Code of Justinian Among the most lasting accomplishments of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (527–565 c.e.) was his comprehensive compilation and organization of Roman law The emperor believed that law was as essential to the security of the empire as military power His legal achievement (like his martial effort) was an attempt to ensure the power and legacy of his reign Justinian selected and changed a commission, which included Tribonian, the day’s greatest legal mind, with the task of organizing the past and present laws of the empire In 529 the commission completed its work, the Code, which arranged centuries of imperial legislation, removing that which was no longer needed This code was revised and updated in 534 Copies were distributed throughout the empire, and only laws that were recorded in it were valid in the empire’s courts After this Justinian entrusted Tribonian and his commission with the task of compiling, editing, and organizing past legal decisions or commentaries on the laws This work, known as the Digest, was completed in 533 It was divided into 50 books, by subject headings for easy reference Justinian further entrusted Tribonian with the publication (534) of an official legal textbook, the Institutes, for the training of lawyers These three parts—along with a fourth part consisting of Justinian’s new laws called Novels (meaning new laws)—all written in Latin, became known as the Corpus Juris Civilis, or Body of Civil Law This work had a profound effect on future legal procedure The Corpus influenced Byzantine law down to 1453, when the Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottoman Turks The Corpus largely influenced Byzantium through a later Greek legal compilation known as the Basilika (ninth century) In the West, Roman law was diminished by the transition to Germanic rule during the early Middle Ages In the 11th century, however, legal scholars at the University of Bologna in Italy revived the study of Justinian’s Corpus In the 12th century this study led Gratian, a Bolognese monk, to create a systematic organization of canon law (church laws) called the Decretum This study also gave birth to secular legal developments in western Europe The Code of Justinian still heavily influences many European legal systems Further reading: Maas, Michael, ed The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005; Moorhead, J Justinian London: Long- Confucian Classics 91 man, 1994; Browning, R Justinian and Theodora London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971 Matthew Herbst Confucian Classics Since the beginning of the historic period the Chinese have held the traditions handed down from antiquity with deep awe and reverence Works traditionally accepted as the heritage of ancient times long preceded Confucius (551–479 b.c.e.) but are nonetheless called the Confucian Classics The Five Confucian Classics are the most revered canonical works of the classics They are Yi Jing (I Ching), or Book of Changes Shu Jing (Shu Ching), or Book of History or Documents Shi Jing (Shih Ching), or Book of Odes or Poetry Li Jing (Li Ching), or Li Ji (Li Chi), or Book of Rites Qunqiu (Ch’un-ch’iu), or Annals of Spring and Autumn Confucius is the author of the Annals of Spring and Autumn All others are collections of ancient documents that tradition says were edited and compiled by Confucius and his disciples The Yi Jing, or Book of Changes, is a collection of short texts that give clues to interpreting the results of divination cast by priests by means of tortoise shells and milfoil stalks on orders from kings of the Shang dynasty (c 1700–c 1122 b.c.e.) According to tradition, Confucius wrote a number of “wings” to these texts that elaborate on their interpretations and explain their significance Modern historians attribute the “wings” to eras later than Confucius The Shu Jing, or Book of History, is a compilation of short documents They are announcements, speeches, manifestos, and reports by ancient rulers and their ministers, beginning from the mythical ideal kings Yao, Shun, and Yu down to the early Zhou (Chou) dynasty (c 1122–256 b.c.e.) Confucius, who also wrote introductions to the documents to explain their significance, supposedly edited them Modern historians think that while the Zhou documents are authentic, ones attributed to earlier eras were written much later The Shi Jing, or Book of Poetry, is an anthology of 300 poems Some were folk songs, while others were