What was the Justinian Digest?

The Digest was a 50-book compendium of juristic writings on Roman law compiled between 530 and 533 AD by order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. It formed a central part of Justinian's codification of Roman law, known later as the Corpus Juris Civilis, and was given the full force of law. Composed mostly of brief extracts from earlier Roman jurists, the work aimed to serve as a complete and exclusive legal reference.

What we know

• The Digest is a 50-book compendium or digest of juristic writings on Roman law compiled between 530 and 533 AD by order of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. [2]
• The Digest forms one of the core parts of the Corpus Juris Civilis, alongside the Code, the Institutes, and the later Novellae Constitutiones. [2, 3]
• The work was directed by Tribonian and his team, who were authorized to edit the included texts, though the exact extent of their amendments remains largely unknown since most original texts did not survive. [3]
• Justinian gave the Digest, Code, and student textbook Institutes the force of law and intended them to be the sole source of law, forbidding reference to any other texts. [2, 3]

Still open

• The exact extent to which Tribonian's team made amendments to the original juristic texts included in the Digest is unrecorded and cannot be fully known.

Where to go next

• whoWho was Tribonian?
• a case in pointWhat is the Codex Justinianus?
• what followedHow did the Corpus Juris Civilis influence modern civil law?
• compared withWhat are the Institutes of Justinian?
• the bigger pictureHow did the Eastern Roman Empire use the Basilika?
• an unexpected connectionHow did a 6th-century Roman law text influence Catholic Church canon law?Provisions of Justinian's codification influenced church canon law to the extent that it was said the church lives by Roman law.

Sources

• [1]Digest (Wikidata Q838526) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Digest (Roman law) · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Corpus Juris Civilis · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Justinian I · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Institutes (Justinian) · CC BY-SA 4.0

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