The Theodosian Code

In 429 Theodosius II ordered a commission to collect the general laws issued by the emperors since Constantine. The finished code was promulgated at Constantinople in February 438 and came into force on 1 January 439. It is arranged in sixteen books divided into titles by subject, with the laws under each title in order of date. A law is cited by book, title and number: 16.1.2 is the edict of 27 February 380 that begins Cunctos populos.

Each entry gives the emperors in whose names the law was issued, the official or body addressed, the text, and a closing line with the day, the place and the consuls of the year. These are the laws themselves, in the form the government chose to keep. Three limits apply. The compilers were told to cut each law down to its operative part and to divide laws that touched several subjects, so what stands in the code is usually an extract. The dates and places in the closing lines are sometimes miscopied. And a law shows what an emperor commanded, not how far the command was carried out.