Aurelius Hermogenianus , or Hermogenian , was an eminent Roman jurist and public servant of the age of Diocletian and his fellow tetrarchs.
27-756: The compiler of the eponymous Codex Hermogenianus , which collects imperial laws of the years AD 293–94, has long been identified with Hermogenianus, author of the six-book Iuris epitomae ( Summaries of the law ), a synopsis of classical legal thought. This manual, which followed the arrangement of the Praetor's Edict , survives in 106 excerpts in Justinian 's Digest or Pandects . The excerpts are reassembled according to an approximation of their original order in Otto Lenel's Palingenesia and an English translation can be constructed by reference to Watson's edition of
54-496: A modern Greek version. Constitution (Roman law) In Roman law , a constitutio ("constitution") is any legislative enactment by a Roman emperor . It includes edicts, decrees (judicial decisions), and rescripta (written answers to officials or petitioners). Mandata (instructions) given by the Emperor to officials were not constitutions but created legal rules that could be relied upon by individuals. One of
81-526: Is sometimes known, probably in the 390s. Most famously, the Gregorian and Hermogenian Codes are cited as a model for the organisation of imperial constitutions since Constantine I in the directive ordering their collection in what was to become the Codex Theodosianus , addressed to the senate of Constantinople on 26 March 429, and drafted by Theodosius II 's quaestor Antiochus Chuzon . In
108-520: The Codex Justinianeus in the years of the mid 290s, where they appear to overlap. Honoré (1994) provides the full text of all the private rescripts of the relevant period but in a single chronological sequence, not according to their possible location in the CH . The fullest edition of CH is that by Cenderelli (1965: 143–81), who lists references only where the source is CJ but otherwise gives
135-579: The Digest . It is clear from his last place in the index to the Florentine Digest, that Hermogenian belonged to the last generation of jurists exploited by Justinian's compilers. References to plural principes and imperatores in several Digest extracts from the Iuris epitomae are certainly consistent with a tetrarchic date. It is probably on this work that his subsequent high reputation was based;
162-547: The Aurelius Hermogenes who served as praefectus urbi of Rome in 309–310, citing the possibility of a corruption in the text of the Chronograph of 354 . Correlating the ascertainable dates for his attested posts with their conventional hierarchical order, Hermogenian's known career has been reconstructed as follows: According to Honoré, he is important as the first Roman lawyer who made an effort to reduce
189-816: The Hermogenian Code in his commentary on Justinian's Code . In the west, some time before AD 506, both codices were supplemented by a set of clarificatory notes ( interpretationes ), which accompany their abridged versions in the Breviary of Alaric , and were cited as sources in the Lex Romana Burgundionum attributed to Gundobad , king of the Burgundians (473–516). Texts drawn from the Codex Hermogenianus achieved status as authoritative sources of law simultaneously with
216-717: The Roman Balkans and eastern provinces in AD 529. This was subsequently rolled out to Latin north Africa, following its reconquest from the Vandals in 530, and then Italy in 554. So, by the mid sixth century the original text of the Hermogenian Code had been consigned to the dustbin of history over most of the Mediterranean world. Only in Merovingian and Frankish Gaul were copies of the full version still exploited between
243-458: The Roman emperors of the first tetrarchy ( Diocletian , Maximian Augusti, and Constantius and Galerius Caesars), mostly from the years 293–94. Most of the work is now lost. The work became a standard reference in late antiquity , until it was superseded by the Breviary of Alaric and the Codex Justinianeus . It takes its name from its author, Aurelius Hermogenianus , a prominent jurist of
270-469: The age who acted as the magister libellorum (drafter of responses to petitions) to Diocletian in this period. The work does not survive intact in complete form but a brief section may be preserved on a late antique papyrus from Egypt. Nevertheless, from the surviving references and excerpts it is clear that it was a single book work, subdivided into thematic headings ( tituli ) containing largely rescripts to private petitioners, organised chronologically. Of
297-486: The beginning of AD 293 to the end of 294, a task that would have been the job of the emperor's (procurator) a libellis or magister libellorum (master of petitions). These rescripts formed the core of his compilation of imperial laws, the single-book codex that bore his name, which was perhaps designed to function as a supplement to the Codex Gregorianus that itself had gathered up material from as far back as
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#1732772452700324-727: The emperor Hadrian . Certainly, the two works are closely linked in subsequent citations , the Hermogenian always after the Gregorian. More recently the legal scholar has been identified with the Aur(elius) Her[mog]enianus, revealed as co-author with his senior colleague as praetorian prefect, Julius Asclepiodotus , of an inscribed dedication to Constantius as Caesar (AD 293/305), unearthed at Brixia (modern Brescia ) in northern Italy in 1983. At this stage, given his title vir eminentissimus (in contrast to his colleague's clarissimus ), Hermogenian still belonged to
351-419: The equestrian order. As happened to a number of senior equestrian prefects of the period, at some point subsequently during Diocletian's reign, he was promoted to the senate, as witnessed by his tenure of the senatorial post of proconsul Asia, in which capacity he put up a dedication to Diocletian or his colleague Maximian at Ilium (Troy) sometime before 305. Benet Salway suggests identifying Hermogenianus with
378-505: The fifth-century author Coelius Sedulius calls Hermogenian a doctissimus iurislator ('most learned relator of the law') and it is probably of the Iuris epitomae (rather than the Codex ) that the same author claims that he produced three editions. By analysing the style of the surviving extracts of the Iuris epitomae Tony Honoré has identified Hermogenian also as the drafter of the emperor Diocletian's rescripts (replies to petitions) from
405-553: The full text only where it did not otherwise appear in the Collectio iuris Romani Anteiustiniani . Rotondi (1922: 154–58) and Sperandio (2005: 389–95) provide only an outline list of the titles, though the latter offers a useful concordance with Lenel's edition of the Edictum Perpetuum . Karampoula (2008) reconstructs on the same principles as Cenderelli (1965) but provides text (including Visigothic interpretationes ) in
432-553: The full text, as did Haenel (1837: 57–80), though he included only texts explicitly attributed to CH by ancient authorities and so did not cite the CJ material, on the grounds that it was only implicitly attributed. Krueger (1890) edited the Visigothic abridgement of CH , with its accompanying interpretationes (pp. 234–35), and provided a reconstruction of the structure of the CH , again excluding CJ material (pp. 242–45), inserting
459-487: The imperial archives. In the fourth and fifth centuries, for those wishing to cite imperial constitutions, the Codex Hermogenianus became a standard work of reference, often cited alongside the Codex Gregorianus , to which it seems to have functioned almost as a supplementary volume. The first explicit quotations of the CH are by the anonymous author of the Mosaicarum et Romanarum Legum Collatio , or Lex Dei as it
486-438: The law to a small number of basic principles, such as respect for the individual will, from which solutions to concrete problems could be deduced. Both his works were exploited for Justinian's codificatory project in the late 520s and early 530s: Hermogenian's Codex formed a major component of the Codex Justinianeus and his Iuris epitomae were excerpted for the Digest . In this form they became authoritative sources of law for
513-408: The order of titles is likely to have followed that of the Praetor's Edict . Scholars' estimates as to the number of titles vary from a minimum of 18 to one of 147, though a majority favour 69. Where evidence as to the circumstances of original publication is preserved, it is overwhelmingly to the giving or subscribing of the constitution, suggesting that Hermogenian's collection was made at source in
540-445: The original work's deliberate eclipse by two codification initiatives of the sixth century. First, the abridged version incorporated in the Breviary of Alaric , promulgated in 506, explicitly superseded the original full text throughout Visigothic Gaul and Spain. Then, as part of the emperor Justinian 's grand codification programme, it formed a major component of the Codex Justinianeus , which came into force in its first edition across
567-487: The post-Justinianic empire and the revived medieval and early modern Roman law tradition based on the Corpus Juris Civilis , in which his ideas were further developed by the natural law and historical schools of jurisprudence from the 17th century onwards. Codex Hermogenianus The Codex Hermogenianus (Eng. Hermogenian Code) is the title of a collection of constitutions (legal pronouncements) of
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#1732772452700594-677: The post-Theodosian era both Codes are quoted as sources of imperial constitutions by the mid-fifth-century anonymous author of the Consultatio veteris cuiusdam iurisconsulti (probably based in Gaul); are cited in marginal cross-references by a user of the Fragmenta Vaticana ; and in notes from an eastern law school lecture course on Ulpian's Ad Sabinum . In the Justinianic era, the antecessor (law professor) Thalelaeus cited
621-496: The second edition after 298, while praetorian prefect, its inclusion of western rescripts reflecting service as magister libellorum at the court of Maximian (c. AD 295–298), and that the final edition, incorporating extra eastern texts, was achieved c. 320 at the court of Licinius or possibly the Law School of Berytus . If Hermogenian applied the same organisational principle to the Codex as he did in his Iuris epitomae , then
648-416: The seven Valentinianic constitutions attributed to the CH by the author of the Consultatio veteris cuiusdam iurisconsulti must reflect on-going insertions by subsequent users rather than authorial appendices. Consensus opinion has it that the first edition collected the rescripts of 293 and 294, which Hermogenian had himself authored as magister libellorum . It has been proposed that Hermogenianus produced
675-406: The sixth and ninth centuries, as attested by the insertion of a quotation in two manuscripts of the Breviary . It is because of its exploitation for the Codex Justinianeus that the influence of the Codex Hermogenianus is still felt today. As a component of the Justinianic law, it formed part of the Corpus Juris Civilis of the revived medieval and early modern Roman law tradition. This in turn
702-403: The texts explicitly attributed to the Codex Hermogenianus , the vast majority date from the years 293–294, though some texts may have been added to this core by Hermogenian in subsequent editions of his work. For the fifth-century author Coelius Sedulius claims that Hermogenian, like Origen , produced three editions of his work in total (though this may relate to his Iuris epitomae ). Still,
729-572: Was the model and inspiration for the civil law codes that have dominated European systems since the Code Napoleon of 1804. It was also used by the compiler of the Sententiae Syriacae . There has been no attempt at a full reconstruction of all the surviving texts that probably derive from the CH , partly because of the difficulty of distinguishing with absolute certainty constitutions of Hermogenian from those of Gregorian in
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