The Emperor Justinian Augustus to Tribonian, most eminent man, quaestor of the sacred palace. By God's authorship governing our empire, which has been delivered to us by the heavenly Majesty, we both wage wars happily and adorn the peace and uphold the condition of the commonwealth; and we so lift up our minds to the help of Almighty God that we trust neither in arms, nor in our soldiers, nor in the leaders of our wars, nor in our own genius, but refer all our hope to the sole providence of the supreme Trinity, whence the elements of the whole world proceeded and the disposition of things was brought forth throughout the globe. § 1.
Since, therefore, nothing is found to be so worthy of zeal in all matters as the authority of the laws, which well orders both divine and human affairs and expels all iniquity, and since we have found the whole course of the laws, which has come down from the founding of the city of Rome and from the times of Romulus, to be so confused that it extends to infinity and is contained within the capacity of no human nature, our first concern was to take our beginning from the most sacred princes of old, and to amend their constitutions and hand them on by a clear path, so that, gathered into a single Code and freed from all superfluous repetition and most inequitable discord, they might offer to all men the ready safeguard of their own sincerity. § 2.
And when this work was completed, gathered together into one volume resplendent with our name—since, relieved from few and slighter matters, we were hastening to arrive at the highest and fullest amendment of the law, and to both collect and amend the whole body of Roman law and to display the scattered volumes of so many authors set forth in one Code (a thing which no one else dared either to hope for or to wish)—the matter indeed seemed to us most difficult, nay rather impossible; but with hands raised to heaven and the eternal aid invoked, we laid up that care also in our minds, trusting in God, who can both grant and accomplish, by the greatness of His power, things utterly despaired of. § 3. And we looked to the excellent ministry of your sincerity;
and to you first we entrusted this work also, having received proofs of your genius from the ordering of our Code; and we commanded that you should choose, to share the labor, those whom you should approve, both from among the most eloquent professors and from among the most learned advocates of the bar of the most ample seat. When these, therefore, had been gathered and brought into our palace, and had been approved by us on your testimony, we entrusted the whole matter to be done—yet in such a way that the entire business should be conducted under the governance of your most vigilant spirit. § 4.
We command you, therefore, both to read and to refine the books pertaining to Roman law of the ancient jurisconsults of old, to whom the most sacred princes granted authority for the composing and interpreting of laws, so that from these the whole material may be gathered, with no repetition and no discord left behind (in so far as is possible); but that from these may be collected that one thing which may suffice in place of all. But since others also have written books pertaining to the law, whose writings have been received by no authorities and are not in use, neither do we deem their volumes worthy to disturb our sanction. § 5.
And when this material has been collected by the supreme liberality of our divine power, it behooves to build it up into a most beautiful work, and to consecrate it as a proper and most holy temple of Justice, and to arrange the whole body of law into fifty books and fixed titles, both according to the constitution of our Code and in imitation of the perpetual edict, in so far as this shall have appeared convenient to you, so that nothing can be left outside the said completion; but that in these fifty books the whole ancient law, confused through nearly one thousand four hundred years and purged by us, fenced about as if by a certain wall, may have nothing outside itself;
all the authors of the law possessing equal dignity, and no prerogative being reserved to any one, since not all are found excellent in all things, but certain ones in certain matters, whether better or worse. § 6. But neither judge from the multitude of authors what is better and more equitable, since the opinion of one (perhaps even an inferior) man may in some part surpass even many and greater ones. And therefore those things which were formerly noted in the writings of Aemilius Papinianus from Ulpian and Paul, and also from Marcian, which formerly obtained no force on account of the honor of the most splendid Papinian, do not at once reject;
but if you shall have perceived that any of these is necessary to the completion or interpretation of the labors of the supreme genius of Papinian, do not delay to place it here also, obtaining the force of law: so that all the most prudent men who shall have been included in this Code may have authority, just as if their studies had proceeded from the imperial constitutions and had been poured forth from our divine mouth; for we deservedly make all things our own, since from us is imparted to them all authority; for he who subtly amends what has been done is more praiseworthy than he who first invented it. § 7.
But we also will this to be your zealous care: that if you find anything in the ancient books not well placed, or anything superfluous or less than perfect, you may—superfluous prolixity being removed—fill up what is imperfect, and show the whole work to be measured and as beautiful as possible. Observing this likewise no less: that if you find anything in the ancient laws or constitutions, which the ancients set down in their books, not rightly written, you may also reform this and hand it over in a measured order, so that this may appear to be true and best and, as it were, written from the beginning, which has been chosen by you and there placed. And let no one dare, from comparison with an ancient volume, to charge it as a faulty writing.
For since by the ancient law, which was called the Royal (lex Regia), all right and all power of the Roman people was transferred into the imperial power, and since we do not divide our whole sanction into the various parts of its several framers, but will the whole to be ours—what can antiquity abrogate against our laws? And to such a degree do all these same things, when they have been laid up, obtain force, that even if they were otherwise written down among the ancients, but are found to the contrary in our compilation, no charge of fault is imputed to the writing, but this is to be ascribed to our choice. § 8.
Let no antinomy, therefore (for so it is called from antiquity by a Greek word), in all the members of the aforesaid Code claim any place for itself, but let there be one concord, one consistency, with no provision standing as an adversary. § 9. But we will also that repetition (according to what has been said) be banished from a completion of this kind; and those things which have been provided for in the most sacred constitutions which we have reduced into our Code, we do not permit to be set down again from the ancient law, since the sanction of the imperial constitutions suffices for their authority—unless perhaps this should happen on account of division, or on account of completion, or on account of a fuller investigation;
and even this very rarely, lest from the continuation of this kind something thorny arise in so fair a meadow. § 10. But even if any laws set down in the ancient books have already fallen into desuetude, we in no way permit you to set down these same laws, since we will that only those things obtain which either the most frequent course of the courts has practiced, or the long custom of this kindly city has approved, according to the writing of Salvius Julianus, which indicates that all cities ought to follow the custom of Rome, and that Rome, which is the head of the world, ought not to follow other cities. But by Rome we understand not only the ancient one, but also our royal one, which, God being propitious, has been founded under better auspices. § 11.
Therefore we command that all things be governed by these two Codes: the one of the constitutions, the other of the law set forth in summary and to be incorporated into the future Code, or whatever else may be promulgated by us serving in place of the Institutes; so that the untrained mind of a student, nourished on simple matters, may more easily be brought up to the knowledge of a higher wisdom. — § 12. Moreover we ordain that our completed work, which shall be composed by us with God's favour, shall bear the name of the Digest or the Pandects, and that no jurists henceforth shall dare to attach commentaries to it and to confound the conciseness of the aforesaid Code by their verbosity: even as was done in former times, when through the conflicting opinions of those interpreting, almost the whole of the law was thrown into confusion;
but let it suffice to make of it only by way of indices and a careful subdivision of titles certain things called admonitory notes, no fault arising from the interpretation of them. — § 13. And lest by writing any doubt should hereafter arise, we command that the text of the same Code be not written through the cavils of abbreviations and concise enigmas, which by themselves and through their own vice have introduced many contradictions, even if the number of the books is to be signified, or anything else; for we do not permit these to be shown by special signs of numbers, but to be set forth by the order of letters spelt out. — § 14. Let therefore your prudence, together with other most eloquent men, be eager to do all these things with God's favour, and to bring them to as careful as it is most speedy a conclusion:
so that the Code, when completed and arranged into fifty books, may be offered to us for the greatest and eternal remembrance of the matter, as a proof of almighty God's wisdom, and as a glory of our empire and of your service. Given on the eighteenth day before the Kalends of January, Lampadius and Orestes being most illustrious consuls, in the year 530. Happily.