Theodosian Code

Context

The Theodosian Code is a document of late antiquity, a period that is characterized by the transformation of the Roman Empire. Beginning with a serious plague during the reign of Marcus Aurelius in the mid-second century, Rome was put under increasing external and internal stresses that nearly destroyed it. In 235, following a mutiny of the army that resulted in the murder of the emperor Severus Alexander, Rome suffered a succession crisis that led to civil war as rival candidates vied to become emperor. Although this situation had happened before and had been quickly resolved, the disorder now became more serious and threatened to partition the empire. At the same time, raids from Germanic tribes into the empire became an increasing problem as the Germans themselves were put under pressure by migrations of new groups (Huns and so-called White Huns) from the East as part of a general migration out of inner Asia that would continue until the Mongol conquests of the Middle Ages. Order was eventually restored by Diocletian, although the damage done to the economy of the empire, particularly in the West, where cities began to be depopulated, could not easily be repaired.

Diocletian established the tetrarchy, a system by which the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire were each ruled by a senior and a junior emperor (called Augustus and Caesar), each of whom could expect to become the supreme ruler of the empire in turn. Although this system was meant to stabilize the succession, civil war again became frequent in the century after Diocletian. Constantine's granting tolerance to Christianity in 313 may also have been intended to stabilize the empire (as was his foundation of the eastern capital of Constantinople); instead, it led to virtual civil war on a city-by-city basis as the suppression of traditional religion was accomplished through devastating riots. The pressure from the Germans and other invaders (Huns now attacked the empire directly) became more intense, and in 376 a Roman army was defeated by the Visigoths deep within the empire at Adrianople (present-day Edirne). After that loss it was impossible to expel the Germans. Instead, Germanic tribes were allowed into the empire in exchange for protecting the border. This disastrous policy led to more raiding, including the sack of Rome itself by the Visigoths in 410.

In 437 the two halves of the Roman Empire were reunited briefly by the marriage alliance between the western and eastern emperors, with Valentinian III marrying the daughter of Theodosius II. By this time, however, much of the Western Roman Empire was already in the hands of independent Germanic kingdoms, the Visigoths in Spain and much of France and the Vandals in North Africa by 439. In 410 Britain had simply been abandoned as indefensible. Theodosius tried to support the Western Empire, paying tribute to the Huns to prevent them from attacking it and sending forces in the 440s for the failed attempt to reconquer North Africa. The Theodosian Code, though put in force in the East as well, was meant to reform the crumbling legal system of the West.

Theodosius II took a special interest in legal matters and as early as 429 had ordered the compilation of imperial rescripts from the last century. In 435, as negotiations were under way for the reunification of the two halves of the empire through the marriage of Theodosius's daughter to the western emperor Valentinian, Theodosius renewed his efforts and ordered a second commission to draw up the document that became the Theodosian Code. This document, presented by the praetorian prefect Faustus to the Roman Senate on December 25, 438, was a tremendous boon to the western administration and became one of the main foundations of medieval law. However, nothing could prevent the collapse of the Western Empire. Rome was sacked by the Vandals in 455. After this attack, the Ostrogoths were allowed to settle in Pannonia (roughly modern-day Hungary) and were put in charge of the security of Italy. In 476 the Ostrogothic king Odoacer put the child Romulus Augustulus, last Roman emperor of the Western Empire, under house arrest and declared himself king of Italy. Although the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire made occasional attempts to reconquer it, the Western Roman Empire ceased to exist. Population declined, and inhabitants abandoned the cities for the countryside. Local subsistence replaced trade as the basis of the economy.