN LAW OF LETTING AND HIRING

JURISTIC writing and Imperial Constitutions on the subject of locatio conductio, collected by the compilers to produce D.19.2 and C.4.65, do not present a complete picture of the Roman law of lease. Not only were most of these texts severed from their original context, but the statements in the Introductory Constitutions to different parts of the Corpus Iuris Civilis also indicate that a large number were eliminated in the compilation process. Although it can hardly be disputed that what the compilers chose to include in these two titles was an accurate account of the law of letting and hiring in force during the time of Justinian, it has been credibly suggested that these titles were given a specific focus in order to project a particular image of the Roman rental economy.

Prokopios zu Taposiris Magna eine Verwechslung mit Abū Mīnā ?

In the Ktismata (VI 1,12) of Procopius there is a striking discrepancy between the description of the ancient site of Taposiris magna at the Mediterranean coast of Egypt and the real importance of this site. Also none of the Justinianic buildings mentioned by Procopius are really traceable. On the other hand the large pilgrimage center of Abū Mīnā at the tomb of St. Menas, situated only a few miles afar from Taposiris magna, is totally neglected. This is as more surprising as nearly all the important public buildings are erected in the time of Justinian. It seems thus possible that Procopius by mistake mixed up this site with the site of Taposiris magna.

The penalty of mutilation for crimes in the Byzantine era (324–1453 A.D.)

Mutilation was a common punishment in Byzantium, which in all probability was introduced from the East. In legislation it was first featured in the "Eclogi" collection of laws of the Emperor Leo Isavrus III (717-741 A.D.). There are, however, indications that this punishment was already established and widespread in the time of Justinian I (527-565 A.D.), because some chroniclers of that era state that this was used for gamblers using dice and for homosexuals. The collection of laws of Leo VI the Wise (886-912 A.D.), the well-known "Hexabiblos", applied this punishment to a variety of offences such as theft, incest, adultery, attempted murder, sacrilege and the like. This punishment, furthermore, was the main penalty used against rebels and against Byzantine emperors and members of the royal family when they were removed from the throne after a successful insurrection. The basis of the latter punishment was that a mutilated person was excluded from the throne of Byzantium because the emperor was expected to fulfil the customary ideal presupposition of "perfection". No matter how curious it sounds, this barbaric penalty was imposed for reasons of leniency, i.e., to avert the heavier death penalty.

Comes Horreorum — Komēs tēs Lamias

It is a fact that very little is known of the organisation of the storage and distribution of grain at Constantinople by the imperial government after the later sixth/early seventh century. Until this time, the supply was assured through the bureau of the praetorian prefect of the East and his subordinate, the comes horreorum, along with the latter's staff of humerarii and chartularii, who had charge of the public (state) granaries; and through an independent bureau called the sitōnikon, originally under the authority of the City Prefect, but after Justinian's time transferred to the competence of the praetorian prefect of the East. The granaries where the grain was stored are named in the Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae as the horrea Troadensia, Valentiaca, Constantiaca, Alexandrina and the horreum Theodosianum – two presumably named after the sources of supply (the Troad and Egypt), three after the emperors during whose reigns they were constructed. A sixth-century ceremony preserved in the De Caerimoniis of Constantine VII records a state inspection of one of these granaries by the emperor and the praetorian prefect – where the emperor might also take along a surveyor to check the amount of grain registered by the comes, and to ensure that none had been stolen or sold illicitly.

Gregory the Great's Europe

Gregory became pope in the summer of 590, to succeed his predecessor who had been carried away by the plague. Nearly fifty years had passed since the first outbreak of the plague in the time of Justinian. Let the plague serve as our signpost to a period of upheaval across Europe. If the 530s were the ‘age of hope’ a disastrous reversal began in the 540s. The succeeding half-century was a time of collapsing hopes and darkening horizons: the prospect of imperial reconquest and peace receding after 540, never to be more than ephemerally and precariously realized; the dreams of spiritual and political unification revealed as illusory; war, plague and the obscure workings of ‘demographic forces’ combined to turn the Italy of Boethius into that of Gregory the Great in the course of some sixty years. The contours of the societies of late Antiquity were becoming displaced to produce a new social landscape. Some of this transformation has left visible traces in our evidence and has been extensively studied; much of it has been concealed from us, either through lack of evidence or through failure to ask the right questions. It is only in recent years, to take one example, that the subtle shifts in Byzantine religiosity and political ideology discernible in the later sixth century have begun to cohere into something like a unified picture of a ‘new integration’ of culture and society in the towns of the Eastern Empire. How far the world of Western Europe was exposed to analogous changes may be a question impossible to answer; in any case, it needs approaching piecemeal and with the necessary discrimination of time and place.

Corroboration in Judicial Proceedings: English, South African and Sri Lankan Law on the Testimony of Accomplices Compared

BY THE time of Justinian the general rule that one witness alone was insufficient on any material point had become entrenched in Roman law. Explicit authority is to be found in the Digest' and in Justinian's code. 2 The Roman-Dutch law adopted this rule from the Roman law. Wassanaer3 mentions, as a clear illustration of this view, the refusal of the Parliament of Paris to convict on the uncorroborated evidence of Henry IV. Matthaeus4 regards this rule as absolutely sacrosanct, in that it cannot be abrogated even by statutory provisions. The fundamental character of the principle embodied in the maxim testis unus testis nullus is indicated by the status conceded to this rule by the canon or ecclesiastical law. The rudimentary principle of the canon law, that a single witness was in no case sufficient,5 was thought to derive from divine command.6 The extreme sanction with which this rule was invested in

Flies, Mice, and the Byzantine Crossbow

The twelfth book of the military manual, Strategikon, attributed to Emperor Maurice, written about A.D. 600, contains a mini-treatise on the infantry. Although added to the work later, it seems to reflect earlier practices and equipment, some from the time of Justinian. Among the weapons to be carried by the light armed infantry it lists: ‘hollowed out wooden stocks with short arrows in small quivers, which can be fired a great distance with the bows and seriously injure the enemy’. What are these hollowed out pieces of wood, J. F. Haldon hesitantly, but correctly, identified them as crossbows. They were light enough to be carried by individual soldiers, and were clearly different from the revolving ballistae mounted on wagons spoken of in the next chapter (6) of this little treatise.