The Decrees and Constitutions of Constantine

Concerning appeals and their penalties, And consultations. The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Claudius Plautianus, Corrector of Lucania and the Bruttii. If in a civil matter, having heard both sets of pleadings, you shall have given judgment, and are going to refer it to our knowledge, you should order a copy of the consultation to be published for the litigants in the records within ten days, so that, if by chance your report should seem to anyone less than full or contrary, he may likewise offer refutatory petitions to you in the records within five days from the time he was given the copy of your consultation. It is now your duty to attach to your consultation, together with the litigant's refutatory petitions, all that has been transacted before you or before others in that matter; so that you should know that both the ten days within which the consultation must be published, and the five within which the refutatory petitions must be offered, are to be observed as continuous days.

For once five days have passed, you ought not to hear a litigant offering refutatory petitions, but, without these, since they were not offered within the appointed time, you should refer all the proceedings to our knowledge. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the council of the province of Africa. A husband, without a mandate, in his wife's affairs, together with a formal guarantee and other observance for intervening, is to have free power; lest women, under the pretext of pursuing a lawsuit, rush in shamelessly to the disgrace of matronly modesty, and be compelled to be present at the assemblies of men, or at trials. But if he shall have received a mandate, although he be the husband, he ought only to carry out what the issued procuration has prescribed. Given on the 4th day before the Ides of March, at Hadrumetum, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus and Licinius Caesar, both for the second time.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to all the provincials. Executors appointed by any judge whatsoever for exacting debts which are demanded civilly are not to drag away, by way of pledge, from the possessions, the ploughing slaves, or the plough-oxen (or the plough equipment), whereby the payment of tributes is delayed. If therefore any agent, or creditor, or prefect of a district (or village), or decurion shall have been found guilty in this matter, let him, upon assessment by the judge, be subjected to punishment. Given.

In the year of the Lord. In the consulship of Constantine Augustus III and Licinius Augustus III. Concerning petitions and things given voluntarily. The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the People. After other matters: Concerning informers we have already established certain things; whoever shall act against them shall incur capital punishment. Posted publicly.

Of February. To Constantine Augustus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the People. Since the record-keepers of the cities, by collusion with the more powerful, transfer the burden to the lesser, we command that whoever shall have proved himself aggrieved shall acknowledge only his own former assessment. Posted publicly.

INTERPRETATION. If the record-keepers, or those to whom the books of exaction are handed over, shall have wished to relieve the more powerful, and shall have added what they have relieved to the lesser, he who shall have proved himself aggrieved shall pay no more than what he shall have shown himself to have undertaken according to the census.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Philip, Vicar of the City. If anyone shall have been harassed by an agent of our private estates or by a procurator, he does not hesitate to lodge a complaint concerning his calumnies or plunderings. When this matter shall have been proven, we decree that the same person, who shall have dared to contrive anything against a provincial, be publicly burned alive, since a graver penalty must be established for those who belong to our jurisdiction, and who ought to keep our mandates. Given.

INTERPRETATION. Whoever shall have been harassed, by the misconduct of some injury, by an agent of the lord's estate or by a procurator, ought to fly to the emperor concerning their calumnies or plunderings. If this matter can be proven, it has been decided that those who have dared to do such things against provincials be burned to death by fire, because the princes have willed a graver penalty to be established for those who belong to their own jurisdiction, and who ought to keep their mandates.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Aemilius, Vir Perfectissimus, Rationalis. If ever our notations shall contain a possession or a house, which we have granted, given "with its whole condition," by this word will be conveyed the same force which we formerly wrote, "together with the adjoining lands and slaves and flocks and produce and all its own right"; so that those things which pertain to the equipment of the possession or house are to be delivered. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Evagrius, Praetorian Prefect. Let no judge attempt to grant exemption from civil duties to any decurion, or of his own decision release anyone from the curia. For if anyone shall have been so afflicted by misfortune of this kind that he ought to be relieved, his name should be reported to our knowledge, so that for a fixed period of time an exemption from civil duties may be extended to him. Posted publicly. On the Ides of March, to Constantine Augustus.

The same Augustus to Eusebius, Vir Perfectissimus, Governor of Lycia and Pamphylia. The urban populace, just as is also observed in the Eastern provinces, is by no means to be assessed in the census for its capitation, but according to this our command is to be held exempt, just as also under our lord and father Diocletian the elder Augustus this same urban populace had been exempt. Given on the Kalends of June, to Constantine Augustus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Rufinus, Praetorian Prefect. It cannot be borne that there creep in, under the title of military distinction, those who have neither seen the battle line, nor observed the standards, nor handled weapons. Therefore if any ex-protectors or ex-commanders or ex-tribunes shall have brought back letters, they are not to have the privilege which is merited only by those who have arrived at this honor through the order of military service, having gone through the labor of arms. Posted publicly.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Aelianus, Proconsul of Africa. All civil cases, and especially those which are more celebrated in report, as well as criminal matters, you ought to hear publicly, ordering that the records be drawn up on the third, or at the latest the fourth, or certainly the fifth day. All these things the legates too, warned by coercion, shall observe. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Proclianus. Apart from our private estates and the catholic churches and the household of Eusebius, of most illustrious memory, ex-consul and ex-master of horse and foot, and of Arsaces, king of the Armenians, no one is, by our command, to be aided by special emoluments of household substance. For Datianus, a most illustrious man, patrician, who had once obtained this favor, demanded with as much insistence that it be taken from him as others are wont to demand in seeking it. Therefore all shall be obliged to pay only what is assigned by delegations under our own hand, nothing more being exacted. For if any vicar or governor of a province shall already have remitted anything to anyone as owed, whatever he has remitted to others he shall be compelled to make good from his own resources. Given.

The same Augustus to Aelianus, Proconsul of Africa. A Let the possessors, when they have satisfied the public levy, bring their receipts to the public record-keepers, so that the record-keepers or the sexagenarii, mindful of their own risk, may accept them from the contributors, the actual goods that are owed being brought to the several cities out of their storehouses each month, lest the payment of tributes be recognized from mere false or imaginary receipts. Given on the Kalends of November, at Trier, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus IV and Licinius IV (315? D).

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Aelianus, Proconsul of Africa. After other matters: The ducenarii and centenarii or sexagenarii ought not to summon any of the debtors before they receive, by name, from the record-keeper of the city, the summaries of the debts. This exaction indeed ought to be carried out without any violence, so that, if anyone, having complained in a hearing that he was exacted unduly, or that he suffered some disturbance, shall be able to prove this very thing, a severe sentence shall be pronounced against the exactors. Given on the Kalends of November, at Trier, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus IV and Licinius IV.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus … We have learned that, by the faction of heretics, the clergy of the catholic Church are so harassed that, by certain nominations or liabilities which the public custom demands, they are overburdened contrary to the privileges granted them. Therefore it is decreed that, if your gravity shall find anyone thus harassed, another be substituted in his place, and I maintain that this was given in the year (Constantine Augustus III and Licinius III). That henceforth a injuries of this kind by men of the aforesaid religion be prohibited. Given the day before the Kalends of November, to Constantine Augustus.

The Emperor Constantinus. To Catulinus. He who is about to pronounce sentence should hold to this moderation, that he not put forth against anyone a capital and severe sentence in a crime of adultery, or homicide, or malfeasance, before either by the man's own confession, or certainly by the outcome of all who have been subjected to torments or interrogations, conspiring and agreeing upon one and the same conclusion of the matter, he has been convicted, and thus caught in the alleged crime, that scarcely can even he himself deny what he has committed. Given.

INTERPRETATION. A judge examining a criminal should not pronounce a capital sentence before either the accused himself confesses, or, convicted either by innocent witnesses or by those complicit in his crime, is more manifestly proven to have committed homicide or adultery or malfeasance.

The Emperor Constantinus. To Catulinus. After other matters: It is by no means right that, in a civil matter, when appellate petitions have been submitted, the appellant should endure either the torments of prison or any kind of injury or torture or even insults; except in those criminal cases in which, even though they may appeal, they nevertheless ought to keep the status of remaining in custody after the appeal. With this moderation of custody: that the appeals be received of those who are known not to have interposed them out of prejudice, nor before the case has been examined and determined, but are known to have been interposed against the judge after the whole matter has been concluded by peremptory prescription, or has run through all its stages. Given.

The Kalends of May, from Hadrumetum, in the consulship of Volusianus and Annianus.

The Emperor Constantinus. To Catulinus. It is not fitting that dilatory and frustratory delays be admitted as appeals rather than as mockeries. For just as help ought not to be denied to those who appeal well, so it is not fitting that things well transacted be delayed for those against whom judgment has deservedly been given, who appeal to no purpose. Whence, when a confession of his own, or a most clear and most fully proven inquiry into the truth, has by proofs and arguments exposed a man as a murderer or adulterer or malefactor or poisoner—crimes which are most atrocious—appeals ought not to be accepted, since it is agreed that such persons have no hope of refuting what has been done, but rather attempt merely to delay it. Those who differ in various suits and causes ought not to appeal rashly, nor from interlocutory rulings and prejudgments, nor from matters that have been justly adjudged.

But if the accused, in a case of homicide, or malfeasance, or adultery, or poisoning, seems able to seize upon some part for his own defense from the witnesses and the inquiry set forth, yet in another part seems to be overwhelmed and accused, then, upon the appeal interposed by him—who affirms that the testimonies which serve for him ought to profit him more than those which have worked against him should harm him—full discretion is left to our deliberation. Given.

INTERPRETATION. In civil cases or lighter crimes, which are not comprised by the laws, the delay established by law for appeal is to be granted, and the sentence of the judge is to be suspended by the appeal. But indeed for homicides, adulterers, and the rest whom this law comprehends, if they have been convicted and have confessed, and wish to appeal, delay is to be denied; rather, the judge's sentence is to be pronounced at once against those convicted of manifest crimes, or certainly, in cases of great crimes and greater persons, the matter is to be referred to the knowledge of the emperor.

Some time ago indeed, when we observed that the freedom of religion ought not to be constrained, but that it should be left to the judgment and will of each individual to devote himself to divine matters according to his own mind, we decreed that all others as well, whether Christians or otherwise, should retain the faith and observance of their own sect and religion. But since in that Rescript by which this liberty had been granted to them, many and diverse sects seemed to have been expressly and by name added, some of them perhaps for this reason shortly afterward desisted from such observance.

Wherefore, when we, Constantinus and Licinius Augusti, had come under happy auspices to Milan, and were diligently inquiring into whatever pertained to the advantage and benefit of the commonwealth; among other things which we judged would be profitable to all in many respects—or rather, before all the rest, we judged these things ought to be established, by which the worship and veneration of the Divine Majesty might be maintained: that is, that free liberty be granted by us to Christians and to all others of following whatever religion each has wished; so that whatever divine and heavenly power there be, may be propitious to us and to all who live under our rule.

We have therefore promulgated this our will by a salutary and most upright counsel, that liberty be denied to no one at all of following or choosing the Christian observance and religion; but that it be permitted to each to give his mind to that religion which he shall have judged suits himself; so that the Divine Majesty may be able to show toward us, in all things, its accustomed favor and benevolence. Furthermore it was fitting that we should so rescript that this pleased us, so that, all the sects which were contained in our former letter concerning the Christians sent to your Devotion being utterly removed, those things which seemed altogether unfavorable and foreign to our clemency might be entirely done away with: and that henceforth whoever has determined for himself to observe the Christian religion may retain it freely and steadfastly, without any molestation or hindrance.

Which things indeed we have thought fit to have judged by your diligence, so that you may know that free and absolute liberty of practicing their religion has been granted by us to the Christians. And since this has been granted to them by us simply and absolutely, your Devotion understands that the same has been granted likewise to others who wish to follow their own observance and worship. Which indeed it is plainly fitting to the tranquility of our times, that liberty be granted to each to choose and observe whatever manner of worshipping the Divine he shall have wished. And this we have done to the end that nothing might seem by us to have been detracted from any divine worship or honor.

Moreover we decree this further in favor of the Christians, that their places, in which they were formerly accustomed to assemble, concerning which another arrangement had been established in the earlier letter given to your Devotion, if any persons shall be found to have bought these either from our treasury or from anyone else, they restore them to the Christians themselves without any payment and without any claim for reimbursement of the price added, promptly and without any evasion; and if any have received the same places as a gift, let them restore them at once to the Christians. But if those who bought these places, or wish to, they should approach the Prefect who administers justice in that province, so that account may be taken of them by Our Serenity. All of which it will be your duty, by your care and diligence, to see restored at once without any delay to the body of the Christians.

And since the same Christians are known to have possessed not only those places in which they were accustomed to assemble, but also other places, which belonged not privately to individuals among them, but to the right of the corporate body, you shall order all these, after the law we have mentioned, to be restored without any doubt to the same Christians, that is, to each body and assembly of theirs: the aforesaid rule being observed, namely, that those who restore these places without recompense of the price, as has been said, may expect indemnity from our benevolence. And in all these matters you ought, as far as possible, to render your effort and diligence to the aforesaid body of Christians, so that our mandate may be most speedily carried out, whereby, in this matter also, provision may be made by our clemency for the common and public tranquility. For by this means, as we have already said, the favor and benevolence of God toward us, which we have already experienced in many affairs, will remain firm and stable forever.

Furthermore, that the purport of this law and of our beneficence may come to the knowledge of all, it will be fitting that this our letter be published everywhere and brought to the notice of all, so that the enactment of our benevolence may in no way remain hidden from anyone.

The Emperor Constantinus. To Maximus, Praetorian Prefect. If anyone shall bring a charge of majestas against another, when in such a matter it is proven that he is by no means to be shielded from a stricter inquiry by the privilege of any dignity, let him know that he too is to be subjected to torments, if he shall not be able to prove his accusation by other manifest evidence. Together with him who is found guilty of such rashness, he too must be subjected to torments by whose counsel and instigation he appears to have proceeded to the accusation, so that the appointed vengeance may be exacted from all who are complicit in the deed. In the case of slaves also, or freedmen, who shall have attempted to accuse or inform against their masters or patrons, the profession of so atrocious an audacity shall be checked at once, at the very outset of the deed itself, by the sentence of the judge, and, boldness being denied, let him be affixed to the gibbet.

Given the day before the Kalends of January, in the consulship of Volusianus and Annianus.

The Emperor Constantinus. To his Locrius Verinus, greeting. In the case of those whom you shall perceive to be surviving with their means intact, or whose heirs retain their patrimonies unimpaired, the principal sums of the Calendar ought to continue, yet in such a way that they pay the annual interest at their respective times, since it is at once useful to the commonwealth to retain solvent debtors, and it is to their own advantage that the accumulation of debt not be increased.

And because it is wrong that cities be defrauded by the alienation of liable estates, it has been decided that, if any debtor of the public treasury of a city shall have given away, or sold, or by any means conveyed to another, any part of that patrimony which he had when he received money from the public treasury, then, the nature of the alienated property having been examined, and all the debtor's resources which he had at the time the money was lent to him having been considered, a proportionate amount, according to the ratio, is to be demanded from him who retains any part of the debtor's estate, out of the principal and the interest.

And so, whenever the patrimony of him whose name is found liable to the Calendar of some city is found insufficient, the judge ought, with every diligent care, to inquire to whom, under whatever title, the debtor's resources have passed, so that each may be proceeded against in fair proportion according to the share of property which he possesses, the judge having a personal action against that debtor who is freed by their payment; but from him from whom it is established that the greater part of his fortune has passed away, it will be necessary that even the remaining portion which has stayed with him be transferred to a solvent party.

But if any debtor of the public treasury of a city shall have given place to our fiscal treasury, it is manifest that purchasers who have bought from our fiscal treasury ought, according to the old law and the rescripts and constitutions of the deified emperors and of ourselves, to suffer no molestation, since it has been decided that in such cases the commonwealth should bear the fortuitous losses; but those who have obtained anything from the same goods by imperial largess shall, according to the law enacted, be liable to the commonwealth, the full amount of the resources which had been the debtor's at the time he received the money from the public treasury being taken into account, so that in proportion to the share which they retain by our bounty, the corresponding part of the principal and interest be exacted from them.

But if any debtor does not appear, or indeed has so consumed all his goods that no one holds anything of his property, that debt too is agreed to fall to the loss of the commonwealth. And therefore, at the risk of the curator of the Calendar and of the magistrates and of those appointed, the money is to be placed with solvent persons or with the owners of rural estates. Given the third day before the Kalends of February, in the consulship of Volusianus and Annianus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Ursus, Vicar. If ever anyone shall have brought back a rescript to an extraordinary judge, delay must be utterly denied him. But to him who is summoned to judgment, time must be given to prove the falsehoods of the petition or to produce certain documents or witnesses, since he could not have been prepared, who is dragged before an unforeseen judge contrary to expectation. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Volusianus ... If an original shipowner should be a levy-exempt, nonetheless he shall remain firmly among those same men among whom also his parents are seen to have been. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus … On account of the office of administration of a tutor or curator, minors are by no means prohibited from claiming for themselves the goods, if the debtors exist, as though bound under the title of a pledge. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Probus. If any free women have been joined, against their will, in union with men of servile condition, whether by slaves or by anyone else, through violence suffered, let them obtain vindication by the fitting severity of the laws. But if any woman be forgetful of her own honor, let her lose her freedom, and let her sons be slaves of the master in whose cohabitation she joined herself. And this law ought to be observed also with respect to the past. Issued. On the Kalends of April, in the consulship of Volusianus and Annianus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Volusianus. Let all strive with zeal of devotion, if they recognize any persons born of free birth who lost their free status under the tyrant, whether by their own admission or by the testimony of others, to restore them to their birthright, without waiting for the appeal of a judge. For if anyone, contrary to his own conscience or to the most certain testimony of many, persists in the same tenacity of avarice, he shall be punished with the most severe penalty. It is decreed, moreover, that even those be made liable to the same peril who, knowing men to be freeborn, dissemble the fact that they hold, under the necessity of servitude, and conceal it. Proposed.

INTERPRETATION. Freeborn persons who, in the times of the tyrant, were bound over to servitude are to be restored to their free birthright. But if anyone, knowingly, keeps in servitude a freeborn person thus bound over, let him know that he is to be proceeded against by the laws.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to his well-deserving palatines, greeting. We order that from the palatines—both those who have rendered blameless service in our attendance, and those who have been engaged in our scrinia, that is, of memory, of letters, and of petitions—every calumny and every summons whatsoever be far removed; and that this benefit descend to their sons and grandsons by the very order of blood-descent, and that they remain immune from all sordid and personal burdens, together with all their movable goods and urban slaves, and that no injuries be inflicted upon them by anyone; so that whoever shall have disregarded this, without distinction of rank, shall be made to pay the due penalties. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Aelianus, Proconsul of Africa. If anyone recognizes that he has been harmed by the ducenarii or centenarii, and especially by the advocates of the fisc, let him not delay to come before the courts and to prove the injury, so that against him who shall be convicted, vengeance may be exacted with fitting severity. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Aelianus, Proconsul of Africa. After other matters: Let the advocate of the fisc, fearing punishment, take care not to conceal advantages belonging to the fisc, nor, when no business exists, dare to stir up calumnies against private persons in the name of the fisc. Given.

INTERPRETATION. Those who watch over our advantages or benefits of the fisc ought to observe this measure: that they be not negligent concerning what is duly owed to us, and that they not be approved as calumniators toward the provincials, when they unjustly demand something from them in the name of the fisc.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Antiochus, Prefect of the Watch. It is not pleasing that our annotations be admitted without a rescript; and therefore let the office of your gravity observe, as has always been kept, that you consider our rescripts or rather our letters, rather than annotations alone, to be worthy of a hearing. Given.

Example of the sacred letters of Constantine and Licinius Augusti to Dionysius, acting Vicar of the Prefecture. It accords with equity that by the mere lapse of time, even should it exceed the course of sixty years, the rights of freedom ought by no means to be impaired. Given, the fourth day before the Kalends of May, in the consulship of Volusianus and Annianus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maternus. No one doubts that there is a twofold account of possession: one which consists in right, the other which consists in bodily holding; and that each is legitimate only when it is confirmed by the silence and quiescence of all adversaries; but once an interpellation and controversy have arisen, he cannot be understood to be the possessor who, though he holds bodily possession, nevertheless, because of an interposed contestation and a cause brought into judgment, wavers and is in doubt concerning the right of possession. Issued, the eleventh day before the Kalends of February, at Trier, in the consulship of Volusianus and Annianus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Constantius. If anyone, making a journey, should lead away to be seized an ox not destined for the post but devoted to the plow, let him, seized with due vigor by the station-keepers and those in charge of the public post, be brought before the judge, if he is at hand, or be handed over to the municipal magistrates under fitting censure, and be sent on under their supervision; or, if he be of such rank that it would by no means be fitting to rise against him with such vigor, let his name be reported to our clemency. For he who shall have completed his stage, if perchance he does not have oxen, ought to wait until they are supplied by those who have had charge of the public post, and not seize oxen serving the cultivation of the land. Received, the eleventh day before the Kalends of February, at Cagliari, in the fourth consulship of Constantine Augustus and the fourth of Licinius.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Volusianus, Prefect of the City. Whoever shall have appealed from a prejudgment, or from executors of matters already settled, and shall have hastily demanded the judgment of another court, let him be fined thirty follis-pieces, in such a way that you yourself, without delay, dispose of the whole case entirely—since you will seem to be furthering your own cause, if by connivance you have admitted an appeal of this kind. But if you perceive that appeals have truly been interposed concerning the whole matter, you ought, in the discussion of them, to observe what has already long since been most clearly established by us. Issued.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Versennius Fortunatus, Consular of the Waters. The order of promotion is to be observed, so that he be first in office who was first in obtaining the imperial benefit. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Mygdonius, Castrensis of the Sacred Palace. If perchance one of those should die who obtained under a common name some grant from our clemency, and should leave behind no surviving successors, it is decreed that the portion of him who died intestate or without children should pass, not to any extraneous person whatsoever, but to his partner or co-heir. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Eumetius. If anyone shall be condemned to the arena or to the mines according to the nature of the crimes detected, let it by no means be branded upon his face, since the penalty of condemnation can be comprised in a single inscription both on the hands and on the calves, so that the face, which is fashioned in the likeness of heavenly beauty, may not be disfigured. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the Rationales. Whoever shall find a treasure and shall of his own accord bring it to the fisc, let him obtain half of what was found, and let him hand over the other half to the accounts of the fisc, in such a way, however, that he remain free from any disquiet of a fiscal inquest or calumny. For it is right that trust be had in those who of their own accord offer what they have found. But if anyone, having found riches, shall be unwilling to offer them, and shall by some means be discovered, he ought to be excluded from the aforesaid indulgence. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Constantius, Prefect of the Praetorium. Since the tyrant most unjustly decreed that those who, having served in the provincial staff-militia, had merited an honorable discharge and exemption of their property, should nevertheless be bound to civil duties and to the burdens of the curia, it is decreed, this law being now abolished, that those who shall have departed from the staff-militia after completing twenty years of service shall henceforth be summoned to no civil offices or duties of the curia. It will be fitting that this same rule be observed also with regard to the officials of the governors. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus, by his edict to the Africans. It is commanded before witnesses to the station-keepers of the primipilares, whose posts are manifestly known, that if they shall extort anything beyond measure, let them know that they will be punished with death; furthermore, that they shall not have a prison, nor shall anyone keep in custody at his own house a person for a manifest crime, nor shall anyone have with him more than two grooms from the province, or attach to himself grooms from Numidia, nor shall he have a groom from other provinces, or one who has already served as a minister of some station-keeper. Issued.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Ablavius. Let a law be posted, written on bronze tablets or on whitened boards or on linen cloths, throughout all the cities of Italy, which shall restrain the hands of parents from child-murder and turn the resolve toward better things. And let this care bind your office, that if any parent brings forward offspring which, on account of poverty, he cannot rear, he should not be delayed either in the giving of nourishment or of clothing, since the rearing of newborn infancy cannot bear delay. To this end we have ordered both our fisc and the res privata to render their services without distinction. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Amabilianus, Prefect of the Annona. Shipmasters who have been nominated to the association of the city bakers, and who are not bound to the bakers by any right of hereditary succession, ought to be released from this duty. But if perchance they are held by hereditary right bound to the bakers, they shall have the option, if they should perhaps prefer it, for the sake of exemption, either to surrender the bakers' inheritances to that same corporation, or to yield them to whatever next-of-kin of the deceased, so that they themselves may be freed from the association of the bakers. But if they should embrace the inheritance, it is necessary that, by reason of the succession, they undertake the association of the baking office and sustain the burdens of shipmastering from their own resources. 5th.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to all the Provincials. Intercessors appointed by the governors of the provinces for the exaction of debts which are claimed under civil law drag away slaves who are ploughmen, or plough-oxen, from the estates by way of pledge, whereby the payment of taxes is delayed. If therefore any intercessor, or creditor, or prefect of the peace, or decurion be discovered in this matter, let him be subjected by the governors of the provinces to a capital sentence. Given on the 4th day before the Nones of June, at Sirmium, Constantine Augustus.

INTERPRETATION. Many, on account of a debt to the fisc, presume to carry off from estates, by way of pledge, cultivator slaves or plough-oxen, from whose labors the taxes are paid; and therefore if any creditor, or curator of the peace, or curial, or any exactor whatsoever should presume to do this, let him be punished by the judge of the province.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus gives greeting to the Consuls, Praetors, Tribunes of the Plebs, and the Senate. It has been resolved, with the reverence and piety due to sacred names being preserved, that the power indeed and right of enjoying the property of their children who have been placed among the clergy, at least in maternal estates, should remain with the fathers, but that the license of disinheriting their children should be taken from them. Let, therefore, the device of cretio cease, at least in maternal successions, and let the property which shall have devolved upon the sons from the mother's succession be so held in the power and dominion of the parents, that they have the right of usufruct, but the license of alienating it is taken from them. For it has been resolved that maternal patrimony, which shall have come to sons still under paternal power, when, upon the father's death, they shall have become sui juris, they shall have as their own exclusively and without the partnership of anyone.

But if the father, wishing to see his son as head of a household, shall have emancipated him, he ought to hand over to him the maternal substance, so that the son, having received the gift of liberty and having been made master of his own property, lest he seem ungrateful, may offer to the parent a third part reserved for himself for the sake of the gift, the valuation, if the property should begin to be divided, being left to the judgment of good men; which third part the father, if he should prefer it, shall also have full power to alienate.

But before emancipation, the parents, in whose hands is the power of using and enjoying the maternal property, ought to apply all diligence in safeguarding the property, and to demand in accounting what is legally owed to the children, and to make expenditures diligently from the income, and to resist those bringing suit, and thus to conduct all matters as though they held full and complete ownership and exercised a lawful personage; so that, if ever they should wish to alienate the property, the buyer, or the one to whom the property is given, should take care not to receive, whether knowingly or unknowingly, any part of those things which it is forbidden to alienate. For the father ought to make clear that the property which he gives or sells is his own by right; and the buyer, if he wishes, may take a guarantor or surety, since the father can set up no prescription against the children whenever they claim their own property. Given the 15th day before the kalends of August, at Aquileia.

Read out before Vettius Rufinus, Prefect of the City, in the Senate, on the Nones of September, Constantine Augustus,

INTERPRETATION. The remaining part of this law is contained in other laws: this only it has more than the other laws, that fathers, who are ordered to manage the affairs of their sons, should conduct their business with the utmost diligence and integrity, so that nothing may be lost to the sons through their negligence, but that they should cause the produce of maternal property to be gathered or sold without any negligence, so that, at the appropriate time, as the Novel law says, the sons may receive their portions without any diminution. It shall not be lawful for fathers to alienate the property of their sons, that is, neither to sell nor to give it away.

But if perchance he should presume to do so, let the buyer, or whoever should come forward as recipient of the gift, guard themselves with great care and caution, lest they receive property of the sons sold or given by the father, whether knowingly or even unknowingly: but let them compel the father, who was the seller or donor and who retains the sons' property in his own power, to prove that what he handed over is his own. And also, so that he may be able to clear away his own suspicion, let him receive a surety from the father-seller, who by pledge of his own property shall cause no loss to the buyer: because, upon the father's death, it is lawful for the sons to reclaim into their own ownership their property from whatsoever persons, whether it was sold or given away by the father.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Domitius Celsus, Vicar of Africa. Kidnappers, who inflict pitiable bereavements upon parents of living children, were held liable to the penalty of the mines along with the other punishments previously known. But if any such person should be brought forward as a defendant, after it has become clear regarding the crime, if he is a slave, or one who has been given freedom, let him be thrown to the beasts at the very next public spectacle; but if he is free, under this form let him be delivered into the gladiatorial school, so that, before he can do anything by which he might defend himself, he be dispatched by the sword. But those who have already been sent to the mines for this crime, we command never to be recalled. Given on the kalends of August, Constantine Augustus,

INTERPRETATION. Those who have carried off other people's children by theft and transported them anywhere, whether free-born or slaves, shall be punished with death.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Rufinus Octavianus, Corrector of Lucania and the Bruttii. Whosoever shall have obtained an extraordinary hearing from the prefects or vicars, or who has already obtained one, you shall by no means allow his adversaries and the persons necessary to the case to proceed or transfer to the office of the prefects or the vicar: but examine the whole case yourself in your own court, with the parties and persons present, within such time as you shall reckon from the day on which the case began to be initiated in your court; so that only then, if the one who has requested the extraordinary hearing is displeased with your judgment, may he, having lodged an appeal according to the order of the laws, suspend it, and proceed to his proper judge. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the People. Rescripts contrary to law shall not be valid, in whatever manner they may have been obtained. For the public laws which prescribe, the judges ought rather to follow. Posted publicly.

INTERPRETATION. Whatsoever things shall have been obtained from the Princes contrary to the laws shall not be valid.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Probianus, Proconsul of Africa. Cases of appeal which are adjudged by you in our audience-chamber, to whom we entrust the exercise of our own judgment, you ought to hear in such a manner that you comply with what has already been generally established regarding the settling of matters of appeal, and that you dispatch these matters as speedily as possible. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus and Caesar to the People. If anything shall have been seized by the fisc, or shall hereafter be given by us as a gift on account of anyone's merits and services, or shall be sold by the same fisc, within a year, all persons abstaining either from claim or from purchase, those who think that their own property has been unjustly acquired by the fisc may proceed against the same, knowing and rejoicing that a year's space has been granted within which to reclaim their own; and if they shall have proved that justice attends their claim, let them receive it back, and have it restored by our beneficence. Given on the Ides of September, at Rome, Constantine Augustus,

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Evagrius, Praetorian Prefect. It is fitting that your Gravity send letters to all the judges, that in whatever towns there are dendrophori, they be attached to the guilds of the centonarii and the smiths, since it will be expedient that these bodies be multiplied by an abundance of men. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Crispinus … Since you were uncertain whether the space of two months ought to be reckoned from the number of days or from the naming of the Kalends, the form of public law is to be observed, which clearly declares what it has enjoined to be understood in view of the diversity of days. Given on the kalends of October, Constantine Augustus,

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Evagrius, Praetorian Prefect. We wish it to be made known to the Jews and their elders and patriarchs, that if anyone, after this law, shall dare to attempt to assail with stones or by some other kind of madness—which we have learned is now being done—someone who has fled their deadly sect and turned his regard to the worship of God, he shall be given over to the flames forthwith and burned along with all his accomplices. But if anyone of the people shall go over to their impious sect and attach himself to their assemblies, he shall undergo the deserved penalties along with them. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Catulinus, Proconsul of Africa. If anyone shall have removed from himself bodies liable for the bronze-grain tax, let him be free from all interpellation, even though he possess or purchase other bodies, free from the disturbance of the bronze grain. For purchasers of liable properties ought to be held liable in proportion to that thing which they have acquired, even if they obtained the thing outside of a bounty. But since very many of the magistrates liable to the payment of the bronze grain, either while administering the office themselves substituted others for themselves, or, having been redeemed for others, appointed others in turn, with the substitutions rescinded, let them be held to the payment of that same bronze grain. For of those substituted only those ought to remain who shall be shown to be suitable in resources, and who were substituted in the place of the less suitable not by redeemed magistrates.

Given the day before the Ides of December, at Sirmium, Constantine Augustus for the fourth time and Licinius for the fourth time being Consuls.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Amabilianus, Prefect of the grain-supply of Africa. It is the duty of the office that it take care to receive absolutely all appeals whatsoever that have been lodged in due form, nor let it think that any kind of injury is to be inflicted upon anyone in the receiving of petitions. Published.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Cypitus. If anyone, the law of the treasury being preserved, shall have given away estates held under emphyteutic right without the authority of a judge, let the gifts be valid, provided that he be compelled to render at their proper times those things which are to be paid to the treasury. Published the seventeenth day before the Kalends of July, at Trier, Constantine Augustus for the fourth time and Licinius for the third time being Consuls.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Vettius Rufinus, Prefect of the City. Those who possess without any interpellation, by the donation of the emperors or by whatever manner, a thing pertaining to the treasury, up to our decennial anniversary—for according to law this is understood to be valid possession—let them possess it securely. Published.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Domitius Celsus, Vicar. Let no judge think that an officer is to be sent to that house in which a mother of a family dwells, with any order, so as to drag her forth into public, since it is certain that her debts, which within the house—her sex being considered—she once contained, can be satisfied for the public necessities by a distraint made on her house or on whatever thing. But if anyone shall hereafter believe that a mother of a family is to be dragged into public, let him, among the greatest of criminals, without any indulgence, be punished with capital punishment, or rather with more exquisite forms of death and torment. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Mechilius Hilarianus, Corrector of Lucania and of the Bruttii. If any decurion shall have written the will or codicils, or any wish of a dying person, or shall have lent his service in the drawing up of public or private instruments, if a question of forgery be raised, the honor of the decurionate being set aside, let him be submitted to the question, if it be so demanded, in that case. But he does not immediately cease to be a decurion who shall have been caught in a deed of this kind. For as far as pertains to municipal duties, he remains a decurion; but as far as concerns the matter transacted and the disclosing of the truth, he shall not be able to make use of the honor of the decurionate.

Nor indeed shall he who was formerly a notary, in order to evade the inquiry concerning those things which he formerly drew up, having been made a decurion, be able to defend himself by this dignity, since the truth of a writing, if the matter demand it, ought to be proved through its very author. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Mechilius Hilarianus, Corrector of Lucania and of the Bruttii. We wish all decurions to refrain from the duties of notaries. But let no one summoned to the decurionate be able to excuse himself on the ground that he was a notary, since men of this kind, if they be suitable, ought to be summoned to the decurionate. For the law which wished decurions to be removed from the duties of notaries does not forbid notaries to be summoned to the decurionate. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Prefect of the City. After other matters: Let defenders of minors, if through them the condition of donations has been neglected, bear the risk of the thing lost

The Nones of February, at Rome, Sabinus and Rufinus being Consuls.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Prefect of the City. A donation, whether it be direct, or instituted on account of death, or suspended upon conditions of doing or not doing, or promised from some appointed time, or, according to the intention of the giver or the terms of the receiver, so far as law allows, given some name—ought to be made under this observation: that it contain the actions, conditions, and agreements which the laws allow, and that, these being thoroughly examined, it either be accepted, if they are agreeable, or rejected, if they are burdensome; so that the defenders of minors, if through them the condition of donations has been neglected, shall bear the risk of the thing lost.

Moreover, in the drawing up of donations, the name of the donor, the right, and the thing must be noted, and this not secretly, or through unskilled persons, or privately, but either on a tablet, or whatever other material the occasion shall afford, let it be written out, either by the donor himself or by the one whom chance shall provide, with many persons cognizant of it. And let bodily delivery follow, in order to exclude force and stealthy encroachment, the neighborhood being called in as witness, and all the arbiters being employed, by whose testimony afterward it shall be proved that the thing given, if it is movable, was delivered according to the will of the donor, or, if immovable, was, by the withdrawal of the giver, laid open to the new owner—the records also being attached which are to be drawn up before a judge or magistrates. Given.

Be judged possible, or which shall seem contrary to honesty; or if it should ordain that which is honest and which can be fulfilled; because then the donation is invalidated, when the conditions of honesty have not been fulfilled. For if dishonest and impossible conditions be set, the conditions being removed, the donation stands firm. There is likewise another kind, in which the donor reserves to himself a fixed time of possession. All these donations above set forth, however, if they shall have exceeded the measure prescribed by law—whence certain persons can bring a claim concerning an immoderate donation, that is, if the donor has not reserved to himself a fourth of his substance—shall not be valid. But besides, that donation is contrary to law, if anyone shall give away a thing placed in litigation, which is being reclaimed, either directly, or if the donor shall write into the donation a condition contrary to good morals, that is, the occasion of any crime.

But if anything shall have been offered or conferred upon minors by way of donation from anyone whatsoever, their tutors or curators ought to take care that nothing be lacking to the firmness of the donation. But if by their negligence the donation has not been brought to effect, it shall redound to their loss, so that whatever the minors shall have lost from the donation, the curators or tutors shall restore to them from their own resources. Moreover, in the drawing up of donations this order must be observed: that the donation first contain the name of the donor or of him to whom it is given; then the things which are given, whether in lands, or in slaves, or in whatsoever things and bodies, must be written out by name in the donation, not secretly, but publicly, not privately or in secret, but either on tablets or on papers, or wherever the donation made may be read.

This donation, moreover, if the donor knows letters, let him himself subscribe; but if he does not know them, let him choose, in the presence of many, one to subscribe for him: and let the solemnity of the records and bodily delivery follow upon this same donation, so that if movables are given, they be delivered in the presence of many; but if a field or house is given, since it cannot be moved, let the donor withdraw from it, and let the thing given be laid open to the new owner—unless indeed the donor shall have reserved to himself the usufruct of these things. But the records of donations must be lodged either before a judge or before the town council.

Constantine augustus to Aconius Catullinus, Proconsul of Africa. If anyone shall believe that an Italic or tributary estate is to be conferred upon an emancipated minor before he can speak, or have the sense of the thing which is given to him, let him complete every legal formality by instruments sent beforehand, and by an induction bodily fulfilled. Because, for the sake of the attestation of good faith, it has been decided that this be transacted through that slave whom it shall be established to be suitable—who shall remain in that status of his own until he, in whose resources it shall have passed, having gone beyond the years of the Laetorian law, shall have completed his lawful age—at which time, then at last, if his integrity and good faith shall have been approved, if it thus stands with those possessing, he shall obtain the reward of liberty. Given.

Constantine Augustus to Cassius, Prefect of the City. It has long since been promulgated that donations can be held firm in no other way, unless they have been executed with the attestation of the record-office. But since many, giving away things belonging to another, or not belonging to them by full right, draw up the record outside their own homeland and province in which they possess property, it is decreed that it be lawful for no one to lodge instruments of donation before the record-office outside his own province and home, but before his own regular judge in the place where he has his domicile and where his possessions are established—or, if that judge chance to be absent, before the curator or the municipal magistrates of that same city. For if this be omitted, we ordain that the donations have no validity. Given the Kalends of May, at Rome, Sabinus and Rufinus being Consuls.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Julianus, for the fifth time.

Of May, from Vienne, in the consulship of Sabinus and Rufinus. INTERPRETATION. When for some reason, whether through the intervention of necessity or by chance, the appointed time shall have been exceeded, and the litigant shall have deserved by imperial favor to have it restored, judges shall grant to the litigants no more than four months for concluding the matter. When these have expired, even if they shall have obtained otherwise by the favor of their masters, they shall by no means be heard.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Titianus. Since very many, at the very outset of running, drive the public animals with knotty and very strong cudgels to exhaust whatever strength they have, it is decreed that absolutely no one shall use a cudgel in driving them, but either a switch, or certainly a whip, at the tip of which a short goad is fixed, which by a harmless prick may rouse their sluggish limbs, not so as to demand more than their strength is able to bear. Whoever shall act against this ordinance, if of promoted rank, shall be punished by the humiliation of demotion; if a common soldier (munifex), he shall suffer the penalty of deportation. Given the day before the Ides of May, in the consulship of Sabinus and Rufinus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to his Petronius Probianus, greeting. From that time at which, in civil causes which are moved between private persons, you shall have promised that you will consult or refer the matter, or when the formalities of an appeal interposed before you shall have been completed, nothing thereafter is to be heard by you that is in any way special or requested, or that in any manner brings forward a favor of partiality, but it must be observed that, in accordance with the former statutes, with the customary formality set aside, all the proceedings be forwarded to the imperial court. Given on the Ides of August, at Arles. Posted on the Ides of October, at Thebeste, in the consulship of Sabinus and Rufinus. It is not permitted to petition while a case is pending, unless perhaps to one to whom a copy of the opinion has been refused, or the transmission of the whole record has been suppressed.

If this be done, the crime of sacrilege shall threaten the judge who, by this act committed, imposes upon the litigant the necessity of petitioning: upon him who petitions otherwise a fine of half the value of the matter in dispute is to be imposed, so that according to the judge's estimation he may pay the sum into the treasury. Likewise upon him who, after a question has been settled by rescript or by consultation with due deliberation obtained, attempts to reopen it, since he commits a greater crime, judgment is to be given immediately against him for the whole value of the suit, and, under the observance of the oath, all pardon is to be denied if anyone shall attempt to petition contrary to these things.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Septimius Bassus, Prefect of the City. Where we are especially entreated to soften or relax the rigor of the law, this is to be observed: that rescripts obtained before the edict was proposed shall retain their force, and that a later rescript shall not derogate from an earlier one. But whatever shall have been elicited afterward shall have no force, unless they are in accord with the public laws; especially since it is for us alone, and it is fitting and lawful for us alone, to examine the interpretation interposed between equity and law. Given

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Octavianus, Count of the Spains. Whoever shall have ravished a virgin of most illustrious rank, or shall have invaded any boundaries, or shall have been caught in some fault or crime, let him at once, within the province in which he perpetrated the deed, be subjected to the public laws, and let nothing concerning his name be referred to our knowledge, nor let him make use of the privilege of a special forum. For the crime excludes every rank of honor, since it is a criminal, not a civil or pecuniary, matter that is in question. Given the day before the Nones of December, at Serdica. Received

Those who have wished to seize the insignia of an undeserved honor, when the leading men and townsmen are gathered into council, stand by, while those to whom, by their length of service, all honor is rightly and deservedly owed, sit. Therefore your Highness shall by no means allow anyone to rejoice in the prerogative of the presidency (praesidatus), except him who has passed through every rank in his native place in due order; so that even those who obtained the presidency before their time shall, once the civic honors have been completed, enjoy the distinctions duly bestowed. Posted.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus … Given

INTERPRETATION. With seven witnesses, Roman citizens, present, notice must be given a third time under the SC. Claudianum.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Bassus, Prefect of the City. If anyone by violence invades another's estate, let him be punished with death. And whether it be someone from the side of him who has attempted to inflict the violence, or from the side of him who has repelled the injury, who is slain, let the penalty bind him who wished by force to expel the possessor. Given

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the Rationales of the Spains. He to whose silent trust an inheritance has been committed shall at once report it to the office of your gravity, and shall disclose the records, and shall forthwith report what has been done; and after this act of faith he shall receive a third portion of all the goods of the deceased. But if this shall have been revealed to the office of your devotion by the wife of the deceased, then she also, whom the deceased wished to be his heir, if she shall have disclosed the records, shall be granted such a reward that she obtains half of the whole patrimony, and shares the division with our treasury, having also this privilege, that she chooses her portion first; and then that concealer of the records, alike an enemy of the treasury and of the woman, stripped of his whole patrimony, which shall be claimed for the treasury, shall be deported to an island. Given on the Ides of March, in the consulship of Gallicanus and Bassus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Catulinus, Proconsul of Africa. He who is detected in court to have manifestly committed violence shall no longer be punished by relegation or deportation to an island, but shall undergo capital punishment, nor shall the sentence given against him be suspended by an interposed appeal, since many crimes are contained under the one name of violence, as some attempt to inflict force, and others, resisting with indignation, blows and slayings are frequently found to have been committed. Whence it has been decreed that, if by chance anyone, either from the side of the possessor or from the side of him who has attempted to violate the possession, is slain, punishment shall be exacted upon him who attempted to use force, and who gave the other party occasion for these evils. Given

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Bassus, Prefect of the City. It is open to litigants, even without written petitions, to appeal at once by voice, when the case, having been judged, shall have demanded it. Given on the 8th day before the Ides of June, at Sirmium, in the consulship of Gallicanus and Bassus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the Bithynians. Caesariani established only in active service ought not to be admitted to the ranks of perfectissimate, or ducenary, or centenary, or egregiate dignity. But if they shall have fulfilled their office blamelessly, and are free from every fiscal reckoning, it is proper that such a dignity, granted by judgment, should profit them. Given

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the Bithynians. To the primipilars, after service completed, the dignity of perfectissimate, or ducenary, or centenary, or egregiate may be given. Given

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the Bithynians. It is fitting that mint-workers always remain in their own condition, and that neither the dignity of perfectissimate, nor ducenary, nor centenary, nor egregiate be bestowed upon them. Given

Constantine Augustus to the Bithynians. Those who have served in the palace, and those to whom provinces have been entrusted, and who by merit have obtained the honor of the highest administrations, that of perfectissimate or egregiate, as well as those who, having been established as decurions or leading citizens, have fulfilled all the burdens of their native city, ought to enjoy the dignity granted them. But if a decurion, having procured it by canvassing, shall have obtained the dignity of perfectissimate, or ducenary, or centenary, or egregiate, wishing to withdraw from his curial council, having lost his codicils he shall be restored to his former condition, so that, having discharged the full round of all civic honors and duties in accordance with the municipal law, he may obtain some prerogative. Likewise him who, by reason of origin, or of residence, or of a landholding qualification, is summoned to the curial council—an obtained dignity of perfectissimate does not shield him; and once that is removed, he must be handed over to the curial council. Given

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Leontius, Prefect of the City. All solidi, in which our features and the same veneration are present, are to be valued and sold at one price, although the measure of the die may differ. For he who is portrayed with a broader countenance is not of greater value, nor is he who is enclosed by a narrower rendering to be believed to be worth less, since the weight is the same. But if anyone shall do otherwise, he must either be punished capitally, or given to the flames, or some other deadly penalty. He also shall suffer this who shall have scraped the measure of the outer circle so as to diminish the quantity of its weight, or who shall have passed off in selling a solidus counterfeited by an adulterous imitation of the design. Given on the 7th day before the Kalends of August, in the consulship of Gallicanus and Bassus.

INTERPRETATION. Whoever shall have clipped a solidus, or substituted a counterfeit one, or made false money, shall be punished capitally.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Bassus ... The decrees of the provincials ought not to be forwarded to the imperial court before each of those adjudging them shall have inspected and approved them, and shall have signed them with his own subscription. If anything is done contrary to this, let the appropriate punishment be exacted. Posted.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Valerianus. Whoever shall have received a fugitive slave into his house or field, the owner being unaware, shall restore him along with another equal one, or with twenty solidi. But if he shall have received him a second or third time, besides the slave himself he shall present to the owner two or three others, or the aforesaid valuation for each slave. In the case of minors, a similar penalty threatens their tutors or curators. But if he who received the slave is by no means sufficient to pay the aforesaid penalty, chastisement, at the estimation of the competent judge, shall proceed against him. But if a fugitive slave, having falsely claimed to be freeborn, shall have been in someone's service for wages, he who had him can in no way be blamed. Indeed the slave ought to be tortured, so that he may reveal whether, in order to gain profit, he was cunningly sent by his master to the house or field of him who received him, or not.

But if it shall be plain from the slave's interrogation that it was done maliciously, then he who did this ought to be deprived of his own slave as well, and the slave shall belong to the treasury. Dutiful. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Octavianus, count of Spain. Whoever, endowed not with illustrious but only with clarissimus rank, shall have ravished a virgin, or shall have invaded any boundaries, or shall have been apprehended in any fault or crime: let him be subjected to the public laws within the province in which he perpetrated the offense, nor let him make use of the privilege of forum. For guilt excludes every such honor. Given.

The Nones of December, in the consulship of Gallicanus and Bassus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the people. In the conduct of lawsuits, the credibility of documents holds the same force as the depositions of witnesses. Given at Rome, the 12th day before the Kalends of August, in the consulship of Gallicanus and Bassus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Florianus, Praetorian Prefect. To the veterans who from the fifth day before the Nones of July, when the first victory throughout Thrace shone upon the whole world, and to those who afterward near Nicomedia earned our discharge, we have granted certain things by edict, that it should be permitted to them to write in writing-tablets, or to inscribe with encaustic and white lead. We have sent, moreover, to your devotion the edict containing our indulgence, that both your dedication and all others may recognize what we have bestowed upon the aforesaid. Posted.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Verinus, vicar of Africa. If anyone shall have hastened the death of a parent, or of a son, or in general of that kin which is comprised under the designation of parricide, whether he has attempted this secretly or openly, let him be subjected neither to the sword, nor to fire, nor to any other customary penalty; but, sewn into a sack, and confined within its deadly narrowness, let him be mingled with the company of serpents, and, as the character of the region shall permit, let him be cast either into the neighboring sea or into a river, so that, while yet alive, he may begin to be deprived of the use of every element, that heaven may be taken from him while surviving, and earth when dead. Given the 16th day before the Kalends of December, in the fifth consulship of Licinius and of Crispus Caesar. Received the day before the Ides of March, at Carthage, Constantine Augustus.

Shall have been accused/convicted?, let serpents also be shut up with him himself, and, if there be no neighboring sea, let him be cast into any deep water whatsoever, so that, condemned by such a penalty, he may at no time obtain burial.

The same Augustus to Bulephorus, rationalis of the summa res. We deem that your gravity ought to be the arbiter for the coloni and patrimonial tenants belonging to the domain. For it is proper that dukes and commanders of soldiers and camps, and the governors of provinces, refrain from summoning and calling forth the coloni. Given the 16th day before the Kalends of March, in the consulship of Licinius.

Constantine Augustus to Januarius ... Whoever, from the day on which he was summoned as a defendant into judgment, shall refuse to appear in court within the space of a year, let his goods be claimed for the fisc, and if afterward he shall be found and apprehended as guilty, let him be subjected to a harsher sentence; but even if he shall have succeeded in clearing his innocence by evident arguments and clear proof, nonetheless let his property remain with the fisc. Given the Ides of January. Received.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus. Let no soothsayer approach another's threshold, nor let him be turned away for any other reason, but let the friendship of such men, however old, be repelled; the soothsayer who shall have approached another's house being burned alive, and he who has summoned him by persuasion or rewards being, after the confiscation of his goods, thrust into an island. For those wishing to serve their own superstition will be able to practice their own rite publicly. But we consider that the accuser of this crime is not to be regarded as an informer, but rather as worthy of reward. Posted the Kalends of February, at Rome, Constantine Augustus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Symmachus. Whenever a suit is to be brought against minors or adults, or when a question is to be raised by the minors or adults themselves against someone, the running of the time is not to begin otherwise than from the point at which it has been notified in the solemn manner to all those whom the concern of office binds, that is, to the tutors—whether given by will or by decree—or to the curators through whom the minors are defended, or to all these same persons. But if the burden of administration is divided among the provinces, it is fitting that notice be given only to those, and that suit be brought only by those, who sustain the office of tutelage or care in that province, lest defenders of minors be brought from other provinces to the courts. Given the day before the Nones of February, at Sirmium. Received the 8th day before the Ides of March, at Corinth, in the fifth consulship of Constantine Augustus and the consulship of Licinius Caesar.

INTERPRETATION. If anyone shall perhaps have brought suit against those who are established in minor years, or if on their part some defendant is accused, the time is to be reckoned from that point at which the tutor or curator of the minor, either through a judge or through the curia, brought or received the action: provided, however, that if there are men of this office in different provinces, that is, curators or tutors who look after the causes of minors, those who are in the same province in which the claim is shown to have arisen shall themselves either bring or receive the actions; because we do not wish that, for the necessity of a hearing, defenders of minors be led to another province. This has been added by law.

Constantine Augustus to Profuturus, Prefect of the Annona. If any judge shall have thought that a matter ought to be referred, let him pronounce nothing, but rather, concerning that on which he thinks he ought to hesitate, let him consult our knowledge; or, if he has rendered a sentence, let him not thereafter, by promising a report so as not to be appealed from, terrify the litigants. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Octavianus. As to the sons of veterans fit for military service, of whom some, as slothful, refuse the performance of military duties, while others are so cowardly that they wish, at the expense of bodily injury, to evade the necessity of military service, we order that, if upon the cutting off of fingers they are judged useless for military service, they be assigned without any ambiguity to the duties and services of the curia. Given.

Constantine Augustus to Priscus, Rationalis. Lest anyone, forestalling the imperial bounty, should aspire to the ownership of another's property, we order that, as often as the goods of certain persons shall have been occupied by your office in accordance with legal grounds, the fullest inventories thereof be sent to the vir perfectissimus, our count and friend, lest they be diminished by the frauds of the Caesarian agents, or something be denied to petitioners; a penalty being set against the rationalis and his office, if he shall have permitted the petitioner to possess beforehand that which has been granted to him, before the aforesaid inventories have been dispatched. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Verinus. Whoever shall have made counterfeit coin, let him bear a penalty according to the distinction of sex and the difference of his condition, that is, that, if he be a decurion or the son of a decurion, let him, banished from his native soil, be sent under the condition of perpetual exile to whatever city situated at a distance, and let report concerning his property be made to our knowledge; if a commoner, let him, his goods being lost, be given over to perpetual condemnation; if of servile condition, let him be subjected to the ultimate punishment. Given and received.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Verinus, Vicar of Africa. If ever defamatory pamphlets are found, let those whose deeds or names they contained something about suffer no calumnies as a result of them; rather, let the author of the writing be sought, and, once found, let him be compelled with all vigor to prove the things which he believed ought to be set forth concerning these matters; nor, even if he shall have shown something, let him thereby be exempted from punishment. Posted.

INTERPRETATION. Whoever shall have composed a defamatory pamphlet to the injury and disgrace of anyone whomsoever, and shall have posted it in secret or in public, and shall have cast it about to be found, it shall do no harm to him against whom the pamphlet is set forth, nor shall it detract anything from his reputation. But if he who made such a pamphlet can be found, let him be compelled to prove what he wrote; and if he can indeed prove what he wrote, let him nevertheless be flogged, since he preferred to defame rather than to accuse.

Constantine to Bassus, Prefect of the City. The law remaining in force which prescribes within how many days a judge must furnish to private parties a copy of his opinion or of his report, and within how many days rebutting pamphlets are again to be presented to the judges, we wish, both in private and likewise in fiscal cases, from the day on which the question was concluded, or from which the judge promised a report by his sentence, that whatever pertains to the instruction of the case be brought to our court with the utmost speed within the twentieth day. But if this shall not have been done, we order that, twenty days having elapsed after the sentence was rendered—which we have determined shall be counted—within the twenty further days that follow, so much be paid to our fisc by the entire office as, by the estimation of the rationalis, can most faithfully be reckoned as the profit of the suit whose instruction had been suppressed.

Capital punishment shall threaten him who shall have attempted in any way to soften the rigor of the law. The same penalty shall threaten the office, if ever, while an appeal or a consultation is pending, or after cases have been decided by our rescripts, it shall wish to lend a culpable connivance to that which has in any way been obtained. For it ought to press our decrees upon the one adjudicating, so that, even if the judge himself dissembles, it should struggle against him and, as it were laying hands upon them, bring them forth from the court, and, having handed them over to the office of accounts, bind them by the ties of the earlier statute—those, that is, whose desires it shall have perceived to violate our sanctions. Posted.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Lucrius Verinus. Let half-brothers (uterine brothers) be barred from suits of undutiful will, and let the pathway of claiming be opened, without the aid of the praetor, to full brothers only against those instituted heirs upon whom he shall have fixed marks of detestable turpitude—so long as the agnation endures. Given the Ides of April, at Sirmium, Constantine Augustus.

(INTERPRETATION. To uterine brothers, that is, those born of different fathers and one mother, it shall not be permitted to bring an action of undutiful will against the testament of a brother. But if full brothers are passed over, that is, those born of one father, if the inheritance shall have been left to base persons, that is, to persons of ill repute, that is, either out of lust to prostitutes, or out of dishonorable affection to natural children, or indeed to stage-players, or to one's own freedmen, the right of bringing action against the testament is reserved: provided, however, that this same full brother has not been sentenced to exile for his own crime, or been made a slave through captivity, or lost the rights of succession or of action through emancipation.

The same Augustus to Rufinus, Praetorian Prefect. We wish that those endowed with exemption from our chambers, or from the various palatine services, or from the offices of memory, of letters and of petitions, or from the office of the comitatensian largesses, or of those of individual cities, but also from the office of admissions, should pertain to the privileges of our laws, so that neither they themselves, nor their sons, nor their grandsons should be summoned to the curia or to municipal honors or burdens or duties. And rightly do we join to these the largess-officials of individual cities, lest they be separated by privilege from those whom an almost equal dignity has joined together (for the aforesaid palatines are enrolled in the registers), since indeed they serve under castrensian military status. To all of these we grant that they need not undergo the charge of tax-collectors or of turmarii, whom they call capitularii, nor the service of the temonarii or of the prototypia.

For they are so worthy of our benefits, that even if anyone shall have come to different administrations after palatine service, he ought to enjoy the same privileges, since no greater dignity ought to cause prejudice. Let none therefore of the sons of the aforesaid, or of the slaves acquired with camp-peculium, be entered in the census-professions, or be substituted in the place of those increasing or those falling short, if he has not been bound into the census-registers. Let them also be freed from personal and corporal duties, whether they still serve in the palace, or have been granted the desired rest. To all these privileges we join the agentes in rebus, although they may seem to be supported by military merits. Given.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Proculus, Proconsul of Africa. Emphyteutic possessors, who by the benefit of our clemency are in no wise summoned to extraordinary burdens, should, like the other provincials, devote their service to the fortifying of roads: for by no reason ought they to be exempted from this, which is going to be of benefit to all in common. Posted. On the Nones of May, at Carthage, Constantine Augustus,

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Bassus ... If a master shall have beaten a slave with rods or thongs, or shall have confined him in chains for the sake of custody, with the distinction or interpretation of days set aside, let him bear no fear of a criminal charge should the slave die.

But let him not use his right immoderately; rather, let him then be guilty of homicide, if he shall have killed him by intent, or by a blow of a club or of a stone, or indeed, having used a weapon, shall have inflicted a lethal wound, or shall have ordered him to be hanged by a noose, or by a foul command shall have ordered him to be thrown down, or shall have poured in the poison of venom, or shall have torn his body to pieces with public punishments, cutting his sides with the tracks of wild beasts, or by applying fires to burn his limbs, or, his wasting members dripping with gore mingled with black blood, shall have driven him, nearly amid these very torments, to leave life, by the savagery of monstrous barbarians. Given, on the fifth day before the Ides of May, at Rome, Constantine Augustus,

Emperor Constantine to Rufinus, Praetorian Prefect. Among other things: Litigations ended by judgments or by settlements we do not allow to be reopened. Given.

1. Emperor Constantine Augustus to Rufinus, Praetorian Prefect. Our father wished no gift to be valid unless it had been entered in the public records. We likewise decree that, among betrothed persons and all persons, from the time of the promulgated law, only that gift shall be valid which the testification of the records has followed. Given.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to the people. We forbid haruspices and priests, and those who are wont to minister in this rite, to approach a private house, or under pretext of friendship to enter another's threshold, a penalty being set against them if they should contemn the law. But you who deem this to be to your benefit, go to the public altars and shrines and celebrate the solemnities of your custom: for we do not forbid the offices of a past usage to be carried out in the open light of day. Given on the Ides of May, Constantine Augustus, Emperor Constantine Augustus illegible to Severus, Rationalis of Africa. Among other things: We have given to certain persons possessions and slaves exempted from the patrimony of the fisc. We wish these to be held by direct and perpetual right without any question whatever; a penalty being set against the rationales and the masters of the private estate and the officials, if they attempt anything to the contrary. Posted.

INTERPRETATION. We wish that whatever fields and slaves are given to whatsoever persons out of the right of our fisc, should remain with those to whom they were given without any suspicion whatever: a penalty being set against the administrators of the lord's estates, if they are found to act contrary to the ordinance.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Amabilianus, Prefect of the Grain Supply. If any shipowner shall have obtained immunity by surreptitious means or by any device whatsoever, we wish that he be admitted to the excusal by no means.

But if anyone possesses a patrimony liable to the shipowning duty, even though he be of higher dignity, let the privileges of honor, in this respect at least, avail him nothing, but let him be held liable to this duty either for the whole or in proportion. For it is not fair that, the patrimony liable to this function being excused, all should not sustain the common burden according to their proportion of resources. Posted on the fifth day before the Kalends of June, at Constantinople, Constantine Augustus,

Emperor Constantine Augustus to the Provincials. We command that even just actions of the fisc which have a place, be burned, for this reason alone, that they were not brought forward in their proper times. Now let the calumnies of private persons be restrained by at least this example, in that we command that just lawsuits of the fisc be silenced. Given.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Leontius. We have long since decreed that no one should attain to the administration of individual offices by ambition, and most especially not to the tabularii, unless he be from the order or body of that very office. For we order these to carry out the offices enjoined on them for as long as it is manifest that they are competent, or, age not impeding, they are shown to be able to complete it, so that, the administration remaining continuously with one person, his fidelity also may appear. If anyone therefore shall have come to offices liable to the fisc by favor of ambition, let ten pounds of gold be exacted from him in the name of fine. Posted.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Severus, Vicar ... Lest it be necessary for cases which have come to our knowledge to be transferred again to judgments, we command that the necessary instructions be fully inserted in the records. For we are compelled to refrain from delivering sentence, we who have decreed that our rescripts given in response to opinions or even reports of judges ought not to be reconsidered, since it is to be feared lest, the matter being unknown, judgment be rendered with the opportunity of complaint taken away. Wherefore the judge shall be branded with perpetual marks of infamy, if all things which the litigants shall have recited for the sake of instruction and proof cannot be found entered or subjoined in the records. Given.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Antonius Marcellinus, Governor of the province of Lugdunensis Prima. In treating the matters of the profits of the grain-supply, in order that we might know how great the arrears remaining throughout each of the provinces were, and under what names, from payments of this kind, we have learned that the chief cause of the arrears is this: that certain persons, having taken advantage of the momentary needs of some, purchase rich and choice estates under this condition, that they neither pay their arrears to the fisc nor possess them free of them. It has therefore been decided that, if it shall be established that anyone has made a contract of this kind, and has purchased a possession by this device, he shall be held liable both for the usual assessments of the purchased farm and for all the arrears of that same possession. Given on the Kalends of July, at Agrippina, Constantine Augustus,

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Patroclus ... Although it seems unworthy that persons endowed with dignity should descend to base unions with slave-women, yet it is by no means forbidden by the laws; but neither can there be a marriage with servile persons, and from cohabitation of this kind slaves are born. We therefore command that decurions not take refuge, led by lust, into the bosoms of the most powerful households. For if a decurion shall have secretly, without the knowledge of the agents and procurators, joined himself to another's slave-woman, we order both that the woman be thrust into the mines by sentence of the judge, and that the decurion himself be deported to an island, his movable goods and urban slaves being confiscated, but his estates and rustic slaves being made over to the city of which he had been a curial, if he has been freed from paternal power, and has no children, or parents, or even kinsmen, who according to the order of the laws are called to his succession.

But if the agents or procurators of the place in which the disgrace was committed were privy to it, or, the deed having been discovered, were unwilling to reveal it, it is fitting that they be involved in the mines. But if the master permitted this to be done, or afterward, having learned of it, concealed it, if indeed it was done on the estate, let the farm with the slaves and cattle and other things which pertain to rustic cultivation be claimed for the resources of the fisc; but if it was done in the city, we order half of all his goods to be forfeited, increasing the penalty, since the crime was committed within the domestic walls, which he was unwilling to make known once it was discovered.

Therefore if on the day of the enacted law it shall be found that anyone has alienated his patrimony, and has conferred it upon the master of the slave-woman, let the order be permitted to inquire diligently, so that whatever has been diminished of the resources of the aforesaid person for the commonwealth of the city may be made good in money. Given on the Kalends of July, at Julia, Constantine Augustus,

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Bassus. If freedom is granted to another's slave not by the masters, provided indeed it is obtained from those judges to whom the right of granting belongs, the dissolution of the penalty is easy, without any fear. But if it shall be shown that anything was done contrary to law at our command, and that it was not the master, but that another's slave was manumitted, having sought it, then he who shall be shown to have obtained his freedom in our sight, that same freedom being at once restored to him to whose ownership it pertains, he who manumitted another's slave by deceiving the knowledge of the prince shall be compelled to give to his master two slaves, of such sex, age, and skill as the one manumitted shall be found to have been, and three others of like sort to the fisc by the same reckoning.

Which fine is not always imposed, but rather is remitted, if perchance the one manumitted, when a question of his status is brought against him, shall be able to exclude it by pleading a lawful prescription; since he ought to impute to himself the loss of the slave who by his silence has confirmed to his own ruin what was done. Proposed on the Ides of July, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus,

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Julius Severus. When something has come to a father from a maternal succession, a formal acceptance having intervened, and the successions of the maternal property have devolved upon the children, it is pleasing that these be held in the power of the parents in such a way that they exercise only the ownership of possession, but do not have the license and power of alienating it, so that when the lawful ages of the children shall have invited the parents to emancipation, and the fathers of families shall wish to see their children, the children shall offer to them a third part of the maternal goods, as it were, by way of a gift; and if the fathers shall think it should be accepted, it will be fitting that the decision of making the division be entrusted to the fairness of upright men, through whom, the division being made, the parents shall receive the third part offered in such a way that they also have the power of alienating that part, if only anyone can be found who is pleased to embrace this license, since in every way it is fitting that the children be admitted to this, so that by a pious affection of dutifulness they may deserve to receive back that portion which they gave to their fathers.

Given

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Symmachus, vir clarissimus.

We have judged it best that such an action, the case having been examined, be granted—not from the day on which each shall declare that he learned of the fraud committed against him, nor within a useful year's time, but rather from the very day on which the fraud is asserted to have been committed, within a continuous period of a year—to those to whom the right of contending is found to belong; in such a way that, if the one against whom the action is brought shall have withdrawn to any considerable distance, the plaintiff shall not be burdened with the necessity of giving notice, nor shall the presence of him who is absent be required.

Nor yet shall anyone be forbidden to be present at the examination, if he wishes, against whom such a charge is sought to be decreed; so that, the action of fraud having been obtained, the suit, once transferred to its proper judge, shall be decided within the space of two years, the reckoning of time being observed from when it was lawfully begun before its proper judge, after the example of other suits. But let it rest in perpetual silence unless, from the day on which the action was obtained, within the continuous two years following, the whole suit shall have been decided. Let all therefore know that license is granted for the action of fraud neither to be begun after two years, nor, if begun before the completion of two years, to be finished after two years. Given on the eighth day before the Kalends of August, at Naissus, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus,

And of Licinius Caesar, Consuls. INTERPRETATION. Fraud is malicious whenever, through some writing or deceit, those things which have been determined are altered by the devices of writing. Or if anyone, through the substitution or suppression of documents, is induced to consent to something that will turn out against himself, or when similar things are proven to have been committed, upon the judge's examination. And therefore he who complains that he has been fraudulently burdened should both begin and complete his action within two years: beyond that he should know that no time is granted him either for beginning or for completing it. For if it should happen that either the one who is said to have committed the fraud, or the one who suffered it, is absent, from the time he began to plead before the judge he should know that two years are permitted him to complete the action.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Proculus, Proconsul of Africa. If anyone from among our memorialists or palatine officials shall have been assigned to conduct the affairs of the state, or of some other office, let the presentation of horses by no means be demanded of him. But those who have not rendered service in the palace, but are of another kind of men, let them present the customary horses for such an act. Given on the sixth day before the Kalends of August, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus,

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Festus, Governor of Sardinia.

Whosoever shall be seen to deserve punishment for causes not grave, let them be handed over to the mills of the city of Rome. When your sincerity shall have begun to observe this, let all know that those who, as has been said, shall have deserved to undergo such a sentence for lighter causes, are to be handed over to the workhouses or mills, and are to be sent to the city of Rome, that is, to the prefect of the grain supply, under fitting escort. Given

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Profuturus, Prefect of the Grain Supply. It is by no means fitting that the good faith of a sale and purchase be broken, no fraudulent violence having been committed. For a contract celebrated without any fault ought not to be disturbed by litigious clamor merely on the complaint of too low a price. Posted on the Ides of August, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus,

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Profuturus, Prefect of the Grain Supply. It ought to be made known to all bakers that, if anyone should perchance think that his possessions should be transferred to others for this reason, that he might afterward, his goods having been hidden away, allege himself to be less capable, as it were by substituting another in his place, these crafty and detestable devices shall profit him nothing, but he shall remain in the service of the mill without any excuse, nor shall the ownership be revived in his favor if he has transferred any purchases. Posted on the Ides of August, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus and of Licinius Caesar, Consuls.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Catulinus, Proconsul of Africa. It is not fitting that patrimonial estates be burdened with extraordinary charges, or with services amounting to a half or a third portion, since it is agreed that they pay both the equivalent of gold and a very great measure of grain; so that whoever shall attempt to violate these statutes shall be punished. Posted on the sixth day before the Kalends of September, at Carthage, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Bassus, Prefect of the City. If anyone asserts that an estate, or any other thing, belongs to him, and thinks that restitution of possession is due to him, let him proceed civilly concerning the possession, or, the solemn formality of law having been fulfilled, let him bring a charge of violence, not unaware that he will incur that sentence, if he cannot prove the charge brought, which the defendant ought to receive.

But if, having omitted formal demand, he shall have used force against the possessor, we command that above all the case of violence be examined, and that it be inquired therein who came against the possessor, so that to him who shall be found to have been expelled the rights of the possession lost may be restored, and this being immediately restored, the violent party, deservedly destined for punishment, shall be reserved until the end of the whole suit, so that, the principal matter having been conducted, if judgment be given against him, he shall be deported to an island, all his goods being confiscated. But if judgment shall be given in favor of him who is found to have been the violent party, half of all the things concerning which there was litigation shall remain with him, the rest to be claimed for the power of the fisc. Posted on the day before the Nones of October, at Rome, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus,

INTERPRETATION. If anyone believes his adversary is to be so accused before the judge, that he asserts he has suffered violence, it is fitting that he be held to the proof of the matter: and if he cannot prove that the one he called violent was so, let him undergo the same penalty which the one he accused, if convicted, would have incurred. As to the rest, this law is to be passed over, because it is set forth in the fourth book, under the title "Whence Force," which however was found to be later in time.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Bassus, Prefect of the City. In accordance with the Institutes of the deified Pius, a most wise prince, it is pleasing that donations between children and parents be valid, in whatever land and of whatever thing the liberality shall be proved to have existed, even though neither formal conveyance nor delivery is said to have followed, but only the bare will shall have been made clear, provided it does not maintain a doubtful or uncertain intention, but shows such a judgment of the mind that no question of intention can creep in; and, being reckoned among the persons excepted from the Cincian law, it shall obtain its own firmness, whether the solemn formality of conveyance has been carried through, or it is shown that the thing has indeed been delivered. Which law we wish to apply to lawsuits, at whatever time they are found to be pending by our order, and to those that shall be in the future, so that completed transactions may not be reopened.

Given on the Nones of October, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus,

The Emperor Constantine, Augustus and Caesar, to Bassus, Prefect.

Posted. In all lawsuits it is pleasing that a person who is not yet of age not be regarded as having lawful standing, unless a decree has intervened either for the administration of the patrimony or a curator has been appointed for the suit; so that, these fitting statutes of our provision having preceded, controversies lawfully begun and pursued in the courts may be concluded. Given

INTERPRETATION. If a suit is brought against wards, although they may appear to be grown, they cannot come to litigation, unless perhaps their age be confirmed by testimony of the curia, or a curator has indeed been provided to look after the ward's patrimony or business.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Prefect of the City. Since the opinion of the ancients is displeasing, which decreed that gifts made to a betrothed woman are valid even if the marriage does not follow, we order that those gifts which are lawfully made with intent to bestow between the betrothed man and woman be reduced to conditions of this kind, that whether they are seen to live under a father's power or in any way to be of their own right, and give something to one another for the sake of a future marriage, either of their own accord or by consent of parents, if the man should of his own will refuse to take the wife, that which was given by him shall not be reclaimed once handed over, and if anything remained with the giver, it shall, without further circumlocution, be transferred to the betrothed woman.

But if it should be discovered that the cause of not contracting the marriage arose from the betrothed woman, or from him in whose power she is, then it shall be restored to the betrothed man and his heirs without any diminution. This is likewise to be observed if the gift was made on the part of the betrothed woman to the betrothed man; no further causes are to be sought out, lest perchance character or origin be alleged, or anything else be objected which anyone thinks does not suit him, since all these things ought to have been foreseen long before the betrothal was contracted. Therefore let only the will be examined, and let a change of mind's decision suffice for the restitution or reclaiming of the things given, since, all securities being set aside, nothing further need be established, except that it appear that the one who spoke displeases him with regard to the marriage to be contracted.

And since it can happen that one of the two should die while the will is yet unimpaired, before the marriage is contracted, we have judged it fitting that, the one to whom the gift had been made having died before the day of the marriage, those things which were given or bestowed in any manner under the title of betrothal gifts be recalled to the one who had given them: likewise, if the giver dies before the marriage, the gift is at once invalidated, and the things given are to be withdrawn to his heirs without any difficulty. We decree that this benefit shall extend to the person of the father or mother, and also of children, if any there be from a former marriage, if by any means some person from among these should succeed to the deceased.

But if none of these persons is held as heir of the deceased, but someone from the remaining degrees succeeds, it is fitting that the gifts also take effect even though the marriage from the cause of death did not follow, since we believe that provision is to be made only for those persons. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Octavianus, Corrector of Lucania and the Bruttii. Let those who devote their ministries to divine worship, that is, those who are called clerics, be excused from all public burdens whatsoever, lest by the sacrilegious envy of certain persons they be called away from divine service.

Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Felix, Governor of Corsica. Since six months have passed, let brief accounts of all the business transacted by your office be sent to the offices of the most eminent prefecture, so that, these being reviewed and brought to our own offices, it may be made clear which of the judges has rendered faithful service, and in the deciding of which causes, so that either the worthy may deserve reward, or the negligent incur correction: the provincials being given the opportunity of approaching your tribunal concerning the negligence or avarice of your office. But concerning him who, corrupted by bribe or favor, shall have judged wrongly, let vengeance be granted to him whom he has injured, not only in loss of reputation, but also in the peril of the case itself. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Felix, Governor of Corsica. After other matters: If the petitioners shall have proved that those making interpellation have often been put off, and that thus a lapse of time has occurred through negligence and idleness, your Gravity having deferred the hearing, let indemnity be paid to the petitioners out of your own resources, in proportion to the case which had been brought into dispute. Given on the 9th day before the Kalends of November. At Sirmium, Constantine Augustus

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Antiochus, Prefect of the Watch. The order having been overturned by which a fixed number of advocates was assigned to each tribunal, let all have liberty, so that each, for the praise of this profession, may strive, in whatever court he wishes, according to the strength of his own talent. Given on the Kalends of November. At Serdica, Constantine Augustus

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Antiochus, Prefect of the Watch. Cases are abandoned and fall from their proper times, while advocates are dragged about through many offices and various tribunals; therefore we have decreed that those who have once declared that they intend to plead causes before you shall not have the power of pleading before another judge. Given and posted on the Kalends. At Serdica, Constantine and Licinius Caesar being Consuls.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Pacatianus, Vicar of the Britains. Let each decurion be sued for that portion in respect of which either he himself or his tenant or his tributary is sued and collects; and let him not at all be sued on behalf of another decurion or territory. For this is clearly forbidden, and is to be observed henceforth, so that, in accordance with this our provision, no one may suffer wrong on behalf of another. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Januarius, Prefect of the City. If, after the commotion of an accusation that has arisen, a withdrawal is requested, the cause of the new plea for mercy ought to be inquired into, so that, if this is done without any bribe, the humanity requested may be granted; but if any suspicion should arise, that a manifest culprit, by means of a bribe having been arranged, is being withdrawn from the laws, let the voice of a purchased mercy be by no means admitted, but against the guilty offender, an inquiry having been made, let the appropriate penalty be exacted. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the People. Let one of the greatest evils of human life be suppressed, the accursed ruin of informers, and let it be strangled in its own throat among its very first attempts, and let the tongue of envy, torn out by the root, be plucked away, so that judges may admit neither calumny nor even the voice of the informer at all; but if any informer should come forward, let him be subjected to capital sentence. Given and posted in the Forum of Trajan, on the Kalends of December, Constantine Augustus

If anyone is going to be a betrayer, let neither calumny nor his voice be heard.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Rufinus, Praetorian Prefect. If a decurion, having no children, dies intestate, and neither a last will supported by the laws exists for him, nor does any heir stand forth by another right in the nearest degree, let his goods pass to the advantage of his own curia, that is, let them redound to the benefit of the order, from whose body he has been removed by the necessity of fate; no license being granted to anyone to claim these goods as vacant by our clemency, even if it be truly proved that both a will and a lawful successor are lacking; every privilege too, if any should have been obtained, being forthwith invalidated. Given on the Kalends of December. At Sirmium, Constantine Augustus

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Crepereius Donatianus. As for rescripts which those who have passed from life have not made use of, their heirs may allege them, so that the benefits duly obtained may be secured for the successors. Given and posted on the day before the Ides of December, Constantine Augustus

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Proculus, Proconsul of Africa. It is both in the interest of public discipline, and befitting proconsular dignity, that you should bring the care and knowledge of public exactions and of other matters under your own authority, so that you should not be content with the instruction and fraudulent report of subordinate officials, but should yourself learn the responsibility and answer of the judges themselves, of the prefect of the grain supply and of the accountants, if this instruction is trustworthy: for thus can the provincials be relieved against unjust exactions. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Proculus. It is not pleasing that rescripts obtained be admitted, if causes have once been decided by a judicial sentence which no appeal has suspended; but that those who have obtained such a rescript be driven even from the threshold of the courts. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Bassus, Prefect of the City. When procurators have been appointed, and after suit has been joined they have become masters of the case, those who gave the mandate shall not have the power of pursuing the business further, unless mortal enmities, or illness, or some other necessary cause has intervened: for then, even against their will, the suit can be transferred. Given on the 13th day before the Kalends of July, Constantine Augustus and Licinius Caesar, for the fifth time, both being Consuls.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus and Licinius Caesar to Symmachus. If the risk of administration has been divided among the provinces: it is fitting that notice be given only to all those, and that suit be brought by them, who sustain the office of tutelage or curatorship in that province, lest defenders of minors be brought to trial from other provinces. Given on the day before the Ides of February, Constantine Augustus

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, prefect of the City. If a freedman shall have proved ungrateful toward his patron, and with a certain arrogance or contumacy shall have raised his neck against him, or shall have incurred the fault of a light offense: let him again be sent under the authority and dominion of the patron, if in a court of law, or before the pedanean judges, the patron's complaint, once wrung forth, shall show him to be ungrateful: his sons also who shall have been born thereafter being liable to servitude; since the offenses of the parents do not harm those who shall be established to have been born at the time when the parents were enjoying liberty. But surely, if he who was freed by the rod in our council, after chastisement, shall by penitence have shown himself worthy that Roman citizenship be restored to him: he shall not enjoy the benefit of liberty before his patron shall have obtained this by petitions presented. Given on the Ides of April, at Rome, Constantine Augustus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus. The coloni burden the emphyteuticaries, seizing fields beyond custom, which they have cultivated with no tillage: whereas established usage permits them to lay hands only on that which by their own labor has been planted, whether with olive-groves or with vineyards. But they also attempt to seize the irrigating waters of the springs, the fruits of which are owed to the emphyteuticaries alone. Therefore it has been decided that henceforth the rights and powers over the waters shall remain with the emphyteuticaries: and only so much shall be granted from them to the coloni as is evidently sufficient for the cultivation of those fields which they themselves till: but in proportion to the excess irrigation which they shall have appropriated beyond their own cultivations, let them furnish payments and additions to the emphyteuticary possessors. Posted.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the People. Since among other snares the harshness of the commissory law especially increases, it is decreed that it be invalidated, and that henceforth all memory of it be abolished. If therefore anyone is burdened by such a contract, let him breathe again by this enactment, which both drives away present matters along with past ones, and forbids future ones. For we command the creditors, the property having been lost, to recover what they gave. Given the day before the Kalends of February at Serdica, Constantine Augustus.

He promises: which act this law revokes, and altogether forbids to be done: so that, if anyone shall be seen to have purchased the debtor's property from the creditor under such an occasion, let him not flatter himself concerning the documents, but as soon as he who, oppressed by debt, sold it, shall wish, let him return the money and recover his own possession.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the People. Let those who under the old law were held to be celibates be freed from the impending terrors of the laws, and let them live as if they were supported by the bond of matrimony among the number of the married, and let there be for all an equal condition of obtaining whatever each shall deserve. Nor indeed let anyone be held childless; let the losses imposed upon this designation do no harm. This same thing we judge also concerning women, and we loosen for all in common the empires of law imposed upon their necks, as it were certain yokes. But this usurpation of the benefit shall not be open between husbands and wives among themselves, whose deceitful flatteries are for the most part scarcely restrained even by the opposed rigor of the law, but let the ancient authority of the laws remain among these persons. Given the day before the Kalends of February at Serdica.

Posted on the Kalends of April at Rome, Constantine Augustus for the sixth time and Constantius Caesar being Consuls.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the People. Let no one dread prison and blows of leaded whips or weights or other punishments devised by the insolence of judges in the payments of debtors, whether by perverse or by angered judges. The prison is for the penal, the prison is for men who are guilty—for officials, and, with denunciation, for those judges whose office shall be compelled to summons those who have transgressed this law. Let payers pass by it in safety: or indeed, if anyone is so alien from human feeling as to abuse this indulgence into contumacy, let him be held in an open and free custody, and one established for the uses of men, under military guard. If he shall persist in hardened wickedness, let his fellow-citizens proceed against his property and entire substance, the duty of payment having been undertaken along with the ownership of the property. This opportunity being offered, we believe all will be more inclined to pay those things which are demanded for the use of our army for the common welfare.

Given on the Kalends of February, Constantine Augustus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Flavianus, proconsul of Africa. Let no one suppose that cities are to be deprived of their own ornaments, since indeed it is not lawful for a city to lose the glory received from the ancients, as though it were to be transferred to the walls of another city. Given

The Emperor Constantine Augustus, by Edict. We command that the sons of decurions, who flourish at the age of eighteen years, be enrolled in civic duties throughout the province of Carthage. For it must not be waited upon that they be released from their family and be freed for sacred rites, since private wishes ought not to prejudice, however little, the utilities of the cities. Posted.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Aelianus, proconsul of Africa. Although copies of the libels which have been submitted in Africa be kept in your office and in that of the vicars, nevertheless you may allow those whose names they contain to be absolved from fear and to enjoy security, and you shall merely warn them that they should hasten to be free not only from every crime, but also from any plausible suspicion. For he who bears confidence in accusing ought to prove it, and not to conceal what he has known, since he will be praiseworthy for the public denunciation to which he is deservedly to attain. Posted.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus ... When he had entered the headquarters, and had been greeted, it was acclaimed by the prefects and tribunes and most eminent men, "Augustus Constantine, may the gods preserve you for us; your safety is our safety; truly we say it, we say it under oath." The assembled veterans exclaimed: "Constantine Augustus, to what purpose have we been made veterans, if we have no indulgence?" Constantine Augustus said: "I ought rather to increase than to diminish the felicity of my fellow-veterans." Victorinus, a veteran, said: "We are not permitted to be free from being burdened with duties and charges in all places." Constantine Augustus said: "State it more clearly; what are the chief burdens which vex you so stubbornly?" All the veterans said: "He himself surely perceives it." Constantine Augustus said: "Let it now be manifest that by my generosity this is granted to all veterans, that none of them shall be constrained by any civic duty, nor in public works, nor in any collection, nor by the magistrates, nor by taxes.

In whatever markets they shall be present, they shall be obliged to give no fees proposed. Let the tax-farmers too, as they are accustomed to over-exact upon agents, be removed from these veterans; let them enjoy quiet perpetually after their labors."

We have also forbidden by this same letter a that our treasury should trouble any of these in any way, but let it be permitted to them to buy and sell, that their benefits may remain whole under the leisure and peace of our age, and that their old age may enjoy quiet after its labors. Let the contentions, which existed in the person of the father, also defend their sons, whom we wish to flourish the more diligently, lest, if it can be proven that they have acted stubbornly according to these same veterans, they be diminished by these judgments, when they shall be joined more approvingly to the presidial office, contrary to my order. Let therefore the stationed soldiers of each place's cohort, and their parents, without any hesitation, dismiss their despair, and send them to the presence of my sanctity, so that they may be safe, when their perceptions shall correspond to the penalties of indulgence. Given on the Kalends of March in the city of the Bellovaci.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Aelianus, Prefect of the City. Persuaded by the pious voices of the most ample senate, we decree that the quaestors should enjoy that same prerogative which the consuls and praetors enjoy, so that, if anyone shall have been nominated within his sixteenth year, being absent, when the exhibition of the games is celebrated, he shall in no wise be held by the bonds of the grain-office condemnation, since it is decreed that this privilege should favor the aforesaid age. Given

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the People. If anyone, having settled nothing beforehand with the girl's parents, shall have carried her off against her will, or shall have led away a willing girl, hoping for a defense from her testimony, which, because of the fault of levity and the fickleness of the sex and of judgment, the ancients have wholly barred from petitions and testimonies and all judicial matters, let the girl's answer be of no advantage to him according to the old law, but let the girl herself rather be bound as partner in the crime. And since the watchfulness of parents is often deluded by the tales and wicked persuasions of nurses, let a penalty first threaten those, whose detestable service is proved to have been the means of accomplishing the meeting-and-departure by bribery, so that for them the passage of mouth and throat, which shall have uttered the wicked incitements, be closed by the pouring in of molten lead.

And if consent of the will is detected in the virgin, let her be punished with the same severity as the abductor, since impunity ought not to be granted even to those who are abducted unwillingly, since they could have kept themselves at home even until the day of marriage, and, if the audacity of the abductor should break down the doors, they could seek the help of neighbors by their cries, and defend themselves by every effort. But upon these we impose a lighter penalty, and we ordain that only the succession from parents be denied to them. But the abductor, once indubitably convicted, if he shall wish to appeal, shall by no means be heard.

But if any slave, once the abduction has taken place, having concealed the deed by dissimulation, or having let it pass by agreement, shall report it to the authorities, let him be granted Latin status, or, if he be already a Latin, let him become a Roman citizen: while the parents, whose interest it especially was to seek vengeance, if they shall have shown patience and suppressed their grief, are to be punished by deportation. We likewise ordain that the accomplices and ministers of the abductor, without distinction of sex, be subjected to the same penalty, and if anyone among these ministrants shall be found to be of servile condition, we command that he be burned alive, without distinction of sex. Given on the Kalends of April, at Aquileia, Constantine.

And Constantinus Consuls. INTERPRETATION. If someone, with nothing having been previously agreed with the parents of the girl, that he should join her to himself in marriage, either carries her off against her will, or with her consenting, if the girl consents to the ravisher, let them be punished alike. But if any of the friends or household, or perhaps the nurses of the girl, shall have given counsel for the abduction, or shall have provided the opportunity for the ravishing, let them receive molten lead in the mouth and throat, so that that part of the body may deservedly be closed up, by which the encouragements to the crime are known to have been ministered. But those women who are carried off against their will, who have not cried out with their own voices against the ravisher, so that they might have been able to be freed with the aid and comfort of neighbors or parents, let succession to their parents' estate be denied to them.

It shall not be lawful for the convicted ravisher to appeal, but he shall be punished by the judge immediately at the very outset of the inquiry. But if the ravisher should perhaps come to an agreement with the girl's parents, and vengeance for the abduction should have been passed over in the silence of the parents: if a slave shall have reported this, let him receive Latin freedom; if he was a Latin, let him become a Roman citizen. But the parents, who shall have consented to the ravisher in this matter, shall be condemned to exile. But those who shall have given aid to the ravisher, whether they be men or women, shall be burned with fire.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Bassus. Vicar of Italy. After other matters: When a girl shall have come to the years of adult age, and shall have begun to aspire to marriage, guardians must needs prove that the virginity of the girl, whose union is being sought, is unviolated. And lest this obligation be extended more broadly, this alone ought to bind the guardian by the requirement, that he prove himself immune from injury to her violated modesty. When this has been established, he shall enjoy the desired union free of all fear; the office shall see to it that, if the crime of violated chastity be found to lie at his door, he shall be punished by deportation, and all his goods shall be claimed for the treasury by the power of the fisc, although he ought to undergo that same punishment which the laws impose upon a ravisher. Given the day before the Nones of April at Anuieia, in the consulship of Constantinus Augustus for the sixth time and Constantinus Caesar.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Dometius Dracontius, Master of the Private Estate of Africa. When the fisc suffers or brings a lawsuit, a year's space ought to be observed for determining the case, because this is sufficient for its preparation, and private parties ought not to be wearied any longer without benefit to the fisc. Given.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Florentius, Rationalis. In whatever case the accused has been brought forth, whether an accuser comes forward, or the concern of public solicitude has produced him, the inquiry ought to be undertaken at once, so that the guilty be punished, the innocent be absolved. But if the accuser be absent for a time, or the presence of accomplices seem necessary, this indeed ought to be procured as speedily as possible. Meanwhile, when the man has been brought forth, he ought not to be sent iron handcuffs cleaving to the bones, but rather longer chains, so that torment may be absent and yet faithful custody remain.

Nor should he, once confined, suffer the darkness of the innermost cell, but should be permitted to enjoy the light when it is available, and, when night has doubled the guard, he should be received into the vestibules of the prisons and in healthful places, and, with day returning again, at the very first rising of the sun, he should immediately be brought forth into the public light, lest he perish from the punishments of the prison; which is wretched for the innocent, and is not known to be severe enough for the guilty. This too shall be observed, that neither those who perform the office of strator, nor their assistants, shall be permitted to sell their cruelty to accusers, and to give the innocent to death within the enclosures of the prisons, or to consume by long wasting those withdrawn from a hearing.

For not only the fear of reputation, but also of danger, shall threaten the judge, if anyone of the stratores shall have worn out someone by hunger or in any manner whatsoever beyond the due time, and he shall not immediately subject to capital punishment him in whose charge the office of custody lies, and his assistants. Given the day before the Kalends of July at Serdica, in the consulship of Constantinus Augustus for the sixth time and Constantius.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Crispinus ... If someone, having been named in his absence, shall have had recourse to the aid of appeal, from that day of interposing the appeal, a period of two months must be reckoned for him, from which he shall be shown to have learned of the naming celebrated against him. But for one present, who has learned of the naming made, and wishes to appeal, the space of two months must be reckoned at once. Given.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Bassus, Praetorian Prefect. Since a constitution once issued directs that henceforth no decurion, nor anyone born of a decurion, nor anyone equipped with suitable means and fit for the discharge of public duties, should take refuge in the name and service of clerics, but that henceforth only those of slender fortune, who are not bound by civic obligations, should be substituted into the places of clerics who have died: we have learned that even those who joined themselves to the fellowship of clerics before the promulgation of the law are being disturbed. We therefore direct that, these being freed from all molestation, those who, after the enactment of the law, have taken refuge in the number of clerics in order to avoid public services, being segregated far from that body, be restored to the curia and its ranks and be made to render civic services. Posted.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Furius Felix. The errors of advocates do not prejudice litigants in the competent court. Given the 5th day before the Kalends of August, in the consulship of Constantinus Augustus for the sixth time and Constantinus Caesar.

INTERPRETATION. If an advocate, in a case he has undertaken, shall have said something to the prejudice of it through error, it ought in no way to prejudice him by whom he was engaged: provided that objection be made at once concerning that very error.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Maximus, Rationalis of Africa. We grant to those willing the faculty of cutting marbles from whatsoever mines; so that those who shall have decided to quarry the mine and make from it whatever they wish, shall also have free power of selling it. Given the day before the Kalends of October, in the consulship of Constantinus Augustus.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Aelianus, Proconsul of Africa. Let legates hear not only civil, but also criminal cases, in such a way that, if they perceive that sentence is to be passed upon the accused, they shall not delay to transmit them to the proconsuls: for it ought to be observed by all judges, that, once the appropriate time has been reckoned within which the necessary preparation of a criminal case can be applied, the guilty may obtain timely punishment, and the innocent timely acquittal. Given the Kalends of October, in the consulship of Constantinus Augustus.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to all veterans. Let veterans, in accordance with our command, receive vacant lands, and hold them in perpetuity free of taxation; and, for the necessary furnishing thereof, let them receive in coined money twenty-five thousand folles, likewise a pair of oxen, and a hundred modii of mixed grains. But whoever shall have had the desire of conducting business, to him we permit the exemption of a sum of a hundred folles. Except therefore those who are held back either by domicile or by business, all of you who are at leisure and conduct no business, lest you labor in want, ought to have recourse to this remedy. Given.

The Ides of October, at Constantinople, in the consulship of Constantinus Augustus.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Januarius, Acting Vicar of the Prefecture. As patience must be granted to accusers, if they wish to prosecute someone in a trial, so no credence is to be given to defamatory pamphlets, nor is reference to be made to our knowledge concerning them, since we order those same pamphlets to be at once destroyed by flame, of which no author exists. Posted the day before the Nones of December, at Rome, in the consulship of Constantinus Augustus.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Maximus. If it be established that anything in our palace or in other public works has been touched by lightning, retaining the ancient custom of observance, it shall be inquired of the haruspices what it portends, and the writing, most diligently collected, shall be reported to our knowledge: to others also the liberty of exercising this custom shall be granted, provided they abstain from domestic sacrifices, which are specially forbidden. But that denunciation and interpretation which has been written concerning the touching of the amphitheater, about which you had written to Heraclianus, tribune and master of offices, know that it has been reported to us. Given.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Severus, Prefect of the City. All Palatines, upon whom certain privileges of our Edict have long since been bestowed in abundance, we direct that whatever property, if any, they shall have acquired either by their own frugality, or shall have obtained from our gifts, while they are stationed in our Palace, be held as castrense peculium. For what is so much of the camp as that which is acquired with our knowledge, and almost under our very eyes? Nor are those foreign to the dust and toil of camps who accompany our standards, who are always at hand for the tasks which the length of journeys and the difficulty of expeditions exercises upon those intent and trained in these pursuits. Therefore let our Palatines, who have been able to use the privileges of the Edict, retain their special peculiums, which, while they are stationed in our Palace, they shall have acquired either (as has been said) by their own labor, or by our donation. Posted.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Maximus. It behooves the one judging to examine all things, and to discuss the order of matters with full inquiry, endued with patience in questioning, in proposing, and in adding: so that, when the pleading of the parties has been bounded, and the contentions have been restrained within limits, not by the intervention of the judge, but by the exhaustion of the disputants, it should be frequently inquired, and by frequent questioning of the judge it should be repeatedly examined, whether there remains anything new which it would be fitting to attach to the allegations in the judicial contention; since this is profitable either way, whether the case is to be decided by the judge, or is to be referred to our knowledge. Nor let anything be sent to us that lacks full preparation. Given the day before the Ides of January at Sirmium, in the consulship of Crispus for the second time and Constantinus for the second time.

INTERPRETATION. When the judge has begun to hear a case, let him patiently receive the assertions or responses of the litigants and examine everything by full discussion. Nor should he wish to oppose his own sentence to the litigants beforehand, except when they themselves, once everything has been gone through, no longer have anything more to propose in the dispute: and let the action be argued for as long as it takes until the truth of the matter is discovered; frequent questioning ought to take place, lest something perhaps remain overlooked: because if the case is to be ended before him, he ought to know the whole of it. But if the matter so requires that it be brought to the knowledge of the emperor, once everything has been fully discussed, a report must be made with a full submission Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Prefect of the City. To the point: he who, knowing that he ought to be present at a hearing, neglects to appear, the judge shall fine as being contumacious. Given.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus ... After other matters: Let no one heap up anything in his refutation which he neglected to assert in his original pleading. For this is often done deliberately, if a man, despairing of being able to prove something, conceals it in the present dispute, being certain that he will be refuted if he brings forward fabricated and fictitious matters. On this account it will be necessary to compel individuals to bring forward in the trial everything which they think will be of profit to the substance of the case, and to press them by this reasoning, so that they may know that by the authority of this law it is not permitted for them to bring into their refutations anything of the kind which they did not dare to make public before the judge.

For if, as we command, a full assertion is set forth by the litigant in the trials, and complete instruction is brought together in due order for consideration, what our courts shall have decided in rescript will stand firm and reliable, and no place will be given for complaint, nor any occasion for petitioning that we order to be overturned and weakened what we have sanctioned upon the report of one who has submitted neither the truth nor the whole matter. Therefore let all the allegations of the parties, all the proceedings, and copies of all writings be forwarded. This it will be fitting for all judges, but especially for your Sublimity, who represents our person in hearings, to observe. Indeed, complaints of litigants also arise from this, that by you, who receive the image of the imperial hearing, the aids of appeals are rejected. This must be forbidden.

For what is more bitter and more unworthy than that someone, granted power, should grow so insolent through arrogance that the advantage of appeal is despised, the giving of an opinion is denied, and the opportunity of refuting is rejected? As though appeal had been devised for the reproach of the judge, and not for the privilege of the litigant, or as though in this matter not the fairness of the judge, but the advantage of the litigant ought to be considered. Given the day before the Ides of June, at Sirmium, in the consulship of Crispus Caesar for the second time and Constantine Caesar for the second time.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Severus, Prefect of the City. If anyone shall have alleged that he obtained codicils from our judgment, and even the imprint at the top of the codicils or the writing within confirms this, nevertheless, if it shall be established that money was hoped for in this regard, let him nonetheless be cast back among the common people and stripped, in proportion to how much more he attempted to extort. For it will be proper that only those who have spent time within the palace, or have discharged administrative offices, be received to honors, all others being excluded and restored to their own condition. If, however, some, by the recommendation of good men, with no money given, or by undertaking a legation of a province, have been made illustrious in our sight, these, having gained duumvirates, offices of care, testimonial standing, or a province, do not refuse to undergo other public burdens as well.

But those who, having purchased administrations of procuratorships, after gains snatched from the treasury, have earned exemption—whether they are of perfectissimate rank, or have attained a place among the order of the egregii—are to be nominated decurions. To these must also be added those who, though not derived from administrations, nevertheless lurk under the guise of perfectissimi. Given.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Claudius, Praeses of Dacia. Although the authority of the laws has wished the burden to rest rather upon the persons of sons than of mothers, so that those bringing suit concerning an undutiful will may show, within the appointed times, that no fault was committed by them, that they gave no offense to their parents, but constantly obeyed them, as the reverence of nature itself demanded, and preserved discipline unblemished and unoffended, so that, these things being proved, they might set aside the parent's will: nevertheless if a mother should institute an action against her son's will as undutiful, we command that careful inquiry be made whether the son, having been wronged by his mother for no just cause, wronged her in turn by his last will, leaving her neither the portion due for mourning nor the legitimate portion, so that, the will being set aside, the succession should devolve upon the mother, provided that at his death there survive no consanguineous agnates: or whether the mother by dishonorable deeds and unseemly desires perhaps beset her son, and assailed him with either secret or open snares, or joined her friendships to his enemies, and in other matters conducted herself in such a way that she was believed to be rather an enemy than a mother: this being proved, let her, even unwillingly, acquiesce in her son's will.

Given the eighth day before the Ides of February, at Serdica, in the consulship of Crispus Caesar for the second time and Constantine Caesar for the second time.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Petronius Probianus. I decree that the goods of a wife, which had come to her by whatever succession, or by purchase, or even by the bounty of her husband before his guilt, are to remain untouched when the husband is condemned, and that the wife is not to be bound by the misfortune of another's crime, since it is a matter of religious duty that she enjoy, with the full standing of the laws intact, both her paternal and maternal goods and her own. And a marital gift conferred upon a wife before the time of the crime and the guilt, since it has passed as a reward for chastity, must be observed as valid, just as if nature, not punishment, had taken her husband from her; regard being had, of course, to the privilege and measure of her capacity, so that it be considered what she was able to receive.

If it shall also become clear that a father conferred something upon his emancipated children before the time of the crime and the guilt, let it be reserved to them intact and free from disturbance. But what neither the wife nor the emancipated children have been able to claim, being seized and incorporated, I decree shall be specially reported to me, so that it also be added whether the condemned man has sons, and likewise it be added whether these same sons have themselves claimed anything by reason of a gift.

But in the case of those who are bound in fiscal business, and are proscribed and condemned on account of accounts, it is decided that if the wife had anything of her own, or given by her husband, to the extent she was able to receive it before the beginning of the proceeding from which the origin of the fraud and defect was brought into judgment; and further, if anything was conferred by way of gift upon emancipated sons before the obligation arose—provided that, rather than an attempt at concealment or fraud, it be a genuine act—let it remain untouched in the right of the recipients; nor let anything be held liable to the treasury on any ground, except what he had in his own ownership at the time the obligation arose, or what, acting in his own name as well as that of his wife or children or anyone else, he acquired.

Excepting only the Caesariani, who are excluded from every benefit of law, unless their accounts shall have been proved and cleared by me, so that they may have the opportunity of transmitting what they possessed without wrongdoing. Given.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Julius Verus, Vicar of Italy. Upon our palatine officials, who have been granted leisure on account of their conspicuous labor, under the pretext of payments which are customarily rendered, the burden of sordid public duties and unworthy imposition is laid by the rashness of certain persons. Although this offense ought to be punished more severely, we nevertheless wish it to be remedied in this way: that your gravity shall require, from the office of the accounts of the treasury, a copy in the form of tablets, and shall have the provisions of this law imprinted upon it, so that, if they should suffer any such thing, they may take refuge at once in these, as in a present remedy, and be freed from the attempted burden. Posted on the Ides of March, in the consulship of Crispus for the second time and Constantine for the second time.

Emperor Constantine Augustus, by Edict. If it shall be established that some receiver has ruined the accounts, and is not solvent enough to pay, let his sponsor be held under this necessity, that he restore from his own property whatever the other has squandered, and be compelled to make good all the loss that would have occurred if a fitting examination had been applied in nominating suitable persons. Given.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Verinus. Let all young men, endowed with honorable character, who desire to manage more rightly, by their own conduct, their paternal produce or the patrimonies of their forebears, whether urban or rustic, and who have begun to need imperial assistance, dare to seek the privilege of age only when the closed door of the twentieth year of adolescence has begun to open for them the entrance to the firmest stage of youth: so that, after obtaining the privilege of age, these same persons, in alleging the imperial benefit, shall prove not only the number of years prescribed, but also, with witnesses summoned who are endowed with an honorable and either similar or greater dignity, shall demonstrate by testimony to a more honorable life the establishment of their character and the uprightness of their mind. When they have accomplished this under this condition, in the alienation of estates they shall obtain only so much right of age as the measure of years, the laws of the times, and nature is accustomed to grant to each person individually.

We also ordain that women, whose age precedes that of men by not more than two years in puberty—this interval of time being likewise observed—having passed eighteen years, may be entitled to the right of legitimate age: but only those women whom honorable character, sharpness of mind, and a sure reputation commend. These, however, on account of modesty and shame, we do not compel to be shown to witnesses in a public gathering, but, once the privilege of age has been obtained, we permit them only to prove their years by documents or witnesses, a procurator having been sent; so that they themselves too may have, in all contracts, such right as we have prescribed men to have. So that senators shall give full account before the office of your Gravity concerning their character and honorable standing; the perfectissimi before the vicarian prefecture; Roman knights and others before the prefect of the watch; shipmasters before the prefect of the grain supply.

Since this age is intermediate between full and perfect adolescence and most robust youth, we impose upon it the name of "confirmed age," so that the first age be that of childhood, the next of adolescence, this third one confirmed, the fourth legitimate, the fifth held to be old age. This designation is also to be marked in the contracts themselves, so that not the bare name of the seller be inserted in the tablets of sale, but it be signified that he from whom the purchase is made is considered a man of confirmed age and of honorable character, and that the seller is of confirmed age: yet in such a way that, since hope of deceit has been removed, those who have earned this imperial benefit shall continue to be more diligent in selling their estates, and shall not alienate estates without a decree. Given.

Are not to be compelled, but having sent an agent, let them show by writing that they have those years which we mentioned above, and a like capacity as men have in contracts: so that whatever or however worthy a person she may be, before such a judge she ought to prove what has been said. Therefore when they shall have been confirmed after adolescence at this age, in the very writings also or instruments of sale, let them describe themselves as respectable and confirmed in age. This, however, let it be permitted to those who, as we said, shall have earned the benefit of the prince for confirming their age, that they may not presume to alienate their estates without the order of a judge or a decree, which is given upon the precept of the judges or the consent of the curials.

Emperor Constantinus to Menander ... On account of the negligence of the judges, who defer imperial precepts, we have sent to the various provinces different men, who are to report to our knowledge what they have seen either promoted by diligence or spoiled by sloth to be blamed. Judges, however, who ought to restore public works, are to be admonished that they should report to our knowledge concerning works completed rather than begun, unless perchance for just reason it should be requested that some titles of expense be provided for, if they should happen to be lacking. But concerning outstanding and greatest matters, not concerning any most trifling ones, they ought to interpellate our council. Given the 3rd day before the Ides of April, at Sirmium, in the second consulship of Crispus and the second of Constantine.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Dometius Dracontius. Whenever several persons possess a patrimonial estate, contribution by each according to their portions is not to be forbidden. For the approved diligence of some will be able to correct the fault of the rest. Given.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Bishop Hosius. Those who with religious mind, in the bosom of the Church, shall have granted deserved liberty to their servants, are to be regarded as having bestowed it by the same right by which Roman citizenship was accustomed to be given after the solemnities were gone through. But this it has pleased to relax only for those who shall have given it under the sight of the bishops. To clerics, however, we grant further, that when they bestow liberty upon their own servants, they are said to have granted the full fruit of liberty not only in the sight of the Church and the religious people, but also when by their last judgment they shall have given liberty, or shall have ordered it to be given by whatsoever words; so that from the day of the will's publication, without any legal witness or interpreter, direct liberty shall be competent. Given.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Bassus, Praetorian Prefect. That when one of the litigants has died during a suit, the running of time is to be renewed, is contained in laws long since enacted. Given.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Bassus, Praetorian Prefect. To a mother not having the right of children, when a paternal uncle intervenes and the rest, among whom the uncorrupted rights of agnation are extended in order, and whosoever agnates shall thereafter exist, by whom the mother could be excluded by right of consanguinity, it pleases that a third portion of all the son's goods be conferred, whenever succession comes about intestate; likewise to the paternal uncle and his son, and only to the grandson, agnation no longer continuing (if perchance consanguinity shall have been diminished through someone's emancipation), by an equal benefit a third portion is to be conferred, even though the mother has the right of children. Nor is it undeserved, if the mother at any time shall have been supported by the aforesaid privilege, agnation being cut off, that it has pleased us not to extend our benefit beyond the degree of grandson, lest, many persons being called, it should seem that more was taken from the mother, less added.

Whether therefore one paternal uncle exists or several, and their son or even sons and grandsons or granddaughters, no more than a sole third of all the goods together is to be conferred upon all or each according to their respective degrees. And in like manner, if there shall be several by whom the mother can be excluded, no more than a third of the goods ought to be due to the mother against all of them.

Therefore, with persons of the aforesaid origin existing as agnates without limit, we have decreed that the mother is to be aided against all, although not to all against the mother, but to certain persons comprised above, is this aid granted; so that, without even seeking possession of the goods (since this is the benefit of this law, not of the praetor), immediately, as soon as the day of the portion conferred upon her shall have arrived, by simple entry, upon seizing any body of the property, or by manifestation of the mind's intention, they obtain full ownership of the portion conferred upon them, a perpetual capacity being granted to them, as long as they shall live, in entering upon the part of the succession granted to them. For we order that nothing shall pass to those who shall be their successors, unless the inheritance shall first have been acquired by those very persons whom the reasoning of our indulgence embraces, but that it remain with those with whom it could have remained before this law. Given.

Shall not have been the case, the mother shall succeed to a third portion in the inheritance of the intestate son, and the paternal uncle, or if there be several paternal uncles, or the sons or grandsons, shall claim for themselves the two remaining parts. But if the mother has the right of children, and the paternal uncle or paternal uncles survive along with the mother, even if they are emancipated, the mother, who has the right of children, shall obtain two parts of the goods of the son dying intestate, and the paternal uncle or paternal uncles the third; if these are lacking, the sons of the paternal uncles, however many they be, shall make equal portions for themselves by heads. But if the sons of the paternal uncles are lacking, let the grandsons of the paternal uncles likewise succeed by a similar division.

But in this succession this present constitution alone suffices, that possession of the goods be presumed as between the mother, the paternal uncles and their sons and grandsons; which, if perchance the inheritance shall not have been entered upon, and those who ought to have entered upon it die, it excludes their heirs from the succession of the inheritance not entered upon, because this law clearly establishes that an inheritance not entered upon does not pass to heirs.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Bassus, Praetorian Prefect. After other matters: Judges consulting, when they take cognizance of an appeal, whether they ought to extend new periods of time to the heirs of a litigant who died during the suit before the lapse of time, or to compel them to plead the case, even unknown to them, within the remaining days, it has pleased that, when judgment is given concerning appeals, if one of the litigants has died during the suit, four months be renewed and new periods of time extended, lest, being ignorant of the matters or even hesitating about entering upon the inheritance, before they perceive any advantage, they be compelled to be afflicted with damages. Given.

If, while an appeal is still pending, death should intervene for the appealing litigant, four months ought to be granted to the heirs of him who appealed, to the one whose principal has died, for handling the matter, nor ought he to be rushed to state his case, lest through ignorance of the suit, which he has not handled in full, he should seem to incur damage.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus and Caesar to Bassus, Praetorian Prefect. The knowledge of those is to be punished and rightly avenged by most severe laws, who, girded with magical arts, shall be detected either to have contrived against the safety of men or to have turned chaste minds to lust. But remedies sought for human bodies are not to be implicated in any accusations, nor those innocently applied in rural places, lest mature vintages be feared on account of rains, or be shattered by the stoning of falling hail—aids by which no one's safety or reputation is harmed, but whose effects benefit, lest divine gifts and the labors of men be laid low. Given the 10th day before the Kalends of June, at Aquileia, in the consulship of Crispus and Constantine Caesars.

INTERPRETATION. Sorcerers, or enchanters, or raisers of storms, or those who through the invocation of demons disturb the minds of men, are to be punished with every kind of penalty.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Junius Rufus, Consular of Aemilia. The tolls ought to remain with him who was the highest bidder in the auction, so that the lease be concluded for no less than a term of three years, nor should the time fixed for the collecting of tolls be interrupted in any way. When that time has elapsed, the rights of the biddings and leases ought to be renewed, and in like manner let them be let out to those persons, subjecting to capital sentence whoever shall be found to have exacted anything more than what has been established from the provincials. Given the Kalends of July, in the second consulship of Crispus and the second of Constantine.

INTERPRETATION. Tolls are those things which are furnished to the fisc through the conveyance of vehicles, that is, they either carry goods by ships in coastal places or by vehicles through various regions; the leasing of this matter it orders to be held among vigorous persons for a term of three years, and immediately this exaction is to be permitted again to others, who shall have offered a greater sum of payment. From which lease or exaction, if anyone shall have attempted to exact more than has been prescribed, so that he begins to burden a merchant or provincial under this exaction, let him know that he is to be condemned on peril of his head.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to the People. Let each person have license, when departing, to leave what he has chosen of his goods to the most holy and venerable council of the catholic Church. Let indications not be void. There is nothing that is more owed to men than that, after the will of the supreme moment—since they can no longer wish anything else—the pen should be free, and the judgment permitted, which does not return again. Posted.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Elpidius. Just as it seemed most unworthy that the day of the sun, celebrated for its own veneration, should be occupied by wrangling disputes and the harmful contentions of parties, so is it welcome and pleasant that on that day those things which are especially desired be completed. And therefore let all have license on the festal day to emancipate and to manumit, and let acts concerning these matters not be forbidden. Posted.

Emperor Constantinus Augustus to Menander. Let no tolls be exacted by the station-keepers from all provincials for those things which they bring in for their own use or to the fisc, or which they carry back for the purpose of cultivating land. But those things which are carried beyond the aforesaid purposes, or for the sake of trade, we subject to the usual payment. Given.

The Ides of July, in the consulship of Crispus II and Constantine.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Menander. We do not allow toll to be exacted from country-folk carrying back what is necessary for their own use or for the cultivation of the land: a capital penalty being set for the station-guards and city soldiers and the Tertii Augustani, whose greed is confirmed to attempt this. But for other goods which they procure for sale for the sake of profit, they must acknowledge the customary toll. Given on the Kalends of August, in the consulship of Crispus (2nd) and Constantine.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Volusianus ... We command that physicians, grammarians, and other teachers of letters be immune, together with the property which they possess in their own cities, and that they may hold honours; we also forbid that they be summoned into court or suffer injury, so that, if anyone vexes them, he shall pay one hundred thousand sesterces into the treasury, exacted by the magistrates or quinquennales, lest they themselves bear this penalty. If a slave does injury to them, he must be scourged with whips by his master in the presence of him to whom he did the injury, or, if the master consented, he shall pay twenty thousand sesterces to the fisc, retaining the slave as a pledge until the sum is paid off. We command also that their fees and salaries be paid. Since neither parents nor masters nor guardians ought to hold the most weighty dignities, we permit those who wish to hold honours to do so, we do not compel the unwilling.

Posted on the Kalends of August at Sirmium, in the consulship of Crispus and Constantine, Caesars.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Verinus. When matters are to be divided, it cannot be doubted that consent must be furnished by the heirs without any controversy. But as to writings of this kind, in which the intention of the deceased is found sufficiently clear, so that it may be understood that only a testament was contemplated, even though law may seem to oppose it, writings of this sort also ought to be valid among the heirs themselves at least, just as simply begun writings are valid, which no solemn formalities defend, resting solely on the roots of the will. For although, gathered under the name of a testament, since they are not perfect, and cannot in any way be called otherwise, they seem to have come to nothing, nevertheless final dispositions, bearing a colored image of law, ought more justly to call forth the favor of the laws inclined toward them.

Wherefore, since to sons and grandsons, by civil law or by the aid of the praetor, the succession of the deceased is deferred as to his own heirs, even if the testament is said to have been begun and not completed, or if the writing is said to be void for want of proper words or legal solemnity, it is pleasing that the will be specially considered, and complied with forthwith when the matter is to be divided, and that nothing more be retained than what is disclosed as assigned to the persons of each, so that both the memory of the deceased parent may not be violated, and occasions for lawsuits may be removed. Given...

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Prefect of the City. In the question of a testament which the son of a deported man had made while his father was returning, with the notes of Ulpian and Paulus set aside, it is decided that the opinion of Papinian shall prevail, that the son be in the power of the father, to whom rank and goods have been restored. Yet in such wise that the acts done by the son, whose lawful age had confirmed his decisions, be ratified, the same son returning into paternal power, lest their rescission bring about what is most absurd, namely that at the same time no one was in the power either of his father or of himself. For minors are by law forbidden to transact anything.

If, upon the condemnation of the father, a guardian has been given to them, it is necessary that he withdraw from his office, once the father—who ought to return not merely in name but also to render his office to the children uncorrupted by any depravity, so that he may protect and increase their goods—has returned. For if he abuses his paternal power for the license of corrupting and squandering the patrimony, then, as to a madman and one out of his senses, likewise a prodigal, a slave of all lusts and vices, their money is not to be entrusted to him, and he shall not be permitted to flee from administration: nor shall the guardian cease to be guardian, and he shall make good out of his own losses all the losses of the wards. But the sentence of deportation shall diminish the father by no prejudice.

If, his integrity being found as well as his nature restored, and his duty toward his children, the reins of affairs shall be handed over to him, whose custody, in imitation of public law, has been provided for. Unless this be given to good fathers, the return will be more grievous than the departure. Therefore let the indulgence avail as much toward restoration, as the sentence availed toward correction. And as the very name of deportation is in itself a spoliation of all goods, so let the indulgence of return be, under one name, the recovery of all things lost—both goods and rank. And let sons seek emancipation from their fathers by petition, that they may have their liberty as a witness not of condemnation, but of paternal leniency. Given on the 18th day before the Kalends of October, at Sirmium, in the consulship of Crispus (2nd) and Constantine (2nd), Caesars…it is permitted the father, upon his return, to enter into a transaction concerning the son.

To be sure, when the father has returned, if he finds the son alive, he shall receive the son into his own right under paternal power. But as to what the son, in the father's absence, has done concerning his own property, the returning father will not be able to revoke it. But whatever the sons, being of minor age, have done, shall be altogether void: yet if, on account of their age or the father's absence, they have received guardians or curators, the returning father shall receive back his sons, the curators or guardians being set aside, together with the whole estate: on this condition however, that he administer and manage the property of the sons in such a way that they not only suffer no loss, but that, through the father's diligence, the property and means of the sons prosper.

But if the father shall be convicted of being either a prodigal or negligent or a squanderer or given to lust, and it is found that he wastes and squanders the goods of his children impiously and madly, the children of such a father shall remain under a guardian or curator, as though he were dead: because, just as it is fair that a good and useful father should receive the management and administration of his children's property, so it is unfair that, having returned to the harm of his children, he should tear apart with mad subversion the resources preserved by guardians and curators.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Praetorian Prefect. Desiring to root out the endless contentions of the jurists, we command that the notes of Ulpian and Paulus upon Papinian be abolished, seeing that, while pursuing the praise of talent, they preferred not so much to correct him as to distort him. Given...

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Januarius. Since certain moneyers practice counterfeit coinage by clandestine crimes, let all know that the necessity is incumbent on them of seeking out men of this kind, so that, once investigated, they may be handed over to the courts, straightway to betray their accomplices through torture, and thus be consigned to fitting punishments. We grant immunity also to their accusers, whose measure, since the census differs, shall be fixed by us individually. Slaves also, who have informed on this, we grant Roman citizenship, so that their masters may receive the price from the fisc. But if any soldier, having taken charge of such a person, allows him to escape from custody, let him be punished capitally. Let the right of appeal also be denied to a private person; but if a soldier or a person of official rank incurs a crime of this kind, let it be referred to us concerning his name and rank.

If the owner of the estate or house is proved to have been an accomplice, he must be deported to an island, all his goods being forthwith confiscated; but if the crime was committed without his knowledge, he must lose the possession or house in which the crime was committed. The agent of the estate, or a slave, or an inhabitant, or a tenant farmer, who furnished this service, shall be punished with capital penalty along with the one who did it, the estate or house nonetheless being claimed for the power of the fisc. But if the owner, previously ignorant, as soon as he discovered it, disclosed the crime committed, his possession or house shall in no wise be subject to the injury of confiscation, but the author and accomplice shall be subject to capital punishment. Given...

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the Decurions of Cologne. We grant by general law to all orders the right to summon Jews to curial office. But that something may be left to them for the solace of their former observance, we allow that two or three enjoy perpetual privilege of not being burdened with any nominations. Given...

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Petronius Probinus. I decree that the property of a wife, which had lawfully come to her by any succession, or by purchase, or even by the bounty of her husband before his condemnation, remain untouched when the husband has been condemned (and put to death by way of penalty, or reduced to a servile condition according to the nature of the penalty), and that the wife not be bound by the misfortune of another's crime: since it is a matter of religious duty that she enjoy, under the unimpaired statute of the laws, her paternal and maternal goods, and her own; and that a marital donation conferred upon the wife before the time of the crime and condemnation, since it was granted as a reward of chastity, should be observed, just as if nature, not punishment, had removed her husband.

But if he shall be interdicted from water and fire, or deportation shall be inflicted upon him, yet death does not follow as a penalty: the donations conferred by the husband upon the wife shall remain still in suspense; because in cases of this kind the marriage is not dissolved, so that if, up to the time of his life, the husband has not revoked them, they are confirmed by his death: our fisc having no future claim to community in these same properties. Given...

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the People. Let no license be granted to anyone to keep a concubine while a marriage stands. Given...

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Bassus, Prefect of the City, after other matters. If one of the litigants dies while the appeal is still pending: let his heirs have not only the remaining time, but also four further months. But if a fixed time is granted for deliberation on the inheritance, after the lapse of that time a space of four months shall be reckoned: lest, being ignorant of the business, or even hesitating whether to enter upon the inheritance, they be compelled to suffer losses before they perceive any advantage. Posted on the 13th day before the Kalends of June, at Sirmium, in the consulship of Crispus (2nd) and Constantine (2nd).

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Elpidius, acting Praetorian Prefect. If anyone, after this law, having stripped a city, transfers ornamentation (that is, marbles or columns) to the countryside, let him be deprived of that possession which he has thus ornamented. But if anyone should wish to transfer from one city to another, from his own houses into his own, the marbles or columns of falling walls, since in both places this is a public adornment, let him do this freely. The same faculty being likewise granted also of transferring such ornamentation from one possession to another, even though it be necessary that it be carried through the walls, or even through the middle of the city: provided only that what has been brought into the cities be carried out. Given on the 6th day before the Kalends of June, at Viminacium, in the consulship of Crispus (2nd) and Constantine.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Januarius. Whoever, from the day on which he was sought as a defendant in a suit, shall for the space of a year refuse to appear before the court, let his goods be claimed for the fisc. And if he is afterward found and discovered to be guilty, let him be subjected to a stricter sentence. But if by clear evidence and manifest proof he shall have cleared his innocence, nevertheless let his property remain with the fisc. Given the Ides of January, in the 5th consulship of Constantine Augustus and Licinius, both Caesars, Consuls.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Bassus, Praetorian Prefect. Among all his heirs whatsoever—those coming from any degree who nevertheless are seen to be equal, or the emancipated, whom the Praetor calls to the succession—whether a testament begun but not completed is recalled, or a codicil, or a letter of the parent, or in whatever other manner writings are found left behind, in whatever words or indications, let the disposition of the deceased be preserved by the judgment in the action for division of the estate (although children are called to the succession as if intestate), the aid of the Senatus Consultum being preserved, even if such disposition should lack the solemnity of the laws. But if in such a will, along with the children designated, some other person is intermingled, it is certain that that will, so far as concerns that intermingled person alone, is to be held null. Given at Rome, on the Kalends, in the second consulship of Crispus and of Constantine Caesar.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Agricolanus. Since it is a clear and manifest right that women should have the faculty of bringing a public criminal charge only for certain causes, that is, if they are pursuing an injury to themselves or their own, it is proper that what was anciently established be observed. For it is not right that the faculty of accusing be permitted to women indiscriminately; otherwise in public inquiries formerly either proof was admitted or the authority of the accuser was admitted improperly. Advocates of causes also are to be warned, lest, out of regard for profit, they rashly undertake for women—perhaps relying on the security of their sex—an action rushing headlong into what is unlawful. Posted.

It is not permitted for a woman to accuse anyone, because they are forbidden by the laws from taking up the causes of others. Advocates also are to be warned not to undertake, contrary to the laws, the litigation of women desiring to plead in the causes of others.

The Emperor Constantius Augustus to Maximus, Prefect of the City. We decree that denunciation be made either before the governors of the provinces or before those who have the right of drawing up records, lest a private attestation—written in the names of the dead, or of persons absent in various lands, or of those who are nowhere among the nations—should attach a false credit to matters not transacted. Given the 10th day before the Kalends of June, at Sirmium, in the consulship of Probianus and Julianus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Prefect of the City, to the point. He who, knowingly, neglects to appear at trial, the judge shall fine as contumacious. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Prefect of the City … that opportunity should be given for the trials of all of these. Which indeed they have interpreted thus: that when all matters have been drawn into the suit, and the assertions already set in order and brought to a conclusion, and the case nearly exhausted before the judge, if any births should occur among those persons who are in question—as it were accessories to the necessary and regarded absence of the person—they affirm that the times of the law are renewed. But since it is one thing to be absent, another not yet to have been born, it has been resolved that those who are born shall follow the condition and right of their mothers, from whose wombs they are presently brought forth, and that the times of the trial are not on that account renewed, because someone has been born.

But before the suit, indeed, all who are born are to be called into question in their own name; since it is right that only those who are born during the suit should share in the whole fortune of their mothers, and either be delivered to their rightful masters, or enjoy liberty along with the authors of their birth: since none can have any defense of their own, or better, than that of their mothers. Given the day before the Ides of June, at Sirmium, in the consulship of Probianus and Julianus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Menander ... We have learned that provincials, laboring under poverty of livelihood and want of sustenance, are selling or pledging their children. Whoever therefore of such sort shall be found, who is supported by no substance of household property, and who scarcely and with difficulty sustains his children, let him be aided by our fisc before he becomes subject to calamity; so that the proconsuls and governors and rationales throughout the whole of Africa shall have the power, and shall grant the necessary dole to all whom they perceive to be established in wretched want, and shall at once furnish the appropriate sustenance from the granaries. For it is abhorrent to our character that we should permit anyone to be consumed by hunger or to rush into an unworthy crime. Given the day before the Nones of July, at Rome, in the consulship of Probianus and Julianus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Prefect of the City. If anyone should bring into unforeseen peril of their free birth those who are enjoying and possessed of liberty, if by chance their claimant should fail them, let deception be provided against; let one who claims them be sought by letters indicating the matter by title, lest the case be either passed over in silence or absurdly proclaimed—so that those who might have learned of it should be willing to assert the claim, or, if delaying, should even be compelled; and let it not be, if the claimant is lacking, that they, though known by many to be free, be led away in chains by masters.

Therefore we ordain: if anyone, the claimant being helpless and unknown, after the peoples of the province have been searched about, is abandoned and handed over to him who has called him a slave, liberty is not broken but deferred, so that, the claimant being found, he may gather his strength again and, his defenses renewed, resist in the trial, relying upon the right and privileges of a possessor, although he shall have come forth from that man's house. For that possession is not to be reckoned as one held for the time, but as an awaiting of a claimant not found within the time; so that, if the suit is renewed, and the parties restored to their own rights, if sentence shall be given for liberty, on account of the injury and impudence, let the adversary be fined an equal number of slaves, as many as there were persons who were sought for servitude; but no condemnation is to be made for those who were born during the suit itself.

But if anyone shall have died before a claimant is found or before sentence, with the heirs proving the cause of status, the fined slave shall be handed over to them, and if the heirs of him who was seeking to reduce them show an implacable spirit, the same law and condition of the slaves shall remain; but if they set free the children whom they find shut up, let them perish, their crimes together with their persons. The guardians of minors shall remain subject to the same fine of slaves; and in a suit brought by those whom they had defended, an estimate of the mismanagement shall be given. Since the claimant does this at his own risk, as he promises that the matter shall be kept safe, so let him receive security for the restoration of the fine.

The dominion of victors over the vanquished enemy has taken away liberty; but the laws punish wrongdoers with penalty and strip them of reputation, and a word cast too immodestly and wantonly against an adversary in a dispute is compelled to undergo punishment; and the undermining and assault upon liberty shall not go unpunished, which is punished even in the convicted. It is unjust, moreover, to have taken in another man's slave, and to be condemned for the abduction of another's slave. Given.

Be compelled to give one of that age and sex, those not being counted in the condemnation who, while the case is protracted, are proven to have been born during the suit. But if any of those who are called to servitude should die while the case is protracted through the seeking of the claimant or on some other occasion, and their heirs have obtained the status of free birth, then for the person of him who died during the suit, compensation must be rendered to his heirs by the plaintiff, just as for the living. But if he dies who was attempting to reduce free persons to servitude, and leaves sons or heirs, if they wish to pursue the cause which their father or author had begun, and are defeated, they are to be held to the aforesaid satisfaction, so that with other slaves in equal number they satisfy those wrongfully harassed.

But if they are unwilling to act, nor attempt to pursue it, but even release those who had been placed in custody by the author of the suit, they shall be free from condemnation to the fine, because they did not persist in the fault of their author. But if by chance they are minors, and their tutor or curator wishes to pursue their causes against free birth, and is defeated, he himself is to be held to satisfaction from his own property. But if, after a second restoration, a claimant is found, and at his own risk believes the cause ought to be reopened, so that, if he is defeated, they must restore the peculium or the services of those received, or the persons themselves: likewise let him who brings the claim, having given a surety, promise that he will make satisfaction for the aforesaid number or worth of slaves, or for what is claimed back from these in the peculium, when he shall have been defeated.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the Lusitanians. If any edicts or constitutions hereafter shall be found without day and consul, let them lack authority. Given.

The 7th day before the Kalends of August, at Sabaria, in the second consulship of Probianus and Julianus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Prefect of the Praetorium. On account of the birth of Crispus and Helena, we grant pardon to all, except poisoners, murderers, adulterers. Received.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Severus. Minors, who are within the age of twenty-five years, shall be able to claim back a rustic estate or slave alienated without the interposition of a decree, even without having sought restitution in full; so that if, this law having been proposed, only so much time remains before the boundary of the twenty-fifth year that a suit begun could not be concluded before the end of that year, the suit begun may be extended. But also those whom this same law finds, the twenty-fifth year having expired, within the twenty-sixth year, let them not delay to begin their claims, since up to the twenty-sixth year the times for beginning a suit are thus concluded. Whoever therefore shall attempt to sue after this time, let him be repelled, so that the possessor may now be certain and secure. Given.

The Emperors … Even if minors, either in their father's name or their own, are found liable, whether under pressing fiscal debts or under private contracts, the interposition of a decree must be celebrated by the Constantinian praetor, the causes having been examined with exactness, so that, the truth of the matter having been made clear, the sale may stand firm. Since this is so, suspected tutors also must be summoned under his examination, a contrary action likewise being granted; that is to say, that recourse be then had at last to your Experience, the laws being observed, if before either praetor, while the question is being debated, aid of an appeal shall have been raised by any party, so that you, the exalted arbiter, may weigh the merits of the appeal. Given …

The Emperor Constantine, Augustus, to Maximus, Prefect of the City. So much has been bestowed by our ancestors upon liberty, that even to fathers, to whom the right of life and death over their children has been granted, it was not permitted to take away liberty. If someone, sold while a minor, has, after becoming of age, conducted business, since the purchase of a minor does not bind knowledge, the prescription of the purchase and of the act administered by one who is of age shall not hold against him as he comes to liberty:.

Nor indeed shall he, who is raised at someone's house as if a slave, and who, having become of age, acquiesced to the seller as it were his master, and, having administered business, has by that very act nearly relinquished the last remnant of his liberty (since one who has become of age neither knew his own origin, nor is he to be judged as having abandoned, by enduring it, that sale of which he was ignorant), be bound, like a minor, by that same prescription of purchase and of business administered, but to each shall be given the right of assertion of liberty. The same shall hold also in the case of freedmen, who by some occupation slip back again into that same servitude.

But their case must be distinguished by this exception: that those who, having been manumitted before the age of fourteen and thereafter kept in servitude, not knowing their liberty, do not make use of it, and, having become of age, being sold, carry on business, shall not be barred from the claim of liberty: since to that age is granted excuse for ignorance or forgetfulness of the liberty bestowed upon them. But he who, with sound memory, knowingly submits afterward to a sale that has been made, shall be deprived of the benefit of this law. And since, in turn, provision must also be made for those to whom this matter has been committed, if anyone of all those comprehended above shall have claimed liberty, that which is in his possession the one who calls himself master shall declare; since there is no doubt concerning this, the judge shall forthwith pronounce that it be restored and returned.

But as to what is sought, if it shall have been disputed by way of business dealings, it shall be preserved by the surety of the claimant, as is comprehended in another law, and the claim is deferred, so that, if the person's own liberty shall have been proven, an accounting of the affairs conducted by that same person, and everything that shall be owed, may be demanded back, so that he who has been freed from servitude, who had once been in the place of a master, may keep what was granted to him, as a slave, in his master's right, by way of peculium, and also whatever has been acquired from the profit and fruits of those things, and whatever has been obscurely seized and gained from stolen gains—since it is not fitting that what a master had set aside under the name of peculium in the hands of a slave should be free.

But those things which have been acquired by will or by gift, or which have been bought and made up from the profits of such things, shall be assigned to that same freeborn person. All these things, however, once the judgment concerning liberty has been rendered, whereby they are distinguished from the aforesaid matters, must remain in sequestration, so that, these having been set apart by both parties and placed in a neutral legal position, each may contend for the ownership of them. Given.

Of March, from Thessalonica, in the consulship of Severus and Rufinus. INTERPRETATION. If a minor who has been sold, after his twenty-fifth year, having now become of age, has served, or has been made an agent in the affairs of the buyer or an administrator of any matter, when he shall have made claim as to his freeborn status, he shall be heard without prejudice from his servitude for what he has done, nor shall this create any prejudice against him, that he appears, being of greater age, to have administered the household or interests of him by whom he was bought. This law has also ordained that the same be observed concerning freedmen, so that those who were manumitted before the age of fourteen and who, being placed at a greater age, have conducted business of their patrons, the conducting of business shall not prejudice their liberty, but, when they wish, they may bring forward their actions concerning their freeborn status or their status as freedmen, within the times established by the laws.

Likewise also, if any freeborn minor has been reared by anyone whatsoever, and, not knowing that he was free, has been sold by his foster-parent, and has, as a slave, conducted the business or interest of him by whom he was bought, before he is bound by the prejudice of thirty years, he shall have the power of making claim, and, as though still a minor, before the times are fulfilled, he shall recover the liberty he had lost. But whatever that person either delivered or gave to them, or gained from the administration of his own affairs, of all this he shall have the power of retaining and reclaiming.

But if to persons of this kind anything has been conferred by any others whatsoever, whether by will or by gift, that alone shall now the free persons claim for themselves: for whatever a freedman has gained from the property of his patron, or a freeborn person from that of his buyer, while he was serving, when restored to liberty the freedman shall restore to his patron, and the freeborn person to his buyer. But those who, being established in years of majority, knowing themselves to be freeborn or freedmen, have consented to be sold, shall remain in that servitude into which, knowingly and of their own will, they passed over.

The Emperor Constantine, Augustus, to Florentinus… If some magistrate who has been nominated objects, this shall be called not an appeal, but a complaint: for the word "appeal" ought to be used in greater matters. Likewise also, if someone nominated for the collection of the grain-tax complains of injustice, this shall be seen to be not an appeal, but a complaint. And therefore the delays proper to appeals need not be observed, but the matter must at once be adjudicated concerning complaints of this kind. Given on the Ides of April, at Constantinople, in the consulship of Severus and Rufinus.

The Emperor Constantine, Augustus, to Florentius…. Decurions ought to be nominated to a magistracy or to the collection of the grain-tax three months or more beforehand, so that, if their complaint shall seem just, another may without hindrance be substituted in the place of the one released. Given on the Ides of April, at Constantinople, in the consulship of Severus and Rufinus.

The Emperor Constantine, Augustus, and Caesar… If anyone, by a wicked conspiracy with the barbarians, has given the opportunity of plundering the Romans, or if anyone in some other way has shared out what has been so done, let him be burned alive. Given.

The Emperor Constantine, Augustus, and Caesar. Let it not be permitted to any commander, decurion, or tribune of cohorts, by any means whatever, to grant furlough to any soldier to depart from the camps and the standards, or even from those places where they are stationed on guard duty. But if anyone shall have dared to act contrary to the law, and shall have dismissed a soldier on furlough contrary to the edict, and no incursion occurs at that time, then let him be punished with deportation together with the loss of his goods; but if indeed some incursion of barbarians shall have occurred, and then, when the soldiers ought to be present in the camps and at the standards, someone shall have been absent, let him be punished with death. Given.

The Emperor Constantine, Augustus, to Ulpius Flavianus, Consular of Aemilia and Liguria. Let all patrimonial and emphyteutic estates established throughout our Italy be held immune from all extraordinary levies, so that they pay only the regular and customary dues, after the manner of the possessors throughout Africa. Given.

The Emperor Constantine, Augustus, to Elpidius… Since we have learned that certain ecclesiastics and others serving the catholic sect are being compelled by men of various religions to celebrate the sacrifices of the lustral rites, by this sanction we decree that if anyone shall have believed that those who serve the most holy law are to be compelled to the rite of an alien superstition, if his condition permits it, let him be publicly beaten with rods; but if his rank of honor should shield him from such an injury, let him undergo condemnation to a most severe fine, which shall be exacted for the public treasury. Given.

The Emperor Constantine, Augustus…. Since the letters of your predecessor, sent to Proculianus, tribune and master of offices, contain that certain slaves of provincials, having been taken away as a pledge, are being retained under official custody, because they had not delivered the regular garments or horses, and that these slaves have neither been recovered by their owners upon payment of their debts, nor purchased by others, fearing lest such sale be rescinded: we command that a space of two months be granted to the owners of the slaves for paying their debts, within which, once the debts of the transaction have been paid, whoever shall have come forward to purchase shall firmly acquire the slaves. Given the day before the Kalends of January, at Castalo, in the consulship of Severus and Rufinus.

Victor Constantine, Greatest Augustus, to the provincials of Palestine.

It has long since become evident, with a clear distinction whereby all doubt is removed, to those who think rightly and wisely concerning God, how great a difference there is between the zealous observers of the venerable religion of Christians, and its opponents and despisers. But now, by yet clearer proofs and by deeds far more illustrious, both the absurdity of that very doubt and how great is the power of the Most High God are made manifest. For indeed to those who faithfully cultivate the venerable law, and dare to dissolve none of its precepts, an abundance of all good things, and strength adequate for accomplishing what they have undertaken, are furnished with good hope and confidence. But to those who have embraced an impious opinion, fitting outcomes of events have befallen. For who is there, that, not acknowledging God as the author of good things, and refusing to worship Him with due reverence, has ever attained anything good? The very facts themselves give credence to our words.

But if anyone, recalling to mind the former times down even to our own, and contemplating in his mind the deeds done of old, will altogether find that those indeed who established justice and uprightness as the foundation of their actions obtained a happy outcome of their designs, and, as it were from a sweet root, gathered the sweetest fruit also. But those who with rash daring attempted unjust deeds, and who, in very madness of mind, exalted themselves against God Himself, and had no sense of piety toward the human race; but inflicted exiles, infamy, confiscations of goods, slaughters, and very many things of this sort; and who never did penance, nor recalled their mind to a better course, have likewise reaped an equal reward. And these things happen neither absurdly nor without reason.

For whosoever approach action with a just purpose of mind, and keep the fear of God perpetually before their eyes, holding steadfast faith toward Him; and who by no means set the threats and dangers of the present life above the hope of future goods: these, although they have experienced many bitter and grievous things in a brief span of time, yet, by the hope of greater rewards which they most firmly believe to be laid up for them, have by no means borne with a sick spirit the evils that pressed upon them. But the graver calamities they experienced, the more brilliant the glory they gained.

But those who despised justice and equity, and who neither acknowledged God themselves, nor hesitated to afflict with contumelies and most bitter punishments those who faithfully worshipped God; and who judged not themselves to be wretched—those, that is, who for such a cause punished men brought to judgment—but judged those who nonetheless preserved undiminished piety toward God amid such great evils to be happy and blessed: the armies of these were partly slain, partly put to flight. Defeated in all their battles at last, they themselves finally succumbed.

From crimes of this sort grave wars arose, and destructive devastations. Hence indeed a scarcity of things necessary for the daily use of life; but an abundance of encroaching evils. Hence it is that the authors of so great an impiety, having fallen into the utmost calamities, either perished utterly by an unhappy end, or, living on in the deepest disgrace, confessed that such a life was more bitter than any death, and in a certain manner paid back for their unjust deeds punishments of like measure. For each one of them was afflicted with evils the graver, the more vehemently he had, through utter madness, set out to assail the divine law, as indeed he had hoped to do. So much so that not only did the evils of the present life seem burdensome to them; but also the fear and expectation of the punishments that are in the world below tormented them far more bitterly.

Moreover, since so great and so grievous an impiety had taken hold of the human race, and the commonwealth, as though ravaged by a certain deadly plague, had been brought to the utmost peril of its safety, and therefore stood in need of great care and saving help; what solace, what remedy did God then devise, that He might free us from these evils? But when I say God, He must be understood who alone is truly God, and who holds perpetual power through every age. Nor indeed would it be arrogance for one who confesses the benefits bestowed by God to speak in magnificent terms. For in truth God sought my service as fit to fulfill His will, and determined to make use of our labor.

Beginning from that British ocean, and from those regions where a fated necessity commands the sun to set, He, by a certain heavenly power, expelling and scattering all the evils that had taken hold of the world, brought it about both that the human race, instructed and formed by our ministry, should be recalled to the observance of the most holy law, and that the most blessed faith should, under God's guiding hand, receive increase.

For I would never be ungrateful and forgetful of a benefit conferred: since I firmly believed that this most excellent ministry had been granted to me in place of the highest office, I at length arrived in the regions of the East. And since these were being troubled by graver calamities, they demanded a greater remedy from us as well. Indeed I most firmly believe that my whole soul, and all that I breathe, and whatever, in short, revolves in the innermost recesses of my mind, is owed by me to the Most High God. Indeed I know well that those who have rightly and sincerely pursued the hope of heavenly things, and have firmly and peculiarly placed it in the dwelling of God, have no need at all of the goodwill of men: seeing that they attain to greater honors the further they have withdrawn themselves from the vices and crimes of mortality.

Nevertheless I consider it my duty to remove as far as possible from men wholly free of any fault or blame the most bitter necessities imposed upon them for a time, and the torments in no way fitting for them. Otherwise it would be most absurd that the fortitude and constancy of their souls should have been observed and known while those reigned who had set their minds upon persecuting them on account of the worship of God: but that, with a servant of God administering the empire, their glory should not have been advanced to a more illustrious and blessed height.

Therefore let all, whether those who exchanged their fatherland for foreign soil, because they refused to betray the worship of God and the faith to which they had wholly devoted themselves, and were at any time condemned by cruel sentences of judgment; or those who were enrolled in the register of the Curia, though previously not among the number of Curials; now restored to their ancestral estates and accustomed leisure, give thanks to God, the liberator of all. Likewise, whoever have been stripped of their goods, and struck by the confiscation of all their substance, have hitherto led a most wretched life: let these too, restored to their former homes, families, and estates, joyfully enjoy the beneficence of God.

But also as many as are held against their will on islands, we command to enjoy the benefit of this provision: so that those who have hitherto been shut in by the rough places of mountains and by the surrounding sea, at last freed from a sad and inhuman solitude, may restore themselves to their kinsfolk and friends, and fulfill their vows and desires. And those who have lived for a very long time in extreme want and pitiable squalor, having obtained return as if it were a certain prize offered to them, and freed henceforth from cares, let them live with us without fear. For that anyone should live in fear while we reign, we who both boast and believe ourselves to be servants of God, is a thing most absurd even to hear, let alone to be believed. For we are so disposed as to amend the offenses of others.

Also whoever were condemned either to the laborious work of the mines, or to the services of public works, let these, exchanging continual labors for sweet leisure, henceforth lead a lighter life according to their own mind, and let them end the troubles of immoderate labor with soft and peaceful rest. And although some of them have fallen from common liberty and have been marked with infamy; recovering with due joy their former dignity, as though sequestered from them by a long pilgrimage, let them hasten to return to their own country.

Moreover, to those who, once adorned with military rank, fell from it under a cruel and unjust pretext—namely because, professing the worship of God, they set it above their rank—let it be free to choose which they prefer: whether, resuming military service, to remain in the same status in which they formerly were; or to act freely with an honorable discharge. For it would be fitting and consonant with reason that he who, in enduring the torments inflicted upon him, showed such greatness and constancy of soul, should obtain, according to his own judgment, either leisure or rank.

Likewise, whoever, forcibly stripped of their nobility, received from judges of this kind a sentence whereby, thrust into the women's workshops or linen-mills, they endured hard and toilsome labor, or were held as slaves of the treasury, their former splendor of birth availing them nothing; let these, rejoicing in both the honors which they formerly enjoyed and the prerogative of liberty, having recovered their former dignity, henceforth pass their life with all cheerfulness. But also he who exchanged liberty for servitude through the unjust and inhuman audacity of a seller, and who has often bewailed services unaccustomed to him, understanding himself, as by a sudden change, made a slave out of a free man; let him now, by our decree, recovering his former liberty, restore himself to his parents, and take up labors worthy of a free man: the memory of the services in no way fitting for him, which he formerly performed, being wholly erased from his mind.

But neither is it fitting for us to be silent concerning the estates of which individuals were stripped for various reasons. Accordingly, if any, undertaking the noble and divine contest of martyrdom with an intrepid and confident spirit, were stripped of their goods: or, made confessors, gained for themselves the hope of eternal goods: or those who were compelled to migrate from their fatherland because they refused to yield their faith to persecutors by betraying it, were themselves also stripped of their estates: finally, if any, though not condemned by capital sentence, nevertheless suffered the loss of their goods: we command that the inheritance of all these be given to their next of kin. Moreover, since the laws expressly prescribe that the nearer of the kindred receive the inheritance, it is easy to discern to whom the inheritance is owed. Furthermore it is consonant with reason that those come to the succession who would have been nearer, had they died a natural death.

But if no kinsman survives who, as is consonant with reason, might take the inheritance of those whom I mentioned above, namely martyrs and confessors, or of those who for such cause migrated from their fatherland, we decree that the Church of each place enter upon the inheritance, nor indeed will it be burdensome to the deceased, if it should happen that she, for whose sake they underwent every peril, should be their heir. This too must necessarily be added, that if any of those mentioned above have given anything of their goods to anyone, the ownership shall, as is right, remain firm and ratified to that person.

Moreover, so that no ambiguity may appear in our precept, but that it may be readily open to anyone to know what is lawful, let all understand that, whether it be a farm, or a house, or a garden, or anything else of the goods of those whom I mentioned above that they hold, they will act rightly and in due order if they voluntarily come forward and restore the matter without any delay. And although some, by no just cause of possession, appear to have received great fruits from those things, we nevertheless judge it in no way equitable that those fruits be reclaimed from them.

But let them, candidly declaring whence and how great fruits they have gathered, ask that pardon for their offense be granted to them by us: so that both their former avarice may be dissolved by such an amendment, and God, the Best and Greatest, accepting this as a kind of satisfaction in place of penance, may graciously pardon their errors. But perhaps those who have been made owners of these goods (if indeed they either deserve or can be styled by this name) will say, in their own defense, that it was altogether impossible for them at that time to abstain from these things, when a manifold spectacle of every kind of evil was presented: when men were cruelly driven out, and slaughtered without any pity; when estates lay scattered and dispersed here and there at random; when frequent proscriptions of the innocent, and the insatiable fury of persecutions, and sales of goods were witnessed.

But indeed if any rely on arguments of this sort, and persist in excuses for their avarice, they will find that this will not go unpunished for them, especially since it is chiefly for this reason that we render our effort and ministry to God, the Best and Greatest. Whatever, therefore, deadly necessity compelled them to accept, it is now dangerous to retain. Add too that insatiable desires must be diminished, partly by reason, partly by examples.

Nor indeed will it be granted even to the treasury, if it possesses any of the things I mentioned above, to retain it firmly. But, not daring to speak against the most sacred churches, it will at length rightfully restore to the churches those things which it has for some time unjustly withheld. We command therefore that all things which shall be rightly seen to belong to the churches, whether it be a house and its possession, or fields, or gardens, or whatsoever else, be restored, with no right pertaining to ownership diminished, but all remaining safe and intact.

But also those places which have been honored by the relics of martyrs, and which preserve the memory of their glorious deaths, who could doubt belong to the churches? Nay rather, who would not command it? Since no duty can be more excellent, nor any labor more pleasant and useful, than, under the impulse of the divine Spirit, to take diligent care of these matters; so that things which were taken away under some wicked pretext by unjust and most wicked men may, most justly restored, be given back once more to the holy churches of God.

But since it belongs to a perfect and complete providence not to pass over in silence even those who have acquired something from the treasury by right of purchase, or have possessed something granted to them under title of donation, extending an insatiable desire in vain toward goods of this kind, let all such persons know that, even though on account of what they have dared to purchase they have earnestly striven to alienate our clemency from themselves, our benevolence, insofar as it can and ought to be done, will nevertheless not be wanting to them.

But let it suffice to have said thus much concerning these matters. Moreover, since it has been made clear by the most evident and most certain proofs, that partly by the might and power of Almighty God, partly by the exhortations and helps which He willed to be frequently supplied through me, the sadness and bitterness which formerly held sway over human affairs has now been driven away from the whole world; you all, both together and each one individually, perceive by careful reflection how great and how mighty is that power and grace, which has utterly destroyed and taken away the very stock of the most wicked men; and restoring the cheerfulness and joy of the good, has spread it far and wide through all regions; and which grants to all free liberty, both to venerate again the divine law with due worship, and to attend with fitting honor those who have consecrated themselves to the ministry of this law.

These men indeed, emerging as it were from some deep darkness, and drawing in the bright knowledge of things, will henceforth show due observance to this law, and pious and united reverence. Let this be set forth in our Eastern provinces.

Victor Constantinus Maximus, Augustus, to the provincials of the East.

Whatsoever things are contained by the firmest laws of nature afford to all a sufficient knowledge of divine providence and intelligence in ordering all things. Nor does any doubt exist for those whose minds are borne by the right path of knowledge toward this goal, but that the sound mind, and the accurate apprehension of the very sight of the eyes, with the nature of true virtue tending and inclining toward the same end, leads to the knowledge of God. Wherefore no prudent man will ever be troubled in mind, when he observes that most men pursue ways of life contrary to one another. For the grace of virtue would lie utterly useless, unless wickedness set in opposition a perverse and desperate manner of living. For this reason a crown indeed is set before virtue, but over the judging and punishing of wickedness the most high God presides. But I will endeavor to discourse to you as plainly as I can concerning that hope and expectation of future things which I bear.

And indeed the former emperors, on account of the savagery and cruelty of their character, I have always held to be foreign and alien to me. My father alone devoted himself to gentleness and mildness, calling upon God the Father in all his actions with admirable religion. But the rest, being by no means endowed with sound mind, pursued cruelty rather than clemency, and nourished it in wondrous fashion, overturning true doctrine throughout the whole time of their reign. Moreover, the fury of their wickedness blazed up so greatly that, while all things both divine and human were established in the deepest peace, they themselves stirred up civil wars.

For it was reported that Apollo at that time gave forth an oracle from some cave and dark den, not from a human mouth; wherein he said that just men living upon the earth stood in his way, so that he could not speak true things; and that on this account false oracles were given from the tripod. For this reason he let down his hair uncombed, and, the art of divination being driven away, lamented so great an evil among men. But let us see what end these things had.

I call thee now to witness, O God most high. Thou knowest how I, at that time being still quite young, heard him who then held the higher place among the Roman emperors—wretched, truly wretched, deceived by a false error of mind—curiously inquiring of his protectors who were the just men living on the earth; and how one of the sacrificing priests who stood about him answered that these were the Christians. He, having as it were greedily drunk in the man's answer like honey, drew forth swords prepared to punish crimes against a holiness free from all reproach. Straightway therefore he wrote bloody edicts with, so to speak, blood-stained points, and commanded the judges to bend the skill of ingenuity, implanted in them by nature, toward devising harsher punishments…at that season the earth itself indeed without doubt shed tears; and the heaven which embraces all things in its circuit groaned, defiled with blood. The very light of day too was darkened for grief and horror at so great a portent.

But what need is there to recall in more words those lamentations and the common grief of the whole world? Those authors of so great a crime afterward perished by a shameful end, thrust down into the pit of Acheron for perpetual torments. For, dashed against one another in civil wars, they left behind no memory even of their name or lineage. This assuredly would never have befallen them, had not that impious prophecy of Pythian Apollo possessed a certain false and adulterated power.

Now I pray and beseech Thee, O God best and greatest, be merciful and propitious toward Thy people of the East; be so toward all the provincials worn down by long calamities, and grant them salvation through me, Thy servant. And these things I ask of Thee not without cause, Lord and holy God of all. For under Thy guidance and auspices I have undertaken and accomplished works of salvation. Everywhere bearing Thy sign before me, I have led a victorious army. And as often as public necessity demands, following the ensigns of Thy power, I advance against enemies. For these reasons I have dedicated my soul to Thee, tempered rightly with both love and fear. For indeed I sincerely love Thy name; but Thy power, which Thou hast declared by many proofs, and by which Thou hast confirmed my faith, I religiously dread. Therefore I hasten, putting my own shoulders to the work, to restore again Thy most holy house, which those wicked and impious men laid waste by nefarious overthrow.

Indeed I desire that Thy people should live peaceably and without any sedition, for the common benefit of the whole world and of all mortals. But let those also who are entangled in the error of heathenism themselves joyfully receive the same delight of peace and quiet along with the faithful. For this restoration of communion and mutual fellowship avails greatly for leading men back to the right way. Let no one trouble another. Let each do what he himself has been pleased to choose. Yet this ought to be fixed and settled among those who think rightly, that only those will live holily and chastely whom Thou Thyself hast called to this, that they should acquiesce in Thy most sacred laws. But let those who withdraw themselves have, if they so wish, their shrines of lies. We retain the most splendid house of Thy truth, which Thou gavest us at our birth. This same thing we wish for them also, namely, that from common consent and concord of all they may receive the greatest pleasure.

10. For our religion is neither new nor recent, but from the time when we believe the fabric of this world to have been fitly set in order, Thou hast established this religion with due observance of Thy divine will. Moreover the human race, led astray by various errors, fell into ruin. But Thou, that this evil might not grow further, raising up a most splendid light through Thy Son, hast admonished all men concerning the worship of Thy divine majesty. 11. Thy works give assurance of this. Thy power renders us innocent and faithful. The sun and moon are borne in fixed and definite courses; nor without order do the stars revolve about the axis of the whole universe. By fixed law the changes of the seasons return. By Thy word the firm solidity of the earth stands, and the winds are moved at their appointed time, and the rush of the waters glides on in unresting flow. The sea is held within its unmoved bounds.

And whatsoever is spread abroad through the lands and through the ocean, this has been fashioned for the greatest and most wonderful uses. And unless this were so ordered by the decree of Thy will, without doubt such great diversity, and the manifold division of power, would have brought ruin upon the whole world and upon human affairs. For those who have waged war against one another would surely fight the more grievously against the human race. Which indeed they do, though they are not perceived by the eyes. 12. We give Thee very great thanks, Lord and most high God of all. For the more human nature is recognized through discordant pursuits, the more, among those who think rightly and are zealous for true virtue, the discipline of divine religion is established. But whoever does not allow himself to be healed, let him not impute this to another. For the medicine which presides over healing is set forth openly for all.

This alone must be guarded against, that no one violate that religion which the very facts testify to be pure and undefiled. Let us therefore all enjoy the fellowship of this good granted to us, that is, the pleasantness of peace; and let us withdraw the consciousness of our mind from all things that are contrary to it.

Moreover, let no one bring harm upon another because of what he himself has conceived in his mind. But whoever has understood and known something, let him, if indeed it can be done, help his neighbor; but if this cannot be done, let him forbear. For it is one thing to undertake of one's own will the contest for immortality, another to compel by force of punishments. These things I have said, and have discoursed more fully and at greater length than the purpose of our mildness required, because I did not wish to hide or dissemble the truth of the faith. Especially since some, as I hear, assert that the rites and ceremonies of the temples and the power of darkness have been utterly abolished. Which indeed I would have persuaded all men of, were it not that a violent presumption of depraved error still too deeply besets the minds of certain persons, to the ruin and detriment of the restoration of the human race.

Victor Constantinus Maximus, Augustus, to the Heretics.

Recognize now, by the benefit of this law, O Novatians, Valentinians, Marcionites, Paulianists, and those who are given the name of Cataphrygians, and finally all of you who form and fill up heresies in private assemblies, with how many lies the vanity of your opinion is entangled, and with how pernicious poisons your doctrine is imbued; so that a most grievous disease is brought by you upon the healthy, and perpetual death upon the living. O enemies of truth, foes of life, counsellors of destruction, all things among you are contrary to truth, suited to the most shameful crimes, filled with follies and fictions, whereby you indeed build up lies, but oppress the innocent, and deny light to believers. And under the pretense of divinity, sinning continually, you pollute all things; while you wound pure and undefiled human consciences with deadly blows, and all but snatch away the very light of day from mortal eyes.

And what need is there to enumerate each matter, since neither the brevity of the time nor the magnitude of our occupations allow us to speak of your crimes according to their merit? For your crimes are so grave and immense, so foul and overflowing with every atrocity, that not even an entire day would suffice to unfold them. And besides, it is fitting to turn away the ears and avert the eyes from such things, lest the pure and sincere ardor of our faith be defiled by a particular exposition of them. What reason is there, then, why we should longer tolerate evils of this sort? Especially since prolonged patience causes even those who are sound and healthy to be infected by this, as it were, pestilential disease. Why then do we not at once cut out the roots of such wickedness by public punishment?

Wherefore, since this ruinous conduct of your wickedness can no longer be borne, by the present law we forbid that any of you henceforth presume to hold assemblies. And therefore we have ordered that all the places in which you carry on gatherings of this kind be taken away; the solicitude of our majesty extending so far, that not only in public, but not even in private houses or in any places of private right, shall the faction of your superstitious madness be permitted to assemble. Therefore—what is far more honorable and excellent—let whoever among you are zealous for true and sincere religion come to the Catholic Church, and hold communion with its holiness, by whose help they will be able to arrive at the truth. Let the fraudulent deception of your perverse mind be utterly absent from the felicity of our times—namely, the wicked and ruinous madness of heretics and schismatics.

For it is fitting for the prosperity of the times which we enjoy by divine benefit, that those who live with good hope and confidence be led from every disordered error to the right path, from darkness to light, from vanity to truth, and finally from death to life. And that the force and virtue of this remedy may be effectual, we have ordered that all, as we have already said, the meeting-places of your superstition—that is, the oratories of all heretics, if indeed they ought to be called oratories—be taken from them without any contradiction, and be handed over without delay to the Catholic Church; and that the remaining places be publicly adjudicated, and that no license be left to you henceforth of assembling there. So that from the present day, in no place whatsoever, whether public or private, shall your unlawful assemblies dare to convene. Let it be proclaimed.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Florentinus, Praetorian Prefect. Decurions ought to be nominated to the magistracy, or to the collection of the grain supply, three months in advance or more, so that, if their complaint should seem just, another may be substituted in their place without impediment, so as to complete the term. Given on the Ides of April at Constantinople, in the consulship of Severus and Rufinus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Dalmatius. Since we have learned that certain persons have obtained from us exemption from personal duties, presenting to our sight other men's children as their own, we command that these persons, when this is proved, be deprived of the granted benefit; but that those who have five children of either sex should, once exemption has been obtained, retain it; so that, if among this number a son of legal age be found, he shall at once be assigned to perform the duties in his father's stead; and for fathers who have had five sons or daughters, the immunity promised by the laws is to be preserved. But if anyone has merited exemption on account of slender means, and has proved this, let him retain the benefit, if it was because of straitened circumstances that he was being called to personal services. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Elpidius … We command that whichever ship of the shipowners has entered the port of the city of Rome from any coast of Spain, carrying only the fiscal cargo, shall depart without hindrance from anyone, nor be subject to any extraordinary burden, so that it may more easily fulfill the services enjoined upon it. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus, to the edict of the Chalcedonians and Macedonians. Whenever it is necessary that any assessment be made, let the assessment be made according to the counsels and arrangement of the governors of each city, lest the multitude of the middling sort, subjected to the will and advantage of the more powerful, be afflicted with grievous and most unjust wrongs. Received.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Constantius, Praetorian Prefect. The constitutions and laws of the tyrant Licinius having been removed, let all know that the observance of the ancient law and of our statutes ought to be maintained. Posted.

Constantine Augustus to Hilarianus, Proconsul of Africa. If any decurion, whether on account of his own private affairs or of public business, be compelled to approach our court, let him not depart before, having made his desire known to the judge, he obtains permission to set out. But if anyone, out of his own presumption, should make light of this order, let him incur the penalty of deportation. Posted.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Severus. Let the judges take up in law the persons of absent parties who have been deprived of possession of any property, and let them set forth the formidable ministry of their authority; and let them so protect the absent, that they diligently inquire into this alone: whether the possession of one who is traveling abroad in whatever manner has been taken away—possession which a relative, or parent, or kinsman, or friend, or tenant, or freedman, or slave held by some title on his behalf; nor let them exclude from pursuing the matter those who have been ejected while possessing in the name of absent persons, on the ground that the decision of the case has not been entrusted to them; nor, if they be slaves, let the judges reject their persons in law, on the pretence that it is not lawful for men of such condition to plead cases.

But it is fitting that, even after the periods prescribed by law for recovering possession have elapsed, litigation be granted to those bringing suit; so that they be restored without any delay to momentary possession just as if the absent owner himself had returned and litigated. To the owner, however, whenever he returns, at whatever time, we grant the action for recovering possession; because it may happen that restitution is meanwhile delayed on account of unfaithful slaves, or negligent relatives, or parents, or kinsmen, or friends, or tenants, or freedmen. For the time elapsed, which is prescribed by law for the recovery of possession, ought not to prejudice the absent; but, the condition which was wrongfully removed having been restored, let all things that remain for the determination of the litigation remain unimpaired, the judgment being reserved for the just and lawful persons (of the absent); since it is quite sufficient that those holding possession in the name of the absent be aided against the violence of those present. Given.

Constantine Augustus to all the Provincials. Let no one, by calumny, wish to overturn what was done under the tyranny and by the acts of his judges when it was validly informed, since it was done of his own accord, nor what was legitimately done. Given the day before the Ides of February, in the consulship of Paulinus and Julianus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Silvius … Paulus, Master of Italy. After other matters: Lest your Gravity, being occupied by other business, be burdened by heaps of rescripts of this kind, it has been decided to enjoin upon your Gravity only those causes in which a more powerful person can oppress an inferior or lesser judge, or in which such a matter arises as cannot rightly be terminated in the presidial court, so that what has long been handled by the same governors may be terminated before you. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus … Let no judge, under the pretext of a loan, either seize or attempt to seize what he has received from the state by way of contribution. Given the day before the Nones of March at Trier, in the consulship of Paulinus and Julianus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Helladius. It has been reported more often and more clearly ... that advocates have preferred immense and unlawful gains to their own reputation, demanding for themselves, under the name of honoraria, out of the very cases which they have undertaken to defend, the profits of a fixed portion, with grave loss to the litigant and plunder of him. It has therefore been decided that all who have been found in such savagery in judged cases shall remain in this practice—(worthy of note: that this is not the name of Silvius, but another person). -such savagery, shall be utterly barred from this profession. Given the 3rd day before the Kalends of April, in the consulship of Paulinus and Julianus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Dracilianus, holding the place of Praetorian Prefect. Whosoever shall have lent moist or dry produce to those in need shall receive, by way of interest, an additional third part; that is, if the sum of the loan was two modii, they shall receive a third modius in addition. But if the creditor, being sued, should refuse to receive the debt on account of the advantage of the interest, he is to be deprived not only of the interest but also of the amount of the debt itself. This law pertains only to produce; for on money the creditor is forbidden to receive more than single centesimal interest. Posted at Caesarea, the 15th day before the Kalends of May, in the consulship of Paulinus and Julianus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Severus, Urban Prefect. Whenever, by our rescript, a prejudgment or a dilatory exception is remitted, let the way of petitioning be opened; but what removes the cognizance of the whole matter and exhausts the force of the principal matter cannot be overturned without grave loss to the other party. Let neither, then, the relaxation of a peremptory exception be sought, nor let petition be made against the edict. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Prefect of the City. Let comitatensian and riparian soldiers and protectors excuse their own head, and that of father and mother and wife, if indeed they have these surviving, all of them, if they are found entered in the census-rolls. But if they do not have any of these persons, or have none at all, they ought to excuse only so much of their own peculium as they could have excused for the same persons, if these had not been lacking; provided, however, that they do not, by an agreement made with others under a feigned ownership, excuse another's property, but truly their own resources. But we ordain that veterans, after the letters of their earned discharge, may excuse both their own head and that of their wife; but if they have earned an honorable discharge, only their own head. All other veterans, from whatever army, we direct shall enjoy the excusal of one head only, together with their wife.

But the riparian veteran, who under the former law, after twenty-four campaigns, having obtained an honorable discharge, enjoyed the excusal of one head, even if he has earned an honorable discharge upon completion of twenty campaigns, shall, after the example of the comitatensian soldiers, excuse one head. One dismissed even within twenty campaigns, since the weak and infirm are not entered in the census, shall enjoy the same benefit.

But the alares and cohortales, while they serve, shall excuse their own heads; and veterans also are to have the same solace of excusal, who, having obtained discharge at whatever time and in whatever parts they may have served, if they shall have been dismissed from comitatensian military service by reason of old age or infirmity, shall excuse, without any distinction of the number of their expenditures, two heads, that is, their own and their wife's; and riparian veterans shall have the same privilege without distinction, if they shall prove that they were dismissed on account of wounds received in war: so that, if any of them, after fifteen campaigns, within twenty-four years, shall have departed from military service, he shall enjoy the excusal of his own head only; for the wife of a riparian soldier, if he shall have departed from military service, shall enjoy the excusal of his head only, ought to be excused after twenty-four years. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus … Since we have granted to various persons that they be assigned to the legions or cohorts, or restored to military service, whoever puts forward a benefit of this kind, let inquiry be made whether he is of the class of decurions, or was previously enrolled for the curia, so that, if any such thing be proved, he may be restored to his own curia and city. This rule it will be fitting to observe concerning all who, having long since been approved, serve in military offices, or, being restored, are bound by the military oath, or shall afterward be approved by votes. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Eufrasius, Rationalis of the three provinces. Among other things: For many, even those established in different places, let it be permitted to bring in the weight of gold together, so that security may be given for all the estates by the sureties issued, lest, gold being exacted separately from each individual, the advantage of the provincials be wearied by many and constant increments. This also we add, that each one, whatever he owes, within the bounds of the year, at whatever time he wishes, shall bring it in, and let the delivery be acknowledged through the register-keeping apparitor; the gold to be received without any delay, lest anyone incur expense in a foreign city, or, what is more serious, be frustrated and fall under the law of forfeiture.

For if one wishing to pay has been disdained by the receiver, he ought, with witnesses employed, to make a formal protestation, so that, this being proved, he himself, released from the bond of forfeiture, may receive the security due, together with its emoluments, and he who has neglected to receive shall be compelled, through the vigor of your office, to pay into the treasury's accounts double the weight that was owed. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Eufrasius, Rationalis of the three provinces. If anyone shall wish to weigh out solidi of refined gold, let him weigh seven solidi of four scruples each, stamped with our features, for single ounces, and fourteen for two ounces, according to this rule bringing in the whole sum of the debt. The same rule is to be observed also if one brings in raw material, so that he may seem to have given solidi. But the gold that is brought in shall be received with an even balance and equal weights, namely so that the tip of the scale be held by two fingers, the remaining three left free and prominent toward the receiver, nor shall the weights be pressed down, no measure of the assay being preserved, nor the balance suspended by equal and even moments. Given the fourteenth day before the Kalends of August, Paullinus and Julianus being Consuls.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Severus, Prefect of the City. Let no hearing at all be granted to one who divides the substance of a case and, by the prerogative of a favor, wishes to agitate before different judges that which could have been terminated in one and the same judgment: a penalty being set, if anyone shall have petitioned against this ordinance and shall have demanded one judge over the possession and another over the principal question, that, the entire valuation of the thing sought being deducted, he shall pay a fifth portion to the treasury of that city, within whose boundaries the thing in question is situated. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Constantius, Praetorian Prefect. By edict we warn all provincials, that, if in appealing to their own governors they have been treated with contempt, they may appeal to your Gravity, so that if it shall have been established that this was committed by fault or negligence of the governors, your Gravity may at once refer it to our knowledge, so that they may be fittingly restrained. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Aurelius Helladius. Although the definition of the ancient law and the rescripts of former emperors have given the necessity of proof to the petitioner in a judgment, of the thing which he seeks, nevertheless we, moved by equity and justice, order that, whenever such a case shall arise, at the outset, according to the rule of law, the petitioner ought to prove whence the thing pertains to himself; but if his side should fail in proofs, then at last let the necessity of proving be imposed upon the possessor, whence he possesses, or by what right he holds it, so that thus the truth may be examined. Given at Naissus, the fifteenth day before the Kalends of October, Paullinus and Julianus being Consuls.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to all the Provincials. If there is anyone, of whatever place, rank, or dignity, who trusts that he can truly and manifestly prove concerning any judge, count, friend, or palatine official of mine, something which he does not seem to have conducted with entire integrity and justice, let him approach without fear and secure; let him appeal to me, I myself will hear everything, I myself will take cognizance, and, if it shall have been proved, I myself will avenge myself. Let him speak securely, and, being well conscious of his own case, let him speak. If he shall have proved it, as I have said, I myself will avenge myself upon him who up to this time has deceived me with a feigned integrity. But him who shall have disclosed and proved this, I will increase both in dignities and in fortune. So may the supreme Divinity be ever propitious to me, and preserve me unharmed, as I desire, with the republic most happy and flourishing. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Praetorian Prefect. Bloody spectacles are not pleasing in a time of civil ease and domestic quiet. Wherefore, as we altogether forbid there to be gladiators, those who by reason of their crimes were accustomed to deserve this condition and sentence, you shall rather cause to serve in the mines, so that they may acknowledge the penalties of their crimes without the blood of their fellows. Given at Berytus, the Kalends of October, Paullinus and Julianus being Consuls.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Constantius, Praetorian Prefect. Since, the curiae having been reviewed, some flee for refuge to the defenses of military service, we order that all who are not yet found liable to the primipilate, released from military service, return to the same curia. Only those shall remain in the service who, according to place and rank, are already reckoned as part of your establishment. Given the Nones of October, Paullinus and Julianus being Consuls.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus, hail and be well, dearest to us. It is not fitting that tribunes or prefects, who have charge of our soldiers, leave in the granaries the grain-allowances owed to them day by day by the indication of the writ, so that the procurators or receivers or prefects of the districts and granaries may procure it for themselves: for hence it happens that the aforesaid demand from the provincials not the grain-allowances but money, while the supplies themselves remain spoiled and corrupted. We therefore ordain that the profit of the abandoned grain-allowance be claimed for the treasury, the subscribing clerk and the optio being struck by the sword, since it cannot be that either the provincials be burdened by a repeated collection, or corrupted supplies be distributed to the soldiers, the aforesaid persons declining to take up on the appointed day the grain-allowances suitable to their rank. In which fault, if anyone be found, he is to be defended neither by the merit of his person nor by the height of his office.

Given the fourteenth day before the Kalends of November, at Aquae, Paullinus and Julianus being Consuls.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Vicar of the Orient. If anyone derives his origin either from a greater or from a lesser city, if, striving to avoid the same, he shall have betaken himself, on the occasion of settlement, to another city, and shall have attempted either to present petitions concerning this, or to strive by any fraud, in order that he may evade the origin of his own city, let him bear the burdens of decurionship of both cities, in the one by favor of his choice, in the other by favor of his origin. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the People. Whereas the old law compels freeborn women joined in cohabitation with fiscal slaves to a diminution of their birthright, no pardon being granted either to ignorance or to age, it is our pleasure that indeed the bonds of such unions be avoided: but if a freeborn woman, whether unknowing or even willing, shall have come together with a fiscal slave, she shall suffer no loss of her freeborn status; but the offspring, which is born of a fiscal father and a freeborn mother, shall hold a middle fortune, so that they shall be Latins, children of slaves and freeborn illegitimates, who, although they are released from the necessity of servitude, shall nevertheless be held by the privilege of the patron. Which law we wish to be observed both in the case of fiscal slaves and in the origin of patrimonial estates, and as regards emphyteutic lands, and those which pertain to the bodies of our private property.

For we take nothing away from the public bodies out of the ancient law, nor do we wish the servile conditions of any cities whatsoever to be joined to the fellowship of this law, so that the cities may keep entire the power of the old interdict. If either an improvident error, or simple ignorance, or a lapse of feeble age shall have driven anyone into these snares of cohabitation, let these be excepted from our sanctions. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus and Caesar to Maximus, Prefect of the City. If one who, having lost the dignity of Roman citizenship, has been made a Latin, shall have departed from life in that same status, let all his peculium be claimed by the patron, or by the patron's sons or grandsons, who have in no way lost the right of agnation. Nor let it be permitted to the sons to approach a dispute over this as if it were a matter of hereditary controversy, since the reasoning of his status is chiefly to be treated not according to what he obtained, having been allotted it by the benefit of freedom granted, but according to that status in which he departed from life. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Africanus, for the fifth time.

It ought to be inquired whether she who has committed adultery was the mistress of a tavern or a serving-maid, and thus one bound in servile obedience, such as commonly herself furnishes the wine to those in their intemperance; so that, if she be mistress of the tavern, she is not exempt from the bonds of the law, but if she offered service to those drinking, then, on account of the baseness of her condition, which is brought into the charge, the accusation being excused, those free persons who are accused shall withdraw, since regard for chastity is required of those women who are held by the bonds of law, but these others are to be granted immunity from judicial severity, whom the baseness of their life has not made worthy of the observance of the laws. Given the third day before the Nones of February, at Heraclea, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus.

INTERPRETATION. If the mistress of a tavern, that is, the wife of the tavern-keeper, is found in adultery, she may be accused; but if her handmaid, or one who furnished service in the tavern, is caught in adultery, she shall be dismissed on account of the baseness of her condition. But also the wife of the tavern-keeper herself, if she performed the office of so base a service, and is caught in adultery, cannot be accused by her husband.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Evagrius, Praetorian Prefect. If anyone is found in such a fault or crime as seems worthy of the bars of the prison and the squalor of confinement, let him, having been heard before the court records, once his guilt has been established, undergo the penalty of prison, and thus afterward, having been brought forth, let him be heard again before the records. For thus, as it were under public testimony, mention of the crime committed shall be made, so that some restraint may seem to have been applied as a curb to judges who rage without moderation. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Acyndinus, Praetorian Prefect. Let the license of usurping relay-post or extra-post animals be taken away from governors and accountants and the others through whom, for that reason, the state supplies provisions and fodder for beasts of burden. We do not permit this either: that they demand anything from the provincials outside of due order, save only those whose trustworthiness is known, when the necessity of use so demands. But for your Gravity, wherever occasion requires, the public post is at hand; and if from the public route you must turn aside onto some military road where there is no post-service, you shall use public relay-animals, but moderately and temperately, only so much as is necessary for your own use. If this matter is neglected, you incurring the mark of your own assessment, the governors shall bear the risk, since inspectors have already been sent concerning this matter.

For what evils are inflicted upon our provincials can be conjectured also from this: that for our own journeys, which public utility occasions, scarcely a number of twenty relay-animals can be supplied, even with great and anxious arrangement. Posted publicly.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Bassus, Praetorian Prefect. We command that advocates, who by wicked defraudings despoil and strip bare those lacking their own resources—not on the merits of the case, having been examined, but demand, while their case has not even been treated, that the chief items—the quality of estates, herds, and slaves—be transcribed to themselves by a pact extorted from them, be segregated from the company of honorable men and from the sight of the courts. Posted publicly. The eighth day before the Ides of March, at Constantinople, in the eighth consulship of Constantine Augustus and of Constantius Caesar.

INTERPRETATION. Advocates (that is, those who plead causes), who through unjust greed first compel those whom they undertake, whose causes they plead, to agree in such a manner by an intervening document concerning their own property, that all the better things—whether in lands or slaves or herds—should come to them under the promised defense. And therefore those who are found to be so wicked toward those to whom they promise patronage, we command to be segregated both from the assembly of honorable men and from association in the courts.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the People. It is not doubtful that restitution to the former state is provided by the protection of the sanctions for minors against fictitious sales, and against the snares of guardians: and if it were shown that the same guardians had, in fraud of the guardianship, alienated anything of their own, it is declared that provision has been made for the minors by the interdict against fraud. Given.

INTERPRETATION. It is established that much provision has been made by the laws for those established at a minor age. And therefore, against the frauds of guardians, or the sales which they have extorted from certain minors by any contrivances, or whatever they have unjustly done under the name of guardianship, let them know that it is to be revoked by the benefit of the law.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the People. The law which bound guardians and curators by necessity to sell gold, silver, gems, garments, and other precious movable goods, and even urban estates and slaves, houses, baths, granaries, and all things that are within the city, and to reduce everything to cash, except rural estates and rustic slaves, is much opposed to the advantage of minors. We command therefore that it be permitted to no guardian or curator to sell all these things, except perhaps by that necessity and law by which it was formerly permitted to sell or pledge a rustic estate and rustic slave, or to give it as a gift on account of marriage or as a dowry: that is, through the investigation of a judge, and proof of the cause, and the interposition of a decree, so that there be no place for fraud.

Above all, therefore, let the urban slaves, who carry the knowledge of the whole household furniture, always be retained in the inheritance and in the house; for good slaves will prevent fraud from being committed; bad ones, if the matter requires, being put to question, will be able to disclose the truth; and thus they will observe everything, so that the guardian may not be able to diminish or alter or subtract anything from the inventory. This is necessary in respect of garments, pearls, gems, and vessels, and the rest of the household goods. And it is more tolerable, if it should so happen, for slaves to die belonging to their own masters, than to serve strangers: whose flight is rather charged to the guardian, whether he allows discipline to be relaxed through negligence, or afflicts them with harshness or starvation and blows. For slaves do not curse such masters, but rather love them, so that this law is, in this respect too, better than the old one.

For then, the guarding of slaves being removed, even the life of the minors was often betrayed. Nor indeed let it be permitted to sell the house in which the father died, in which the minor grew up, in which it is quite mournful either not to see the images of the ancestors fixed in place, or to see them torn down. Therefore let both the house and all other immovable property remain in the patrimony of the minors, and let no kind of building, which the inheritance gave whole, perish collapsed through the fraud of the guardian. But if the parent, or he whose heir the minor is, left a building in disrepair, let the guardian be compelled, by the testimony of the work itself and the good faith of many, to repair it; for thus the annual returns will bring more to the minors than prices diminished through frauds.

Slaves also, who are endowed with some skill, shall render their services for the advantage of the minor, and the rest, who cannot be of use to the minor master, and who have no skill, shall be fed partly by their own labor, partly by an assessed allowance. For the law has provided for minors not only against guardians, but also against immoderate and intemperate women, who very often surrender to new husbands not only the property of their children but even their lives. To this is added, that the use of money itself, in which the ancients placed the whole strength of patrimonies, in lending at interest, is scarcely lasting, scarcely continuous and stable; and when this follows, the money often being lost, the patrimonies of minors are reduced to nothing.

Now therefore let there be no sale by a guardian without the interposition of a decree: excepting only those garments which, worn out by use or spoiled, could not be preserved by preservation, the guardian or curator nonetheless being solicitous to inspect the same by frequent examination to see that they remain sound. We do not forbid also that superfluous animals of the minors be sold. Given the third day before the Ides of March, at Sirmium, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Prefect of the City. Whereas in the past this custom was observed in the courts, that when documents had been produced, if anyone said they were forged, the civil judge would refrain from a sentence on the civil controversy, and thereby it happened that a threatening accusation, closed by no time limits, would deceive the claimant or the possessor, we have thought it fitting that, even if either of the litigants raises the clamor of forgery, still the authority of the momentum of the produced documents shall be conferred upon the claimant or the possessor; so that then, the civil dispute being terminated, a second action for forgery be added thereafter. We wish, therefore, that first the entry of accusation of forgery cease. But where the examination of forgery has occurred, then, according to the ancient custom, the civil inquiry having been terminated by sentence, let the sharpest inquiry be made by arguments, witnesses, comparison of writings, and other traces of the truth.

Nor let the burden of inquiry rest upon the accuser alone, nor let the whole necessity of proof be shown to be his, but let the judge be a mediator between both parties, and let him not divulge by any preliminary statement what he thinks, but, as in imitation of a report, which mandates only the office of hearing, let him give his cognizance, to reveal in his final sentence what has become clear to him. But we limit the ultimate end of the criminal clamor, which it is not lawful for the litigant and disputant to exceed, to the space of a year, the beginning of which shall arise from the moment the action is entered with the competent judge: capital punishment threatening, after proof, if the magnitude of the offense demands it, or else deportation, for him who has committed the forgery. Posted publicly.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Lucrius Verinus ... Let the possessor have it in his own discretion not to pay money to the swine-dealer. This has been permitted for the reason that license may not be afforded to swine-dealers in assessing the weight of the pigs. But if the swine-dealer has justly assessed the pigs, the possessor, to whom the option of either kind of payment is granted, shall pay him the money. But lest any loss be brought upon the swine-dealer in receiving the money, let the possessor, in each and every year, reckon those prices of pork which the practice of public dealing has produced. And since the scale of prices is not always and in all places the same, according to the diversity of places and times, prices are to be given in kind, unless the pork itself is furnished.

But the judges of the regions are to be advised that, every year, they report to your knowledge what prices of pork prevail in what places, so that, this information having been weighed by your Gravity, then at length the swine-dealers may proceed through the various regions, and receive the prices which you shall have known to prevail in those regions. For the swine-dealers will not be able to complain, since it makes no difference whether they buy dearer or cheaper, since whatever price they are to give, they receive from the possessor; and the possessors will be moderate in selling in kind, since they know that the more they demand in price for the meat, the more they will have to pay to the swine-dealers. Given.

The same Augustus to Maximilianus Macrobius ... Whenever such a case of blows from masters accompanies the deaths of slaves, that they die, those are guiltless who, while correcting the worst faults, wished to obtain better ones for their household slaves. Nor do we wish it to be inquired in a deed of this kind—in which it concerns the master to have his property of right unharmed—whether it seems to have been done with the intention of killing a man, or rather a simple chastisement was carried out. For it is not pleasing that a master be pronounced guilty of homicide by reason of the death of a slave, so often as he exercises domestic authority by simple questioning. If therefore at any time slaves depart from human affairs by the correction of blows, with fatal necessity impending, let masters fear no inquiry. Given.

If he shall have died, the master is not held liable for the guilt of homicide, because he is then guilty of homicide, if he is convicted of having wished to kill. For correction is not called into question as a crime.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Evagrius, Praetorian Prefect. Although the crime of adultery is reckoned among public crimes, the denunciation of which is granted to all in common without any interpretation of the law, nevertheless, lest it be permitted to those willing to defile marriages rashly, it is decided that the opportunity of accusing be granted only to the nearest and closest persons, that is, to the father, or to a cousin, and especially to a blood-brother, whom true grief drives to the accusation. But we also impose upon these persons the law that they suppress the crime by an abolition. First of all it is fitting that the husband be the avenger of the marriage-bed; to him indeed the earlier emperors of old have granted, even from suspicion, to make his wife a defendant, and not to be bound within certain times of formal inscription. But we decree that outsiders be kept far off from this accusation.

For although the necessity of formal inscription binds every kind of accusation, nevertheless some do this shamelessly, and disfigure marriages with false insults. Given at Nicomedia, the 7th day before the Kalends of May, Constantine Augustus

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Aelianus, Proconsul of Africa. Since it was formerly established by a law concerning appeals that no one might interpose an appeal against a preliminary judgment or against an execution, and that an appeal of this kind should not be admitted by those who judge in our stead—lest, to the ruin of many, by the interposing of appeals against preliminary judgments, or by certain dilatory frustrations interjected, lawsuits be dragged out—yet now it has pleased us to add a penalty, so that all may understand that they ought to fortify their causes by the argument of the principal matter, and not appeal in some way from the very beginnings of the first interlocutory ruling, or from executions—since it is permitted both to those who thought they must appeal impatiently from a preliminary point, to appeal after the cognizance of the whole cause, and to those who appeal late from executions, the faculty of appealing has by no means been denied.

If, therefore, anyone using such an appeal shall be found in your court, you shall fine him thirty pounds of gold as penalty; but you shall settle the whole cause, at least of him who has rashly appealed from a preliminary judgment or from an execution, without any delay, since no delay ought to be granted in our court, the time of the interposed appeal being sufficient for the litigants to bring forward the fullest instruction. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Evagrius, Praetorian Prefect. Since we have learned that the town councils are being deserted by those who, though liable by origin to that curial duty, seek military service for themselves by petition, and run off to the legions or to various offices, we order that all curial bodies be admonished that whomever, within twenty years of service, one finds either to have fled his origin, or, having spurned his nomination, to have thrust himself into military service, these they shall drag back to the curia, and let them know that this is to be observed henceforth. And whoever, having abandoned the curia, has served in the army, shall be recalled to the curia, not only if he is of curial origin, but also if, possessing property suited to public duties, he has fled to military service, or has been freed by our benefice. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Rufinus, Praetorian Prefect. Let all chief physicians and former chief physicians remain free and immune from all duties of curial members, of senators and counts and of most perfect men, and from the services and functions which are often assigned to those who have discharged their administration, and also from public levies; nor let them be called to any levy of gold and silver and horses, which are perchance assigned to the aforesaid ranks or dignities. We decree, moreover, that the indulgence of this sanction shall extend also to their sons. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Prefect of the City. At a certain time it came about that not a written inscription, but a profession of the crime fleeing from the mouth in a single utterance, compelled both accuser and defendant to struggle, at the risk of the trial, over their homeland, their freedmen, their fortunes, and even their life. And therefore we wish that, the license and rashness of mere profession being removed, the accusation be referred to the custom and order of formal inscription, so that all may use the old law in bringing charges—that is, that, anger being quieted, and through these intervals the tranquility of mind being recovered, they may come to the final action with reason and deliberation. Given.

Received at Rome, Constantine Augustus

INTERPRETATION. If someone in anger rashly casts some charge against another, this abuse is not to be held as an accusation, but, an interval for consideration having been allowed, let him declare that he will prove by writing what he said in anger. But if perchance, coming to his senses after his anger, he should be unwilling to repeat or write down what he said, let him not be held liable as guilty of the crime.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Severus, Prefect of the City. We command that all palatine officials, upon whom the certain privileges of our edict have long since been bestowed, are to have as camp-property whatever property they may have acquired, whether by their own thrift while sojourning in our palace, or have obtained by our gifts. For what is so much of the nature of the camp, as what is acquired with our knowledge, and almost under our own eyes? Nor indeed are they strangers to the dust and toil of the camps, who accompany our standards, who are ever ready for duties, whom the length of journeys and the difficulty of expeditions exercise, intent as they are upon learned pursuits. And therefore let our palatine officials, who are able to make use of the privileges of the edict, retain as their own special property whatever, while established in the palace, they have acquired either by their own labor, as has been said, or by our favor. Given.

On women who have joined themselves to their own slaves.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the People. If any woman is discovered to have had secret relations with a slave, she shall be subjected to the capital sentence, the male offender being handed over to the flames; and let there be opportunity for all to prove this public crime, let there be occasion for the officium to report it, let there even be license for the slave himself to bring the charge, to whom, once the crime is proved, freedom shall be given, since a penalty threatens for a false accusation. She who was married before this law shall be separated from such a union, excluded not only from the household, but also from the community of the province, and shall mourn the departure of her lover in banishment. The children too, whom she has had from this union, stripped of every mark of dignity, shall remain in bare freedom, and shall receive nothing whatever, whether by their own act or through an interposed person, under any title of intention, from the property of the woman.

But the succession of the woman shall be conveyed, ab intestato, either to legitimate children, if there are any, or to the nearest relatives by blood, or to whomever the rule of law admits; so that whatever he who was once her lover, and whatever the children begotten of him seem in any case to have had in their own substance, joined to the dominion of the woman, shall be claimed by the aforesaid successors. All these things being observed, even if the woman or her lover died before this law, since even one author of the offense incurs the censure. But if both have already died, we spare the offspring, lest it be weighed down by the vices of its deceased parents; let the children be, let them take precedence over brothers, over the nearest relatives and kin, let them be the heirs of the succession left behind. For those committing this after the law we punish with death.

But those who, having been separated by law, secretly come together again, renewing the forbidden intercourse, shall, upon conviction by the testimony of slaves, or by the observation of the officium, or even by the denunciation of relatives, undergo a similar penalty. Given the 4th day before the Kalends of June, at Serdica, Constantine Augustus for the 7th time and Constantius Caesar being Consuls.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Ablabius, Praetorian Prefect. Let exemption from public duties not be granted either by common consent, or to whoever petitions under the guise of clerics, nor let men be attached to the clergy rashly and beyond due measure of the people; but when a cleric has died, let another be substituted in the place of the deceased, one who has no family connection among the town councilors, nor such wealth of resources as could most easily bear public functions; so that, if there is a dispute between the city and the clerics concerning someone's name, whether equity draws him to public services, and he is recognized as being fit by descent as a town-councilor or by his patrimony, being removed from the clergy he shall be handed over to the city. For it is fitting that the wealthy of the world undergo its necessities, and that the poor be sustained by the riches of the churches. Given. The Kalends of June, Constantine Augustus for the 7th time, and Constans Caesar being Consuls.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Menander. It has been ascertained by certain reports that many, as it were for themselves and for their own necessities, sell off, at a fixed price, the requisitioned transport-services they have sought. Although, therefore, henceforth conveyances are to be granted rarely, and only to those who deserve them, nevertheless let all who are anywhere charged with the observation of the public post inquire whether anyone can be caught in this kind of offense, so that both buyer and seller be banished to an island; those also who have been ordered to keep watch, shall pay the same penalty for dissimulation or negligence. Let not the accusation of the crime by slaves, if they report it, be heard.

Nevertheless it is dishonest if he who has the means of requisition should associate someone with himself for the protection of his life, or to undertake the labor of the journey, for his own comfort. For this act deserves pardon, nor will it be able to escape those who investigate; but that other case is to be punished by the penalty stated above. Concerning this matter it will be fitting that the proconsuls, the governors of provinces, the prefects of vehicles, and all who are in charge of the public post, be admonished. Given.

The Emperor Constantine. To Secundus, Praetorian Prefect. We order that the judges of the provinces be reminded that they must know that no new work is to be ordered begun before they have completed those things which were begun by their predecessors: excepting only the building of temples. Given the 3rd day before the Kalends of July, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus for the 7th time and Constantius Caesar.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Tertullus, Proconsul of Africa. If anyone shall have formed a coin by false casting, we order that all his goods be assigned to the treasury, and that he himself be coerced by lawful severity, so that the pursuit of striking money may be practiced only in our mints. Given the day before the Nones of July, at Milan, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Antiochus, Prefect of the Watch.

We order that whatever the tyrant rescripted contrary to law shall not be valid: his lawful rescripts being in no way impugned. Given

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the Senate. Concerning those senators who were cast down from senatorial rank to the duty of shipmaster by the tyrant, and who beg to be restored to their birthright, it has pleased us to entrust the judgment and examination to your holiness, so that you yourselves may choose those who correspond to your splendor in the strength of their patrimony, the honesty of their manner of living, and the dignity of their birth. For it is unfitting to commit the arbitration of so great a dignity to any other rather than to your votes and decisions. But let the names of those whom you shall have chosen as worthy be reported to us by the Prefect of the City, so that we may confirm your judgment. Given on the Ides of July, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Tiberianus, Count over Africa. Let those magistrates who grant nominations for the appointment of duumvirs for the coming year's office, in consideration of their own peril, take care that, although the nomination in Africa is customarily celebrated also by the votes of the people, they themselves nevertheless strive and labor equally as to how those who have been nominated may be found suitable. For the principle of equity persuades us that, unless suitable men have been nominated, those who bear the risk themselves be held liable. Given at Nicomedia, the 3rd day before the Kalends of August, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus for the 7th time and Constans Caesar.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Severus ... We do not allow the privileges granted to their parents to leave the sons of veterans idle on that account, but, by an edict published throughout all the cities, we order that they be diligently sought out and compelled to one alternative or the other, so that they either submit to the duties of the decurionate or serve in the army; your devotion's office observing that those who are approved be between twenty and twenty-five years of age. But if the sons of veterans who performed cavalry service wish to be approved among the cavalry, let them have the opportunity, provided that they be enrolled in the aforesaid service each with a suitable horse. But if anyone has two horses, or one suitable horse, and one slave, let him serve with the rank of circitor, and receive double rations, a rank granted to others only after service.

But let it be made known to the decurions of each city that they are not to delay in summoning to curial duties the sons of veterans who are of the aforesaid age, if they are unwilling to serve in the army, or are found less suitable, provided however they are known to be suitable by their patrimonies. But of those who wish to serve, if any are less fit for cavalry service, owing to some defect of limbs, and are known to be suited rather to legionary service, let them be assigned to the protector who has been sent for this purpose, to be brought to us. Given

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Severus, Prefect of the City. Those to whom we have granted something for their labors and merits are not to be troubled with claims, but rather, they remaining in their own right, that is, free from the vexation of litigation, it is fitting that the instigator of a suit, who shall have attempted to bring disturbance upon them, be presented to your examination, so that, without vexing the possessor, he may prove his right by clear proofs: in which matter you yourself shall take up the part of the one contesting it, since it is the fruit of our generosity that is being assailed.

For by this law we ordain that whoever shall come with such complaints shall show his right according to the aforesaid form: the findings being reported to our knowledge, so that, the possessors' ownership being preserved—for whom, as has been said, a perpetual firmness of possession has been acquired—it shall be left to our deliberation how relief is to be granted from without, by the benefit of our clemency, to those who shall have proven their claims. Recited the 3rd day before the Nones of August, in the Palace, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus for the 7th time, and Constantius Caesar.

INTERPRETATION. Let not those be disturbed to whom we have granted anything for their labor, but let all things that have been granted by us, being placed under their own right,—if anyone wishes to trouble them, let him be brought before the hearing of a judge, so that, without any vexation to the possessor, the claimant may be able to establish his right: all that shall have been done in this matter between the aforesaid parties being reported to our notice, so that the one troubled may also be aided by our remedies.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Julianus, Prefect of the City. Certain judges of the lower rank, taking ill the interposition of the aid of appeal against their sentences, bring it about that unnecessary and impertinent reports of theirs are brought to us. Therefore we wish that, when an appeal has been made from their sentences, concerning that matter over which, by the interposition of the appeal, they have ceased to be judges, they by no means refer it to our clemency, but that the sacred tribunal of your Gravity, to whom we have entrusted our place, be awaited. Given

The Emperor Constantine …

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Dracilianus. The privileges granted in consideration of religion ought to benefit only the observers of the catholic law. But we wish heretics and schismatics not only to be strangers to these privileges, but also to be bound and subjected to various public duties. Posted on the Kalends of September, at Gerastus, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus for the 7th time, Constantius Caesar, Consuls.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Ablavius, Praetorian Prefect. We order that all shipmasters throughout the whole world, for all time, be secure, free, and exempt from all burdens and duties, of whatever place or rank they may be, whether they be decurions, or common people, or of some other higher rank, so that, freed from levies and all impositions, they may exercise the office of shipmaster with their patrimonies intact. Their ships too, however great they may be, ought not to be held for any other service against their will, to whatever shore they may come; the guardians of the shores and the overseers of the tolls, the tax-collectors, decurions, accountants, and judges being given to understand that whoever violates this law shall be punished with death. Given the 14th day before the Kalends of October, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus for the 7th time and Constantius Caesar.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Bassus. We do not find the Novatians so utterly condemned that we should believe that what they have requested ought by no means to be granted to them. And so we order that they firmly possess without disturbance the houses of their church and places suited for burials: namely those which they have had from long duration, or by purchase, or have acquired by whatever means. It will indeed be necessary to take care that they do not attempt to appropriate to themselves anything from those things which it is clear belonged to the churches of everlasting sanctity before the schism. Given

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Severus. Let judges take up in law the person of the absent, who have been deprived of possession of any property whatsoever, and interpose the fearsome ministry of their authority, and thus defend the absent. Yet we confine these judges, whom we have ordered to take up the person of the absent, within these limits of their ministry, that, the matters of the principal case remaining entirely inviolate and intact, they inquire diligently only into this: whether the possession of him who is traveling abroad has, by whatever contrivance, been taken away, which a kinsman, or friend, or slave-boy held by whatever title.

Nor let them exclude from pursuing the matter those who have been ejected while holding possession in the name of the absent, on the ground that jurisdiction over the case has by no means been entrusted to them themselves; nor, if they be slaves, let them reject their persons at law, on the ground that it is not lawful for men of such condition to plead cases; but even after the periods prescribed by law for recovering possession have elapsed, it will be fitting to grant to those bringing suit that they be restored to that momentary possession just as if the master had returned and litigated in person. To him, however, whenever he returns, we have granted the action for recovering possession, because it may happen that restitution is delayed on account of unfaithful slave-boys or negligent kinsmen or friends and tenants.

For time spent, which is prescribed by law for the recovery of possession, ought not to prejudice the absent person, but, the condition having been restored which was wrongfully removed, let all that remains pass unimpaired to the disputation of the suit; the judgment being reserved for just and lawful persons, since it amply suffices that those holding possession in the name of the absent be aided against the violence of those present. Given the 10th day before the Kalends of November, at Milan, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus

INTERPRETATION. We specially admonish all judges that no one, while masters are absent, presume to seize their property, but that against dishonest men everything be vindicated through the person of the judge, the principal matter being unimpaired. But if anyone alleges that he has a suit against an absent person, and if there be one to whom those who are traveling abroad have entrusted the management of their property, let neither the agent nor their attorney nor any of the slaves be compelled to plead the case with the master either absent or not so ordering; but if anything has been taken from them, let it presently be restored to those who, while the master was absent, were excluded, when they shall have complained.

But the master himself, if perchance, through the negligence of his slaves, the property has not been recovered, when he returns from abroad, is by no means forbidden to recover his possession by the benefit of the momentary remedy, even if a year has passed; but, all things that were taken away in his absence having been fully restored, let the full action of the case be set forth, only among lawful persons of full age: because it is fitting that we thus ordain provision for the absent against the malice of those who are present.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the decree of the Shipmasters. We do not allow alienations of possessions made by shipmasters for the sake of evading their duty to prejudice you. And so we wish that the purchasers of the aforesaid possessions, upon complaint being made to the Prefect of the Grain Supply, be compelled to that same service to which they made themselves liable. Given

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Philip, Praetorian Prefect. We order that officials who from various offices, being former protectors, shall be found to have obtained letters, be restored to their former military service. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to … Praetorian Prefect. Our Clemency previously decreed by a promulgated law, that the sons of counts, and of governors, and of accountants, and of masters of private affairs, who nevertheless are descended from the origin of curials, should be bound to the ranks. Now we command that those who, having discharged their offices, shall be found suitable to approach honors by the judgment of our Clemency, being commanded, shall attain to honorable promotions. Those, however, whom the principal authority does not know, we have committed to the judgment of the prefecture, that they may restore to their own ranks those who appear to be of curial stock and less fit by the imperial judgment; but those whom we by our own judgment have promoted, let them keep untouched; provided, however, that their heirs be bound to the curiae. But if any decurion, evading the fiscal advantages, fleeing the curia, should by intrigue reach the illustrious senate of the city, let him by no means be admitted. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus and Constantius Caesar … Urban Prefect. In codicils, which are not preceded by a testament, just as in the wills of a testament, the presence of seven witnesses or of five must not be lacking: for thus it will come to pass, that the successions of testators may be preserved without any legal snare. If, therefore, at any time the number of witnesses shall be lacking, let the codicil instrument be held invalid. This it has been decreed shall also be observed in other wills. Given the 11th day a before the Kalends of January, in the consulship of Constantine Augustus for the seventh time and Constantius Caesar.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus and Caesar to the People. In the case of women, let a paternal uncle who is a blood relation not refuse the legitimate guardianship. Given the day before the Kalends of January, in the consulship of Augustus himself for the seventh time, and Caesar.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus … The right of defense must be granted to those upon whom the fisc brings some disturbance, since it is not lawful for their properties to be disturbed and registered while the controversy is still pending. Therefore, wherever a controversy shall arise, the fisc claiming someone's patrimony, let the inquiry be conducted with all the properties left as they stand, so that, when the outcome of the case shall prove that they ought to be claimed, then at last it shall be permitted to pursue the matter, and an inquiry be held concerning the extent of the properties and goods, which is to be investigated through conditional slaves, so that, if anything has been withheld, it be exacted, and besides, as much again be exacted in the name of a fine as had been fraudulently taken away.

But indeed in an inquiry of this sort, if the name of a Caesarian agent should come up, he ought not to have recourse to the invocation of this constitution; since indeed the customary frauds, by which the aforesaid persons are accustomed to violate everything, shall have earned them the exception. Given the day before the Kalends of January, at Sirmium, Constantine Augustus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Aemilianus, Praetorian Prefect. Farmers who are occupied with sowing, or with gathering the crops, are never to be drawn to extraordinary burdens: since it is a matter of providence to satisfy these necessities at an opportune time. Read on the 7th day before the Ides of March, in the consulship of Januarius and Justus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Praetorian Prefect. Let those who complain of the statutes of governors, since they judge these to have been issued to the detriment of the laws, bring the matter before the judgment of your authority, so that, once they have been (defaced) and overturned, those things which have been wrongly imposed may not even retain the name of a judgment. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Acacius, Count of Macedonia. Let slaves registered in the census-lists be sold within the boundaries of the province, and let those who have obtained ownership by purchase know that this is a matter they must attend to. This it is reasonable should also be observed in the case of possession; the agreements of these being annulled, the burdens and public taxes shall pertain to the concern of those to whose ownership the same possessions have passed. Given the 3rd day before the Kalends of March, at Thessalonica, in the consulship of Constantius and Maximus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Julian, Urban Prefect. Those under twenty years of age, whose age is weak in this regard, we relieve also by this remedy, that they shall by no means be bound by the obligation of that necessity, whose snares bind those who, after their twentieth year of age, having crossed the sea, and residing in the provinces, by no means furnish the means for exhibiting circus games and stage shows, and are therefore made subject to a certain kind of penalty. Given the day before the Nones of March. Received at Rome, in the consulship of Constantius and Maximus.

Constantine Augustus to Annius Tiberianus, Count. It having been made known to all the governors of the provinces, that our Clemency has decreed that the sons of veterans are to be bound to the duties of the curia; so that even those who flatter themselves with the honor of "perfectissimus," being thrust into the curia, shall serve the necessary public offices. Posted publicly.

Constantine Augustus to the Africans. Since by your acclamation you have rightly demanded that no laxity of arrears should accrue to those who delay fiscal payments, we specifically command it to be observed, that the property of those who through contumacy delay to satisfy their fiscal debts be sold off: perpetual security of possession being given to the purchasers. Given.

INTERPRETATION. Whoever shall neglect to fulfill the taxes of their fields, the fields of him who neglects to pay his taxes shall be sold by the tax collector, and to whomsoever they shall have purchased them, they shall possess them, so acquired, by the firmest right in this order.

Constantine Augustus to Constantius, Praetorian Prefect. No license is granted to anyone to appropriate the goods of the living, nor to divide them contrary to good morals: but if, at the mother's direction, the children shall have divided her goods among themselves, it has pleased us in every way that such a division shall stand, provided that the same intention be shown to have persisted even to the last span of her life. Given.

INTERPRETATION. Although it is unjust that the goods of the living be divided, nevertheless if a mother, while living, shall have directed her possessions to be divided among her children and permitted it, and shall have persisted in the same intention even to the end of her life, the division made among the children shall remain in force.

The Emperor Constantine to Julian, Urban Prefect. The times for seeking restitution in full having been observed, as has already been established, if a delay is sought by the plaintiff, which delay is capable of being confined within the limits comprised by law, it will be proper that the same be granted to whomever demands it, whatever the cause pending; upon inquiry into the cases. But if, however, such periods are sought as cannot be extended within the space received by law (since indeed, if they are sought on the border of the legal time a and would extend its limits), it will be fitting that delay be denied to the petitioner; for it had been in his own power to bring the suit at such time, when the delay he sought might, with time remaining, still be included within it.

But if the defense of the possessors shall have requested the favor of a delay, we ordain that the same be granted, the cause being alleged, without hindrance of time, since it had by no means been in his own power, when he should be summoned to suit. It ought, therefore, to be granted, even if the period obtained should extend beyond the rule of the constitution. And if this delay is obtained by the possessor, the plaintiff likewise shall by no means be prevented in seeking proofs. Given.

Since certain debtors of the fisc, when ordered to pay the sum owed, having interposed the aid of an appeal, evade the force of execution, and take care neither to seek nor to offer the copy of the opinion nor the refutatory petitions, it has been decided that, if within the days prescribed for completing the formalities the diligence of the appellant to do these things shall be lacking, the appeal be deemed abandoned by him, and the debt be exacted forthwith. Given the day before the Kalends of August, in the consulship of Constantine and Maximus.

Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Praetorian Prefect. All the things which are contained in the writing of Paulus are to be confirmed with received authority and to be honored with every veneration. And therefore it is by no means to be doubted that the books of Sentences, composed with the fullest clarity and the most perfect expression and the most just legal reasoning, are valid when adduced in judgments. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Cerealis, Prefect of the Grain Supply. Oil tables, which shall have become so lapsed that no one can maintain ownership over them, are to be sold through the office at twenty folles each. But if anyone shall sell an oil table purchased for the aforesaid folles at a dearer price, let him be bound with iron chains and be sent to Illyricum, to pay a fitting penalty. But if anyone, keeping an oil table in his own possession, shall complete the course of his life, that same table, together with his other goods, may pass by hereditary right to his own successors; rightly do judges consider that an injury is done to themselves, if a litigant, whose case has been wounded by a judgment, thereupon ... from the middling and the lowest, which are to be given, let them be furnished.

A Nor is a farmer occupied with the works or the gathering of the crops ever to be drawn to extraordinary burdens, since it is a matter of providence to satisfy these necessities at an opportune time. Which matter, if neglected, touches upon the reputation of your vicars, and comes back upon the heads of the ruling offices. But the governors ought to write with their own hand what is needed, and under what necessity, item by item, and what and how many corvées, or how many labor-services, or what and in what measure are to be furnished, so that they may write that they have recognized this themselves; the aforesaid order of exaction being observed among the wealthier, the middling, and the lowest. Read on the 7th day before the Ides of May, at Rome, in the consulship of Januarius and Justus.

Constantine Augustus to all the Palatines. Certain persons attempt to twist the privileges granted to those who, after fulfilling their duties of faithful service, have earned public administrations, not understanding that those raised on high to the summits of promotions ought by no means to be stripped of their lawful exemption. Therefore we have commanded that our palatine officials, having completed their term of faithful service, when they shall have been raised to the heights of dignities, shall lose nothing of their privileges, but that their immunity shall be usefully increased along with the increase of their dignities. Concerning which matter we have directed letters to the praetorian prefects and to the prefect of the city. Given.

Constantine Augustus to Dionysius. A defamatory writing of libels, which lacks the name of an accuser, is by no means to be examined, but is to be utterly abolished. For he who trusts in the furtherance of an accusation ought rather to summon another's life to judgment by a free charge than by a captious and hidden writing. Given at Tyre on the 12th day before the Kalends of November, Januarius and Justus being Consuls. (328.)

Constantine Augustus to Secundus, Praetorian Prefect. We command that criminal proceedings be published just as civil ones are, namely for those whose safety is called into question, and that neither the deprecation of the proceedings be awaited, nor be delayed by the artifice of the accuser, so that it may rest upon the innocence and equity of the judge. Given on the Kalends of December, Januarius and Justus being Consuls. (328.)

The same Augustus to Maximus, Praetorian Prefect. It is fitting that the governors of provinces, if any more powerful person should prove more insolent, and they themselves are not able either to vindicate, or to examine, or to pronounce judgment, should refer his name to us, or at least to the knowledge of your gravity: so that provision may be made as to how public discipline and the injured lesser parties may be consulted for. Given.

Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Praetorian Prefect. Provision must be made lest veterans heaped with the dignity of protectorate, or those who have obtained various honors according to their merits, be assailed by incongruous injuries; since, if anyone shall be caught in this crime, it befits the governors of the provinces to refer it to your judgment and to send the aforesaid persons to your office, so that the deed may most easily be checked according to its nature. Given.

Constantine Augustus to Secundus, Praetorian Prefect of the East. The authority of the ordinary judge, of the governor of the province, or of the vicar, ought, as a watchful overseer, to correct wrongly done things; but it is our pleasure that the officials of your highness and of the vicarial power be removed from exactions, and that all titles be exacted through the provincial offices and the governors. For if the exaction be not fulfilled at all, the one brought before our tribunal shall undergo peril of his head and of all his fortunes. Given.

Constantine Augustus to Elpidius. It was formerly enacted that, if even without the owner's knowledge a coin were secretly struck and fashioned on his estate or in his house, the treasury should claim for its own dominion the site of the offense. Now it is decreed that a distinction be made, so that, if the owner be established nearby, whose carelessness or negligence is to be punished, the former decree shall hold good; but if he shall have been very far distant from that house or possession, he shall sustain no loss. We have believed, moreover, that widows and wards deserve a special indulgence, so that widows, even if established nearby, shall not lack their house or possession, if no such grave fault of conscience resides in them; but wards, even if they were privy to it, shall sustain no loss, because their age, if indeed they be under puberty, does not know what it perceives.

Their guardians, however, if they be nearby—since it is not fitting that they be ignorant of what is done in the ward's affairs—shall await this penalty, that from their own goods, if they be of sufficient means, as much be brought into the treasury as would have had to be taken from the ward. These things being thus amended, let the law be transmitted in all its chapters. Given on the Kalends of March, at Nicomedia. Received on the 8th day before the Ides of April, at Rome, Januarius and Justus being Consuls. (328.)

Constantine Augustus to Aemilianus, Praetorian Prefect. The distribution of the number of extraordinary offices is not to be entrusted to the principal men; and therefore the governors of the provinces are to be admonished that they themselves carry out this distribution, and write it down with their own hand, and attach the names to the record in due form; this manner being observed, that first from the more powerful men, as formerly enacted, it shall be preserved. Given.

Constantine Augustus. Farewell, dearest to us. Let all persons within a hundred feet in the vicinity, so far as pertains to granaries, be kept away, and if anything shall have been built, let it be torn down, since it has recently been made plain by experience that the fiscal supplies have suffered fires from buildings which adjoined the granaries. But if anyone, out of a love of building, shall have neglected the public loss, we decree that not only what he built, but all his goods and whatever he had in his right, be adjudged to the treasury. Given on the 11th day before the Kalends of August, at Sirmium, Constantine Augustus for the fourth time, and Constantius Caesar being Consuls. (329.)

Constantine Augustus to Bassus, Praetorian Prefect. It has been decreed that, after the completed twenty-fifth year, from the day on which the twenty-sixth year's day has dawned, the period for interposing a formal claim in the city of Rome be prolonged up to the last day of the thirtieth year, within the hundredth milestone of the city of Rome, provided however that judgment is to be given by those judges who are at Rome: but throughout all Italy up to the end of the twenty-ninth year: in all the other provinces up to the completed twenty-eighth year. When that time has elapsed, let all know plainly that the protections of the laws are thereafter denied them, since, the necessity of formal claim being removed, we have closed by a fixed rule the finishing and deciding of causes of restitution in full.

The same reckoning of time, moreover, is fitting to be observed, if by chance anyone shall have obtained by our benefit the indulgence of age, from the day on which our indulgence shall have been made known in the competent court, and the administration of his own affairs opened to him, so that he may have a continuous time appointed for pursuing restitutions in full and for finishing causes.

If indeed a minor should at some time succeed to the rights of a minor, he is by no means to be prohibited, when he shall have passed his twenty-fifth year of age, from using the benefit of restitution in full, the time remaining untouched. But if a minor shall have obtained the rights of a person of full age, as far as concerns those actions which he shall have obtained from the person of the elder, he ought to receive as much time for setting forth restitutions in full and for finishing causes as remained to the deceased—whose heir or possessor of goods he shall be shown to have been.

But when a person of full age shall have obtained the succession of a minor, if indeed he succeeded by civil law, either intestate or by will, as soon as the inheritance shall have been accepted or entered upon; but if by honorary law, from the time the possession of goods was received, in examining the matter of full restitution the times are to be reckoned whole, without any diminution, which we command to be observed not according to the places, regions, and provinces in which those who are heirs or possessors of goods reside, but according to those in which the deceased established their domiciles. Given.

INTERPRETATION. It seems just that, after the 25th year, when the 26th year has begun, a formal claim having been deposited before the judge, he who wishes may seek that those things which were wrongly done in his minor years, either by himself or through his tutors or curators, be restored to him whole and entire, in view of the infirmity of his age. In these provinces at least, up to the 28th year, if he shall have made formal claim, the things which he had wrongly lost shall be restored to him in full, the principal matter being safe. For he too who shall have thought it necessary to petition our serenity for the pardon of age shall know that this is granted to him, that, without prejudice to our indulgence—which is contained in the following law—he shall have, up to the time fixed above, free restitution to the ownership of the things which he had wrongly managed.

But if perhaps a minor in years shall have succeeded to the inheritance of one who himself also departed this light in his minor years, he is not to be prohibited, when he reaches the 26th year, from seeking, by an interposed formal claim, the reparation of matters that were his due. But if a minor shall have received the inheritance of one who died of full and entire age, as soon as he is restored to full status, let him pursue in his affairs those periods of time which by the laws were due to the deceased person of full age.

But when a person of full age shall have succeeded a minor, whether by will or by whatever right, as soon as the inheritance of the deceased shall have come to him, whatever could have belonged to the ward by reason of restitution in full shall pass into that person's own right of action: so that he shall follow the forum of that province in which the deceased minor is known to have dwelt…shall have appealed from the principal cause, which is neither new nor foreign to the courts. And therefore, after the principal matter has been discussed, let it be permitted to the litigant to relieve his suit by the remedy of law; and the judges must observe that they neither commit appellants to prison, nor cause them to be guarded by soldiers. Published.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to his Italians. According to the statutes of former princes, if anyone shall have lawfully acquired, in whatever manner, from blood, or shall have thought fit to nourish, an infant, he shall have the power of retaining that service: so that, if anyone after a series of years should seek him back to liberty or defend him as a slave, he shall furnish another of the same kind, or pay the price that he may be worth. For he who shall have given a fitting price, a document having been drawn up, ought so firmly to possess him that he shall also have free right of alienating him for his own debt; and those who shall have attempted to act against this law are to be subjected to penalty. Given on the 15th day before the Kalends of September, at Serdica, Constantine Augustus for the eighth time and Constantine Caesar

INTERPRETATION. If anyone shall have bought an infant from blood and shall have nourished him, he shall have free power of having and possessing him. But if the master or father should wish to reclaim the one nourished, he shall either give to the nourisher a slave of equal worth, or the nourisher shall obtain the price, as much as the one nourished shall have been worth.

Constantine Augustus ... If those nominated to a magistracy shall have fled, let them be sought, and, if it is plain that they hide themselves obstinately, let their goods be granted to those who at the present time were called to the duties of the duumvirate in their place; so that, if they should afterward be found, they shall be compelled to acknowledge the burdens of the duumvirate for a full two years. For all who shall have attempted to decline the obligations of public duties ought to be held under a like condition. Given.

Constantine Augustus to Lucretius Paternus ... The rescripts being voided, by which an exemption from civil obligations had been established for certain persons, let all be joined to the civil necessities, so that not even by the consent of the citizens shall an exemption granted by the curia be valid for anyone, but let all be summoned to the fellowship of the duties. Given.

Constantine Augustus to VV.

Pff. P. After other matters: Let no decurion aspire to the senate; those who have already attained that dignity remaining in it still. As for the sons of soldiers, in accordance with the former decree, we wish that they either obtain their father's military service or, if they refuse to serve, and have completed thirty-five years, be assigned to the curiae. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Bassus, Prefect of the Praetorium. Let the presiding governors sign petitions not through their assessors but in person. But if anyone shall have permitted an assessor to sign without consulting us: let the assessor who signed be forthwith punished with exile; but we order the name of the presiding governor to be reported to us, that vengeance may be taken upon him more severely. Given the 15th day before the Kalends of September, in the sixth consulship of Constantine Augustus and the consulship of Constantine Caesar.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Januarius. It is decreed that slaves endowed with various crafts, who belong to the public estate, are to remain in the same cities: so that if anyone shall have enticed away such a slave, or shall have believed him fit to be recalled, he shall restore him together with another slave (the one enticed), paying to the treasury of that city, whose slave he abducted, the sum of twelve solidi. Freedmen also who are craftsmen, if they shall have been enticed away, are to be restored to the city under the same form: so that, for a fugitive slave, if he was not sought and recalled at the solicitation of the defensor, that same defensor shall be required to furnish two substitute slaves: neither imperial favor nor sale being of any further validity in his case thereafter. Given.

Constantine Augustus to Valentinus, Consular of Numidia. Let readers of the divine writings and subdeacons, and the other clergy, who have been summoned to the curia through the wrongdoing of heretics, be released, and let them henceforth, after the manner of the East, in no way be summoned to the curiae, but let them enjoy the fullest immunity. Given on the Nones of February at Serdica, in the consulship of Gallicanus and Symmachus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Tertullianus, most eminent man, Count of the diocese of Asia. If anyone shall have first brought a complaint concerning places invaded a upon his own right, which is joined by boundary with the controversy over ownership, let the question concerning possession be settled first, and then let the land-surveyor be ordered to go to the places, so that, the truth having been made clear, this kind of litigation may be terminated.

But if the other party, having obtained dominion over the places, shall have brought about delays by subterfuge, so that the controversy cannot be settled by the order of the places, let a chosen land-surveyor be sent to the places, so that, if a faithful inspection shall prove the one holding the place to be in the right, the claimant shall depart defeated; and if the case of him who first brought the suit shall be made clear, so that the invader shall be held liable to the penalty of the edict, provided it is established that he invaded those places by force. For if through error or negligence the master's lands have been possessed by others, they ought to yield to the owners alone. Given.

Constantine Augustus to Valerian, acting as Vicarius of the Prefecture. Although in matters of gain women who are ignorant of the law are wont to be aided, the enactments of former emperors declare that this does not apply, in reverse, to an age still imperfect. Lest, therefore, once the affection of marriage has been dissolved, something inhuman be decreed, we ordain that if, at the time of the marriage of those about to be spouses, being under age, property has been given and delivered, it cannot for that reason be revoked, because the former husband was unwilling to record the gift in the public acts. Given on the 4th day before the Kalends of May, in the consulship of Gallicanus and Symmachus.

This, however, he wished to be provided for specifically, that if any woman, while still in her years of wardship, was joined to a husband, and through negligence did not register the betrothal gift in the public records, by the benefit of this law, even if the records are lacking, she should know that the donation remains inviolable in her own ownership.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximilian, Consular of the Waters. We wish the possessors, through whose lands the channels of the conduits pass, to be exempt from extraordinary burdens, so that by their labor the aqueducts, when filled with filth, may be cleansed, and that these same possessors not be held liable for any other superadded burden of this matter, lest, being occupied with other affairs, they fail to attend to the cleansing of the channels. But if they neglect it, they shall be punished by the loss of their possessions. For the treasury shall obtain that estate through whose owner's negligence ruin has accumulated upon the channel. Furthermore they ought to know, those through whose estates the conduit passes, that on the right and left of the channels themselves, at intervals of fifteen feet, they are to keep trees; your office taking care that, if at any time they should sprout up, they be cut down, lest their roots damage the structure of the channel. Given.

The same Augustus to Bassus, Prefect of the Praetorium. If it shall be established that he who brought the question of boundaries, before anything was determined by judgment, wished to seize for himself another's property, let him not only lose that which he wrongly sought, but, so that each may all the more be content with his own and not seek property belonging to another, let him, who has been the intruder upon fields and has been defeated in the suit, lose as much land as he attempted to seize. Read in the public records, the 12th day before the Kalends of July, in the consulship of Gallicanus and Symmachus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Paternus Valerianus. Let those enjoy the codicils of the perfectissimate who shall have obtained them, provided they be free from servile condition, or not be liable to the treasury or to the curia, or if they have not been shepherds, or have not been engaged in any trade, nor have purchased honor for themselves by venal favor, nor have administered another's property …

Constantine Augustus to Ablavius, Prefect of the Praetorium. Let those who with full devotion have given themselves to the synagogues of the Jews, to the patriarchs or the presbyteries, and, living in the aforesaid sect, themselves preside over the law, remain immune from all burdens, both personal and civil, so that those who perhaps are already decurions be by no means assigned to any prosecutions, since it befits men of this sort to be compelled by no reasoning to depart from the places in which they are; and those who are not curials may enjoy perpetual immunity from the decurionate. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Valerian, acting as Vicarius of the Prefecture. Although in matters of gain women who are ignorant of the law are wont to be aided: nevertheless the enactments of former Emperors declare that this does not apply, in reverse, to an age still imperfect. Given.

Constantine Augustus to Bassus, Prefect of the Praetorium. The promulgation of the law, which by prescription defends, against those who disturb them, those persisting in good faith in freedom for sixteen years, does not aid those who, born of slave mothers and freeborn fathers, have during that time persisted in the state of freedom together with their parents, since, no lawful beginning of legitimate possession having preceded, a bare usurpation of freedom is boasted of, when neither redemption from servitude, nor the handing over of a substitute slave, nor the assignment of a peculium, can be shown; for these are titles which could free from the bonds of servitude him who is sued, if he had made use of any of these means and had remained in freedom for sixteen years. For by common law it is necessary that the child follow the condition of the mother, so that, even if the slave woman has concealed herself in her master's bed, she brings forth not offspring for the master, but offspring for the servile class.

Given the day before the Kalends of March, in the consulship of Bassus and Ablavius.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Ablavius, Prefect of the Praetorium. Whoever shall have gathered up a boy or girl exposed from the household, with the will and knowledge of the father or master, and shall have raised the child to strength by his own nourishment, let him keep the same under that status which he shall have wished the one gathered up to hold, that is, whether he preferred him to be a son or a slave: every disturbance of reclamation being wholly removed from those who have knowingly, of their own will, cast out from the household newly-born slaves or free persons. Given the 15th day before the Kalends of May, at Constantinople, in the consulship of Bassus and Ablavius.

INTERPRETATION. Whoever shall have gathered up an exposed child from a recent birth, with the father or mother or master knowing of it, and shall have reared it by his own labor, let the child remain under the power of him by whom it was gathered up, whether he wished the one he nourished to be free or a slave, and, if he shall wish to adopt him as son or freedman, or to keep him in servitude, let him use his own power.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Ablavius, Prefect of the Praetorium. It is decreed that it is not lawful for a woman, on account of her own base desires, to send a bill of divorce to her husband, alleging some trumped-up cause, such as that he is a drunkard or a gambler or a womanizer, nor indeed for husbands to dismiss their wives on any occasion whatsoever, but that in the sending of a divorce by a woman only these charges are to be examined: if she shall have proved her husband to be a murderer, or a poisoner, or a violator of tombs, so that, only then being commended, she may recover her entire dowry. But if besides these three charges she shall send a bill of divorce to her husband, she must leave behind in her husband's house everything down to the very hairpin, and, for so great presumption on her part, be deported to an island.

In the case of men also, if they send a bill of divorce, it is fitting that these same three charges be examined, namely if he wishes to divorce her as an adulteress, or a poisoner, or a procuress. For if he shall cast her out free of these charges, he must restore the entire dowry, and not marry another. But if he does so, the former wife shall be given the power to invade his house and to transfer to herself the entire dowry of the later wife, on account of the injury done to her. Given.

INTERPRETATION. For certain and proven causes there is room for divorce between wife and husband; for they are forbidden to dissolve marriage upon a light accusation. But if perhaps the woman shall say that her husband is either a drunkard or given over to luxury, he is not on that account to be divorced, unless she shall have shown him to be either a murderer or a sorcerer or a violator of tombs, being convicted of which crimes he is deservedly seen to be dismissed without fault on the woman's part, and the woman departs having recovered her dowry: for if the woman shall not have been able to prove these charges, she is punished with this penalty, that she loses both the dowry which she had given, or which had been given on her behalf, and the gift which she received, and moreover is held liable to relegation into exile.

But if the woman be repudiated by the husband, he too, unless he shall have shown the accused woman guilty of certain crimes, is not permitted to divorce her for a light quarrel, as is customary, unless perhaps it suffice for him to prove her an adulteress or a sorceress or a procuress. But if he shall not have been able to prove this, let him restore the dowry to the woman, and let him not presume to take another wife. But if he should perhaps attempt it, the woman who has been cast out though innocent shall have full liberty to claim for herself the house of her husband and all his substance. This is recognized to have been ordained, that the woman shall be ordered to acquire even the dowry of the second wife, when she has been unjustly divorced.

Constantine Augustus … to … Lest these persons, who are far removed from the office of your Sublimity, prevailing by no merit through diligence or services, might be able to seize the place owed to those who labor, it is pleasing that the exceptores approach the commentaries according to their place and order, and be substituted into their administration, and to the rest be promoted, so that among the exceptores, according as each has deserved to obtain place by time, he may attain it by order and merit. Given on the Kalends of July at Trier, in the consulship of Bassus and Ablavius. (331.)

Constantine Augustus to all the provincials. After other matters: If the controversy shall be final, then at last an arbiter shall not be refused, when it shall have been established that the place in question is within five feet, before the governor; whereas when a case concerns a greater extent of space, being not final but one of ownership, it ought to be terminated before the governor himself. And if one partner should seek something from a partner, let the governor first judge whether anything ought to be rendered, and then at last let that be restored through arbiters which it has been established ought to be paid. Given on the Kalends of August, in the consulship of Bassus and Ablavius. (331.)

Constantine Augustus to all the provincials. After other matters: If the defenders of minors, as well as tutors or curators, being participants in the matter for which the suit is demanded, shall have refused to produce it in the acts as has been ordered; and shall have named the same persons contrary to the truth—since nothing ought to be lost to the ward or to the adult in whatever outcome of the suit—let them pay into the fisc, out of their own money, as much as, upon valuation being made, is gathered from a third part. But if they are poor, let them be punished by diminution of status, and cease to be Roman citizens, so that the full right is reserved to the minors themselves. Given on the Kalends of August, in the consulship of Bassus and Ablavius.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the Provincials. After other matters: While the suit is pending, that which is called into controversy ought by no means to be transferred, by gifts or sales or any other contracts, to a connected or an outside person, as though nothing had been done, the suit nevertheless being carried on to its end.

But if the matter concerns a case of guardianship, after the examination by the judge, let arbiters be given in supplement of the pronouncement, who are to be reckoned no longer arbiters but executors. Given on the Kalends of August, in the consulship of Bassus and Ablavius.

INTERPRETATION. A thing which is sought back by an action already brought cannot be transferred from the possessor to another by any contracts; nor is any writing thereupon permitted to be made, unless the suit concerning the matter shall first have been settled by judgment.

Constantine Augustus to all the Provincials. From proconsuls and counts and those who take cognizance in place of the prefects, whether they have judged upon appeal, or by delegation, or in the ordinary course, we permit an appeal to be made, so that the judge shall furnish to the appellant a copy of his opinion, and shall direct the acts, together with the space for the refutatory document and his own letters, to us. But from the praetorian prefects, who alone are truly said to judge in our sacred stead, we do not allow an appeal, lest our veneration should seem thereby to be touched. But if the defeated party asserts that his appeal, though offered, was not received by the judge, let him go to the prefects, so that he may litigate afresh before them, as though the appeal had been accepted.

For if he shall be found to have appealed unjustly, having lost his case, he shall depart marked with censure; or if he shall prevail, it is necessary that report be made to us against that judge who had not received the appeal, that he may be punished with fitting penalty. Given on the Kalends of August, posted on the Kalends of September, at Constantinople, in the consulship of Bassus and Ablavius.

Constantine Augustus to all the Provincials. Whoever shall have omitted a lawful appeal must remain silent forever, nor impudently seek help from us through petition. But if he does so, he shall be punished with the penalty of deportation.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to all the Provincials. They are to be deported to an island, with the loss of all their property, which is to be assigned to the fisc—those who, having omitted their appeal, shall have attempted to renew the suit against the sentences of counts and others who have judged with our voice, affirming that through fear they omitted the aid of appeal. In this matter the judgment shall be ours or the praetorian prefects', by our order. Given on the Kalends of August, posted on the Kalends of September, in the consulship of Bassus and Ablavius. (331.)

If anyone, possessing an immovable thing in another's name in whatever manner, sustains a suit brought by someone through an action in rem, he must immediately name the owner in the proceeding: so that whether he dwells in the same city, or in the countryside, or is in another province; within a certain space of days to be defined by the judge, and that space being extended to his nation, either he himself, arriving at the places in which the estate is situated, or sending a procurator, shall receive the claims of the plaintiff.

But if after such time granted, he should choose not to do that which has been ordained: then, as though the suit brought against him were joined from the day on which the possessor was summoned to judgment, for the purpose of interrupting the prescription of long time, the judge, since the owner of the possession has made his presence known after such indulgence, shall take care to summon him by the setting forth of the lawful edicts: and then, he still persisting in the same will, the judge, examining the matter summarily, shall not delay to place the plaintiff in possession of the property: every allegation on the principal question being reserved for the absent party. Given.

Constantine Augustus to Evagrius. Those who are born of officials of whatever offices, whose parents are still bound by the oath, whether they shall already have been discharged, shall succeed to the place of their parents. Given. On the day before the Nones of August, in the consulship of Bassus and Ablavius. (331.) On the decurions. Constantine Augustus to Evagrius, Praetorian Prefect. Since certain persons of various cities, interpreting the curials as minors, to whom public guardianship is owed, are being summoned into the fellowship of the curia, so that some are affirmed to have been named while established at seven or eight years of age, we decree that absolutely no one be summoned into the curia by nomination, nor be compelled to undergo the services of functions, unless he shall have entered his eighteenth year of age. And we wish this to be prevented also in the future, and that those who, established below the bounds of that age, have already been named, be exempted, so that they may be released from the bonds of the curials.

For when they shall have entered their eighteenth year, if they shall not have been able, according to the law given, to enter their name for military service, or shall have declined it, they may be given to municipal service. Given on the day before the Nones of August, in the consulship of Bassus and Ablavius. (331.)

INTERPRETATION. Minors of eighteen years of age ought neither to be named as curials by anyone, nor be applied to services: because the law believes this to be sufficient, that from eighteen years they are applied to public necessity, if it shall be necessary, so that if any have already been named before this age, they be released. The same Augustus to Evagrius, Praetorian Prefect. Let no decurion proceed to procurations or municipal charges, unless he shall have satisfied his fatherland in all duties entirely, whether by age or by merit. But whoever shall have arrived at this through canvassing, desiring to administer, shall not only be repelled from the expedited office, but his letters or codicils also shall forthwith be taken from him, and he shall be sent to the court. Given on the day before the Ides of August, in the consulship of Bassus and Ablavius. (331.)

INTERPRETATION. This law enjoins this: that no curial ought to undertake the office of curator or defender, unless all the offices of the curia have been discharged in order, unless, as has been said, he has already satisfied all the duties which are owed in order to the fatherland. For if the aforesaid person, contrary to this precept, by whatever canvassing or under whatever pretext of honor, shall have wished to fortify himself, let him be deprived of what he has obtained, and be sent wherever the masters of affairs shall direct.

The Emperor Constantine … Whatever woman, after this law, shall mingle herself with a slave in cohabitation, and, not being formally warned by notifications, as the ancient law had established, let her lose the status of freedom. Given on the day before the Nones of October, in the consulship of Bassus and Ablavius.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Bassus, Praetorian Prefect. Concerning those who demand that a sentence pronounced by a governor or by any other judge be annulled, let the examination of your Sublimity proceed under this limit, that if, upon the inward matters of the affair being thoroughly gone through, it shall have become clear from the evidence that the sentence departs from law and justice, that sentence being entirely rejected, the controversy shall take its end according to equity.

But if the sentence already given be consonant with the laws, let its improper impugner, if he abounds in patrimony, be punished by relegation to an island for two years, and let half the portion of his goods fall as an addition to the fiscal gains: but if he be of rustic life or even of needy condition, he must be thrust into the mines for the space of two years. This law you shall also observe in our annotations concerning the renewal of judgment after sentence. Given.

INTERPRETATION. Whoever, the case having been pleaded and the matter discussed, shall have been defeated by anyone, and shall afterward attempt to renew this same suit, if a sentence has been lawfully given in favor of him who was formerly refused, the former judgment shall not stand. For if he shall also have been defeated before another judge, if he be a worthy and substantial person, let him be assigned to exile for two years, and let the fisc acquire half of his substance. But if he be an unworthy and poorer person, let him be assigned to the mines for two years.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the Provincials. Let governors exercise public cognizance with tribunals frequently held, in examinations, nor, being about to hear civil controversies, hide themselves away in their private chambers, so that one who wishes to bring a suit against them could obtain the opportunity of meeting them only for a price; and when they shall have given a hearing to all matters that have been brought to them, and the frequent proclamation of the herald, as is customary, shall have found no one wishing to make petition, then, all public business being completed, let them retire privately.

But we grant to all the power of praising, by public acclamations, the most just and most vigilant judges, so that we may confer upon them more ample advancement of honor: on the contrary, the unjust and malicious are to be accused by the voices of complaints, so that the vigor of our censure may consume them; for if the voices are true, and not poured forth wantonly through factions, we will investigate diligently, the praetorian prefects and the counts who are established throughout the provinces reporting to our knowledge the voices of our provincials. Posted on the Kalends of November at Constantinople, in the consulship of Bassus and Ablavius. (331.)

Let the rapacious hands of officials now at last cease, let them cease, I say: for if, having been warned, they shall not cease, they shall be cut off by the sword. Let not the judge's curtain be venal, let not entrances be bought, let not the secretariat be made infamous by biddings, let not even the sight of the governor himself come with a price: let the ears of the one judging be equally opened to the poorest and to the rich. Let plundering be absent from the introduction of him who is called the chief of the office. Let no confiscatory extortions be applied by the assistants of the same chiefs of office to litigants; let the intolerable assaults of the centurions and other officials, demanding small and great sums, be restrained; and let the insatiable greed of those who restore the acts to litigants be moderated. Let the diligence of the governor always be watchful, that nothing be taken from the litigant by the aforesaid classes of men.

And if they shall have thought anything ought to be demanded concerning civil causes, armed censure shall be present, which shall cut off the heads and necks of the wicked, opportunity being given to all who shall have been thus extorted, that they may instruct the governors' cognizance thereof. But if they shall have dissembled, we open to all the voice of complaint concerning the same matter before all the counts of the provinces, or before the praetorian prefect, if he be nearer at hand, so that, being informed by their reports, we may bring forth punishments for such acts of banditry.

Given on the Kalends of November, at Constantinople, in the consulship of Bassus and Ablavius, Most Distinguished Men.

INTERPRETATION. Let the officials of all judges not dare to be venal, nor demand payment for the entrance or exit of those coming forward or litigants. And let both rich and poor who make petition be heard without any reward. But if they wish to be rapacious, let them be punished by the sword, or at least let their rapacity be reported to the imperial ears.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the Priests and Archsynagogues and Fathers of the synagogues and the others who serve in the same place. We command that priests and archsynagogues and fathers of the synagogues and the others who serve the synagogues be free from every bodily burden. Given on the Kalends of December, at Constantinople, in the consulship of Bassus and Ablavius.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to all the provincials. Let no one, after the joining of issue in a suit, decline the examination of the ordinary court; nor let him first implore the aid of the Praetorian Prefect, or the Count of the East, or of any other Distinguished judge, but let him, appeal having been duly made according to the laws, come to the sacred audience. Given on the Kalends of October, in the consulship of Bassus and Ablavius.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Leontius, Praetorian Prefect. We have already long ago decreed that the sons of veterans, who after sixteen years cannot undertake the duty of military service, or who have not proved fit for bearing arms, be assigned to the curiae. Given

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Pacatianus, Prefect of the City. Let it not be lawful for the father of a girl, or her guardian, or curator, or any relative of hers, when he has once betrothed the girl to a soldier, to give the same girl in marriage to another. But if within two years she has not been married, let him, as guilty of perfidy, be relegated to an island. But if, the betrothal having been made, after the two years have elapsed, he who had betrothed the girl unites her to another, this shall be reckoned the fault of the betrothed man rather than of the girl, nor shall it in any way harm him who, after two years, gave the girl to another husband. Given the day before the Ides of April, at Marcianopolis, in the consulship of Pacatianus and Hilarianus.

INTERPRETATION. If anyone, whether a private person or a soldier, after he has become betrothed, has, together with the father, guardian, or curator of the girl, or her relatives, settled upon the union of the girl, he ought, after the settlement, to celebrate the marriage within two years. But if, by delay or negligence of the betrothed man, the space of two years has passed, and the girl has been joined to another man, she shall be free from blame—either she herself, or whoever of her people gave her away—because the fault lies with him who, by deferring his own union, opened the way for another to marry her. For if she had been given within the two years, what is to be observed will be more clearly known from the following law.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the Council of the Byzacenes. A necessary slave is to be instituted as heir, because he is seen to obtain not so much a patrimony as infamy. Whence it is clear that the action for an undutiful will is granted to the brothers, since he who has become heir is stained with the vices of infamy, and everything is to be handed over to the brothers which the one instituted cannot take on account of baseness or any slight mark of disgrace. Thus also in this respect, if ever, freedmen having been instituted as heirs, the brothers are strangers to the inheritance, let them, by the action for the undutiful will being brought, prevail in seizing all the property of the deceased, which he had wrongly wished to belong to the freedmen. Given

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the Council of the Byzacenes. The laws are so much against ungrateful freedmen, that if by any arrogance or defiance they lift up their necks, or contract the fault of even a slight offense, they are to be sent back by their patrons under authority and dominion again. Given

Has injured his own patron, having lost the liberty which he had earned, let him deservedly be recalled into servitude.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus ... If, after the assertion and defense have been arranged, another person requests that he be summoned to judgment, let the assertion and defense indeed be arranged among all parties, but let that person be compelled to pay to the treasury as many slaves as he had claimed. But if the asserter fails, or acknowledges the aforesaid fine, or if through poverty he cannot fulfill it, let him be thrust into the mines. The same form is to be observed regarding the defenders of minors, when a cause concerning liberty is being tried. Given

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the Provincials. With whomsoever a colonus belonging to another's right is found, let him not only restore that same man to his origin, but also acknowledge the head-tax for that time upon him.

It will also be fitting that those coloni who plan flight be bound with iron into servile condition, so that they may deservedly be compelled, by servile condemnation, to fulfill the duties which are proper to free men. Given the third day before the Kalends of November, in the consulship of Pacatianus and Hilarianus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Tyberianus, Count of the Spains. When someone claims back a fugitive slave, and another, for the sake of evading the law which establishes a fixed penalty for those concealing slaves, sets up a claim of ownership, or raises the cry of liberty on his behalf, let that most worthless whipping-post, concerning whom there is doubt, be immediately subjected to torture, so that, the truth being made plain, an end may be put to the dispute. This will benefit not only both parties in dispute, but will also be able to deter the minds of slaves from flight. Given

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Praetorian Prefect. If codicils could do the same as testaments, why should a different name be given to these instruments, which one and the same force and power had joined together? Therefore, the authority of the law has not given the power specifically to codicils to institute or substitute heirs. Given the 3rd of June, in the consulship of Pacatianus and Hilarianus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Felix. Since, through the negligence or treachery of guardians and curators, possessions held by emphyteutic right are torn away from the fortunes of minors, the fault of forfeiture intervening, it is decreed that the guardian or curator, during whose office the possession of the minor's emphyteutic right has, by the offense of forfeiture, been lost, shall, under threat of censure, restore to the minors from his own resources as much as it shall be established the property could have been worth. Given

INTERPRETATION. If it should happen that minors hold, under whatever form of payment, a possession of emphyteutic right—that is, what their parents had deserved to have from the property of the treasury—and this is either diminished or altogether taken away through the negligence or treachery of the guardian, whatever has been lost is to be restored by the guardian or curator.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Severus, Count of the Spains. By a law given some time ago we decreed that donations be acknowledged with the intervention of the testimony of the public records. This is especially fitting to be observed among close and necessary relations, since by clandestine and domestic frauds anything at all can easily be fabricated as suits the occasion of the business, or that which was truly done can be effaced. Since, therefore, not even children and parents are excepted by us from the drawing up of the public records, let that which we have already decreed as necessary concerning donations to be executed before the records bind all persons. Saving, however, the privilege of law which favors children and parents, namely that the solemnity of delivery or formal conveyance is not necessary. Given the 4th day before the Nones of May, at Constantinople, in the consulship of Dalmatius and Zenophilus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus and Caesar to Severus, Count of the Spains. Different writings, mutually detracting from each other's credit, produced by the opposing side, could have no validity. Given

INTERPRETATION. If anyone, wishing to establish his contract by multiple writings concerning one matter, produces a deed of sale and a deed of gift, or any other such documents, let them all be rescinded, because this law forbids that documents contradicting one another be admitted.

Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Praetorian Prefect. Utility persuading us, we have ordered that the annonarii and actuarii be conditional (bound to their office), that they also be assisted with provisions, and that the head-tax of those who are registered be held exempt. Wherefore your diligence shall admonish the competent offices that they immediately supply the actuarii with double rations, and the annonarii with single rations; and let it likewise be held exempt, the head-tax only of those of them who are registered from this, as long as they remain constituted in the duty; for afterward either praise and honor will reward them, or, if they are found guilty, punishment will attend them. Issued the 3rd day before the Nones of May, in the consulship of Dalmatius and Zenophilus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the People. Confirming the benefits of the deified emperors before us, we command that physicians and teachers of letters, and also their wives and children, be free from every function and from all public burdens, and that they not be enrolled in the military service, nor be obliged to receive guests, nor perform any duty, so that they may the more readily instruct many in liberal studies and the aforesaid arts. Given and Published.

The Emperor Constantine to Barbarus, Popeicanus, Consular of Campania. Although it is not investigation but execution that is committed, it is fitting that inquiry be made into the truth of the petitions, so that, if fraud has intervened, the whole matter may be investigated. Given the 3rd day before the Ides of November, at Aquae, in the consulship of Dalmatius and Zenophilus, both most illustrious men,

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Ablavius, Praetorian Prefect. Let the sons of veterans, or of those who have been prefects or protectors, or who have held any other military rank, if they are weak and feeble—whoever they may be—be attached to the curiae, so that you may join to the society of the curiae those who rejoice in family estate and are unfit for military service. This we ourselves have also done under our own observation with those whom we have perceived to have been enervated by soft upbringing. Therefore let those of them who are heads of households, and fit for public functions, be chosen to increase the number of the curials; the orders of each city being reminded that they should not hesitate to nominate those whom they know to be fit, besides those whom vigor and strength make suitable for defending the state. For we have also warned the commanders of each frontier district that henceforth no unfit son of a veteran be bound by the military oath.

Let them also carefully examine those who have already been approved, so that those found less fit, released from the oath, be sent to your Gravity. Given and Published on the Ides of November, in the consulship of Dalmatius and Zenophilus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Albinus. Both in greater and in lesser matters there is the right of appeal. For a judge ought not to think that an injury is done to him because a litigant has had recourse to the aid of an appeal. Given

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Pacatianus, Praetorian Prefect. Since the body of the swine-dealers (suarii) has dwindled to a few, we command that, in the presence of the Roman people, they declare which men have been granted exemption, and to whom the burden has fallen, so that these matters, having been made known before the public reckoning, an example may be set forth after the manner of the shipowners' guild (navicularii). Thus let them recognize that their own private resources are bound to this service, and let them choose one of two courses: either retain the goods that are pledged to the swine-supply function, and themselves remain bound to that service; or nominate suitable persons, whomever they wish, who may satisfy this necessity in their stead. For we allow no one to be exempt from the burden of this function.

But whether men have escaped it by having risen to honors, or by any kind of cunning device, we command that they be recalled, and that this very matter be carried out with the Roman people as witness and hearer, and that we be consulted concerning these things, so that we may take action against those who have resorted to such evasion; no exemption from this function is to be granted to anyone at all, but he who is able to steal away, once the benefit has been annulled, shall also incur danger to his safety. Given.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Severus, Count of the Spains. It has been reported that certain fathers, being deprived of the union of their first marriage, hasten, to the detriment of their children, beyond the bounds of a father's natural affection, and, having contracted other marriages thereafter, claim for themselves a greater share in the property of their children: who, since they seem to have remained as usufructuaries in these matters, presume to appropriate and pervert them, so that by this means those who have been left orphaned are given no opportunity either of possessing or of contesting their own. Therefore it is decreed that no father, having subsequently contracted another marriage, shall consider that he has any right to defend for himself those things which belonged to the former spouse, except in the capacity of guardian, until the children are seen, by proven age, to be no longer minors. Our moderation, moreover, commands that all these things be preserved and restored to them. Published.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Gerulus, Rationalis of the Three Provinces. In Sardinia, where patrimonial or emphyteutic estates have now been distributed among various owners, it was proper that the divisions of the possessions be made in such a way that the family relationship of the slaves might remain whole and undivided in the hands of each possessor. For who could bear that children be separated from parents, sisters from brothers, wives from husbands? Therefore let those who have drawn apart slaves who belong together into different jurisdictions be compelled to bring them back together into one; and if, for the sake of restoring family ties, slaves have been ceded to someone, let substitute slaves be given in exchange by him who has received them. And care must be taken that no complaint concerning the divided affections of slaves persist hereafter anywhere in the province. Given.

The Kalends of May, in the consulship of Proculus and Paulinus. INTERPRETATION. In the division of patrimonies, whether of fiscal or of private houses, this must especially be observed: since it is unjust that children be separated from parents, or wives from husbands, when the possession comes to whomever it may, that the slaves who have been intermingled—that is, a wife together with her children and her husband—should, with substitutes given, belong to the one to whom it falls to make the exchange; and this the diligence of those making the division ought especially to guard, so that separation may in no way be permitted to occur.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Veronicianus, Vicar of Asia. The rapacious and fraudulent disposition of the numerarii who serve various governors must be restrained in such wise as we have already decreed before, and now likewise decree: that they be subjected to the ordeal of torments, and be liable to the rack and to lacerations, and that they perform this service for no longer than two years. Given.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Veronicianus, Vicar of Asia. After other matters: We grant to the provincials the power that whoever has complained of having had certain sales extorted from him by the numerarii who serve various governors, may render such sales void and of no effect, and that things wrongly sold may revert to the ownership of the seller, with the loss also of the price, the unlawful and detestable buyers being punished. Given.

This law needs no interpretation.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Andronicus. If judgment of our clemency shall have been obtained against wards, widows, or those weakened and enfeebled by disease, let those aforesaid be compelled by none of our judges to present themselves at our court. Rather let them try the fortune of litigation within the province in which the litigant, the witnesses, or the documents are found; and let every precaution be observed, that they not be compelled to go beyond the boundaries of their own provinces. But if wards or widows, or others made pitiable by misfortune, have entreated the judgment of our serenity, especially when they dread the power of someone, let their adversaries be compelled to present themselves before our tribunal. Given.

INTERPRETATION. Whoever shall have obtained our decrees against wards, widows, and the sick, we remove from him the license of removing them from their own places or of dragging them anywhere outside their own province, so that they may plead their case where the evidence and testimonies can more easily be found. But if those for whose weariness we provide should themselves believe that they must seek us out, we do not deny them access according to this their wish; provided that their adversaries be compelled by the governor of the province to be present before the emperor.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Pacatianus, Praetorian Prefect. Although with us the cause of private persons is of greater weight than the protection of the fisc, we command nevertheless that, if several among you shall have earned the defense of the fisc, he be preferred over the others who is known, upon examined fidelity, to be better, superior in integrity, and more excellent in learning than the rest, even if he obtained this benefit from our clemency after the others. Given.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Julianus, Governor. We have long since commanded that witnesses, before they give testimony, be bound by the sanctity of an oath, and that more credit be given to witnesses of higher rank.

INTERPRETATION. Witnesses, before they are questioned about the case, must be bound by oath, that they swear they will say nothing false. This also it declares: that more credit be given to witnesses of higher rank than to those of lower standing. But the testimony of a single witness, however splendid and worthy the person may seem to be, is by no means to be heard.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Felix … There is need of very many architects; but since there are none, let your sublimity urge toward this pursuit, in the African provinces, those young men who, at about eighteen years of age, shall have tasted of the liberal letters. And that this may be agreeable to them, we wish both themselves and their parents to be exempt from those things that are usually imposed upon persons, and that a suitable salary be established for those who are learning. Published.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Felix … That arrangement seemed to us advantageous which expressly organized the shipowners into this order, so that they might carry on the regular voyages not indiscriminately, but according to duly observed rotations, and might fill even the smaller ones, whereby, through such alternating reliefs of mutual assistance, the fortunes of all, and especially of the humbler men, might be strengthened, and there might be no necessity for some always to traverse the longer routes and to become exposed to more numerous mishaps. That this may no longer be able to happen, let a burden equal and just be assigned to all, and let subsidies be granted on an equal basis, so that the humbler men fall not into complaints of fruitless lamentation. Published.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to the Shipowners of the East. For the advantage of the city which, by God's command, we have endowed with an eternal name, we have thought these privileges should be granted to you: that all shipowners be held exempt from civic burdens, obligations, and services, and that they be not compelled to undergo even civic honors from which they might suffer any inconvenience. They shall also be held exempt from the administration of guardianship, whether legitimate, or that which magistrates or provincial governors impose. And they shall enjoy exemption from the Julian and Papian law, so that, even with no children intervening, husbands may take the whole from their wives' wills, and wives may receive the entire will of their husbands.

And if they are sued concerning property, or an inheritance, or any other civil matter, let them not be summoned, even by our rescript, to an extraordinary tribunal, but let them answer in their own forum while conducting their business there; and, after the example of the Alexandrian fleet, let them receive one percent on the grain, and one solidus for every thousand, so that, encouraged by all these things, and spending almost nothing of their own resources, they may with diligence keep up the frequency of maritime transport. Given the day before the Kalends of December, in the consulship of Optatus and Paulinus.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to the People. Soldiers living on campaign, if they wish, out of the affection of a final will, to embrace their wives, or children, or friends, or fellow-soldiers, or, in short, men of whatsoever condition: let them make their testament however they can and wish; nor let the merit, freedom, or rank of their wives or children be called into question, once they have received the will of the father. Accordingly, just as it has been lawful by the rules of law, and shall always be lawful, if they shall have written anything on a scabbard or a shield, in letters gleaming with their own blood, or shall have written in the dust with their own sword, at that very moment when they yield up the lot of life in battle, a will of this sort ought to be held firm. Given the 3rd day before the Ides of August, at Nicomedia, in the consulship of Optatus and Paulinus.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Andronicus. If judgment of our clemency shall have been obtained against wards, or widows, or those weakened and enfeebled by lingering illness, let those aforesaid be compelled by none of our judges to present themselves at our court: rather let them try the fortune of litigation within the province in which the litigant, the witnesses, or the documents are found: and let every precaution be observed, that they not be compelled to go beyond the boundaries of their own provinces. But if wards, or widows, or others made pitiable by misfortune, have entreated the judgment of our serenity, especially when they dread the power of someone: let their adversaries be compelled to present themselves before our tribunal. Given.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to the Provincials. We command all judges to be vigilant, and to visit informers with penalties. For it is a matter of the plainest law that whatever falls under forfeiture from anyone's patrimony be claimed both by the laws and by the earlier order of law, the advocates of the fisc acting in the matter. But since certain rash persons do not cease to denounce, contrary to law, patrimonies already possessed, we grant to all who consider themselves wronged the right to implore against the informers the drawn severity of the judges. For no one can recognize an informer better than he who has suffered injury through his wickedness. Given.

INTERPRETATION. Preserving justice, we pursue the name of the informers, so that, when the informers have been recognized and convicted, they may be punished by the sword.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Pacatianus. The orders of the decuries of scribes, copyists, and of the lictors of the consular office, upon petitions offered, have deserved that, in civil causes and in the presentation of petitions, they be spared the customary solemnity of the offices, as has been observed from ancient times; to such degree does this prerogative extend, that the interventions of the military are to keep themselves entirely away from civil causes. The governors, therefore, shall observe what we have commanded. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Felix, Praetorian Prefect. Since the curial men of Africa have complained that certain persons in their own body, after the honor of the flaminate and after the discharge of the insignia of the priesthood or of the magistracy, are being compelled to be made overseers of the posting-stations—a duty which men of the next-lower merit and rank in each several city have been accustomed to fulfill—we command that no one distinguished by the aforesaid honors be forced to that service mentioned, lest it seem an injury done by our own judgment. Given the day before the Nones of August, at Viminacium, in the consulship of Constantius and Albinus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Felix, Praetorian Prefect. Among other things: It shall not be lawful for him who has been made a Christian from a Jew to be disturbed by Jews or assailed by any injury; according to the nature of the offense committed, such an insult is to be punished. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Felix, Praetorian Prefect. If any Jew should purchase a Christian slave, or one of any other sect, and circumcise him, he shall by no means retain the circumcised person in servitude, but he who has undergone this shall obtain the privileges of freedom. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Pericles, Governor. We have given you the power to punish the officials of the Prefects who mangle the public post, or who contrive wicked things against the public advantage, so that you shall make the Prefects informed of their fault. Given the tenth day before the Kalends of November, at Nicopolis, in the consulship of Constantius and Albinus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus … made it, or if he purchased it in their name, the legitimate offspring shall receive it entirely. But if there be no legitimate children, nor a brother of the same blood, nor a sister, nor a father, the whole shall be claimed by the powers of the treasury. And so, even from the son of Licinianus, who by rescript ascended to the highest summit of most sacred dignity, all his substance shall be taken away, and according to this law shall be adjudged to the treasury, he himself being scourged, bound with fetters, and reduced to the beginnings of his origin. Read on the third day before the Kalends of May, at Carthage, in the consulship of Nepotianus and Facundus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Severus … The shipowners of the Spains ought neither to be bound to extraordinary duties, nor to endure delays if detained anywhere, but they are to receive the receipts for the goods delivered from the receivers within ten days; and when they arrive at any islands, ports, shores, or stations, upon showing the receipts they shall endure absolutely no molestation. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Tiberianus, Vicar of the Spains. If, after gifts have been given by the betrothed man to the betrothed woman with a kiss intervening, before the marriage it should happen that either this man or that woman should die, we direct that half of the things given shall belong to the survivor, and half to the heirs of the deceased man or woman, of whatever degree they may be, and by whatever right they succeed, so that the gift may be seen to stand as to one half and to be dissolved as to the other half: but if no kiss intervened, whether the betrothed man or the betrothed woman has died, the whole gift shall be annulled and restored to the donor or to the heirs of the betrothed one.

But if the betrothed woman, whether a kiss intervened or not, under the title of betrothal gifts—which rarely happens—has bestowed something upon the betrothed man, and it should happen that either this man or that woman dies before the marriage, the whole gift being annulled, the ownership of the things given shall be transferred back to the woman who gave them or to her successors. Given the Ides of July, at Constantinople. Received the fourteenth day before the Kalends of May, at Hispalis, in the consulship of Nepotianus and Facundus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Gregorius. Senators, or those of most eminent rank, or those whom in the cities the office of duumvir, or the quinquennalitas, or the flaminate, or the priesthood of the province adorns with its honors—it is our pleasure that they incur the stain of infamy, and become foreigners to the Roman laws, if, having begotten sons from a slave-woman or the daughter of a slave-woman, or from a freedwoman or the daughter of a freedwoman, whether made Roman or Latin, or from an actress or the daughter of an actress, or from a tavern-keeper or the daughter of a tavern-keeper, or from a woman of low or abject condition, or the daughter of a pimp or of an arena-performer, or of a woman who has presided over public trade—they should wish to hold such begotten sons in the number of legitimate children, either by their own judgment or by the prerogative of our rescript; so that, whatever the father shall have given to such children, whether he shall have called them legitimate or natural, the whole, having been reclaimed, shall be restored to the legitimate offspring, or to a brother or sister, or to a father or mother.

But also if to such a wife anything whatsoever shall have been given by any means, or conferred by purchase, we command that this too, having been reclaimed, be restored: and we order that even the women themselves, by whose poisons the minds of ruined men are corrupted, be subjected to torture, if anything is sought or said to have been entrusted, which must be restored to those to whom we have commanded, or to our treasury. Whether, therefore, it was given by the man himself who is called the father, or through another, or through a person substituted for him, whether purchased by him or by another, or acquired in their name, let it be restored at once, having been reclaimed, to those to whom we have commanded; or if such persons do not exist, let it be claimed by the powers of the treasury. But if, existing and present in respect of the property, they should be unwilling to act, being excluded by agreement or by oath, let the treasury seize the whole without delay.

To those who remain silent and dissemble, a period of two months shall be set for the treasury's defense, within which, if they have not reclaimed it, or, for the sake of reclaiming it, have not appealed to the governor of the province, whatever an impure liberality has conferred upon such children or wives, our treasury shall seize, seeking out under the penalty of fourfold, by strict inquiry, the things given or entrusted. But the son of Licinianus, who was seized while fleeing, bound in fetters, shall be assigned to the service of the weaving-house at Carthage. Read the twelfth day before the Kalends of August, at Carthage, in the consulship of Nepotianus and Facundus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Evagrius, Praetorian Prefect. Since decurions, and sons of decurions, and those begotten from them, take refuge in various forms of military service, we command that they, in whatever offices they are serving, be exempted from military service and restored to the curia, except those who are already held in the offices of our palace. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Gregorius, Praetorian Prefect. Let all judges, with their own hand, at their own peril, designate by a written assessment the grain-supply items and the other things which are paid by way of indiction, with the quantities defined and the measures comprised. From this observance there will be this advantage, that even after their succession in office it may easily be inquired whether the collectors have wished to extort anything more from the fortunes of the provincials than was proper. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Calphurnius. Since, when a civil dispute has been suspended, it often happens that judgment is given first concerning the criminal charge—which, as being the greater matter, is rightly preferred to the lesser—from the moment the criminal inquiry has ceased in whatever manner, the civil cause, as though brought anew into judgment, ought to be distinguished so that: the end of the criminal matter, from the day on which sentence was rendered between the parties, shall grant the beginning to the civil inquiry. Given the Ides of March, in the consulship of Nepotianus and Facundus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Gregorius. Let him who purchases know the tax-assessment of the thing purchased; nor let it be lawful for anyone to buy or sell a thing without its tax-assessment. Public or fiscal inspection shall be required by this law, to this effect: that if anything shall have been sold without its assessment, and this shall be reported by another, the seller indeed shall lose the possession, and the buyer shall lose the price which he paid, the treasury claiming it. It has also been decided that no one shall proceed to the sale of any thing, except at that time when, between the seller and the buyer, the contract is solemnly drawn up, and certain and true ownership is demonstrated by the neighbors; to such an extent does the caution of this law run, that even if benches, or, as is commonly said, stools, are sold, the proof of showing ownership must be completed.

Nor let the solemnities between buyer and seller be celebrated in remote hiding-places, but let fraudulent selling be utterly buried and put away. Given the day before the Nones of February, at Constantinople, in the consulship of Felicianus and Titianus.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to the Council of the province of Africa. We command that the priestly men and perpetual flamens, and also those of duumviral rank, be immune from the oversight of grain-supplies and from the lower duties. That this may be established by perpetual observance, we have commanded this law to be engraved on bronze tablets and published. Posted.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus … We command that craftsmen of the arts enumerated in the brief appended, dwelling throughout the several cities, be free from all public duties, since indeed leisure ought to be afforded them for learning their arts, so that they may the more desire both to become themselves more skilled, and to instruct their sons. Given.

Emperor Constantine. If anyone shall have purchased something of private right from an emphyteuticary or patrimonial possessor, whose substance was accustomed to sustain other possessions, and, as it were, the sinews of certain forces having been cut off, the rest collapse: he shall undergo the burdens of those possessions which, remaining with the (impoverished) seller, remain useless. Given the Ides of December at Thessalonica, Felicianus and Titianus being Consuls. Emperor Constantius Augustus to Ursus. Let the rationalis decide causes pertaining to the fisc, all extortions being forbidden. Given the Nones of February at Constantinople, Felicianus and Titianus being Consuls.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Volusianus, Praetorian Prefect. Neither to the infamous, nor to the branded, nor to those whom crime or turpitude of life defiles, nor to those whom infamy separates from the company of honorable men, shall the gates of dignity lie open.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Proculus, proconsul of Africa. Emphyteutic possessors, who by the benefit of our clemency are by no means summoned to extraordinary services as are the other Provincials, are to expend their compliance in the maintenance of roads. For by no reasoning ought they to be separated from that which is to be of profit to all in common.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Campesius. Since the Divine Aurelian, our Parent, ordered that the councils of the cities be summoned in respect of deserted possessions, and for those estates which could not find owners, whom we have commanded, after a triennial immunity of the same possessions was obtained, to make satisfaction from the customary dues: preserving this tenor we command, that if it be established that the councils are less than suitable for undertaking these same possessions, the burdens of these same lands be divided among the possessions and territories, having been received.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Probus. If fugitive slaves be apprehended crossing over to the Barbarians: let them either be crippled by amputation of the foot, or given to the mines, or be afflicted with some other penalty.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to the People. If someone summoned shall have denied his own hand set forth in a libel or other document, if indeed he be convicted by comparison, that is, by another writing of his produced and compared with that which is in the libel, let him give to the plaintiff by way of penalty for the falsehood twenty-four solidi. But if either the tabellio be produced, with whom the instrument was written, or other witnesses deposing to the truth, then he himself, besides the penalty of twenty-four gold pieces, may not have the license of objecting the exception of money not counted out, so as to say that although the instrument was made, yet those things which are written in it were not given: but let him be condemned in every way, even if in truth nothing was paid by him. These things indeed shall obtain, if someone be sued from his own contract.

But if he is a tutor, or curator of one of those persons who are wont to be under care, whether male or female, managing according to the Constitutions the guardianship of his own children, and shall have denied his own hand set forth in the contract of those who are under tutelage or care, then if indeed they be convicted of lying by comparison alone, let them themselves furnish twenty-four gold pieces. But if by the production of the tabellio, or of witnesses, let not the exception of money not counted out be taken away from those who are under tutelage or care (for they have not sinned), but let the tutors or curators themselves give another twenty-four gold pieces by way of penalty to the plaintiff, those under tutelage or care retaining for themselves safe the exception of money not counted out. For it is not fair that they themselves be damaged by others' faults. Where the constitution spoke of these things concerning defendants sued, it made a transition also to the person of plaintiffs.

Commanding that if a plaintiff should deny his own hand placed in a document produced against him, perhaps in that which is said to be of an accepted confession, and he himself likewise, if indeed he be convicted by comparison alone, let him furnish twenty-four gold pieces: but if by the production of the tabellio or of witnesses, then let him in every way impute to himself, and acknowledge the contents of that document, even if in truth they were not received by him. These rules apply if he acts in his own name. But if he is tutor or curator, he indeed gives double the penalty of twenty-four gold pieces: but he who is under tutelage or care may object to the proof the exception of money not counted out.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Aurelius, duke of Mesopotamia. If anyone after this sanction shall make eunuchs in the Roman world, let him be punished capitally; such a slave, and also the place where this was committed, being confiscated, if the owner knew and concealed it.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Dracontius. We command that the payment of a patrimonial estate, whether in gold or in grain, omitted within the time, shall not prejudice the ownership of minors, nor accrue to the fraud of their right, if what is customarily owed be brought in a little later; yet in such a way that, the substance of the little ones remaining intact, the judge exact from the tutor or curator, by whom the payment is delayed, the penalties of his negligence and deserted office, and compel him to make good the losses.

Emperor Constantine Augustus. Let all know that these possessions, which they have purchased or are purchasing from our fisc, are withdrawn from them by us by no right, but, possessed with their own firmness, are transmitted even to their descendants with the durability of perpetual ownership.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Bassus, Praetorian Prefect. Whenever a case concerning status has arisen if indeed on the part of him who is called a slave, something is said to have been snatched away by the owner, it is pleasing that it first be considered whether he thinks he must reclaim liberty from a possession of servitude, or rather whether he is called from a possession of liberty into servitude. But if, since it is established that he demands liberty concerning servile duties, it is fitting that the case of status be decided beforehand, and thus that a hearing of the plundered matters (if the case demands) be granted afterward. But if it be alleged that something was seized from him who is called to servitude, all that is established to have been taken away is fitting to be restored to him who is contended to be a slave, only if he shall have promised through suitable sureties that the matter will remain safe.

For if he cannot give such sureties, then it is fitting that the things about which there is dispute in the trial be sequestered until the day on which the controversy is settled, so that from these same things (if there can be no other means) only so much for the expenses of the suit and for the sustenance of the man be furnished, as shall be estimated by the moderate judgment of the judge. But when, the suit concerning status not yet having been moved, things have been seized by someone, and a sentence has been given for restoring possession of the goods, if he, in order that this sentence might not be satisfied, raised a controversy about status, he shall be under the necessity both of restoring those same things without security, and then of pursuing the case of liberty according to the order of law.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Volusianus, Praetorian Prefect. In a matter entrusted mandata, there is peril not only of money, of which the judgment of mandate is most certain, but also of reputation. For each one, indeed, as arbiter and moderator of his own affair, does not do all his business, but for the most part, from his own inclination; but the affairs of another are conducted with exacting diligence, nor is anything in their administration, if neglected or shirked, free of fault.

Emperor Constantine Augustus, to the Provincials, greeting. If anyone, on account of excessive poverty and want, shall for the sake of sustenance have sold his newborn son or daughter, the sale being valid only in this case, the buyer shall have the faculty of retaining that service. But it shall be permitted to him who sold, or to him who was alienated, or to anyone else, to reclaim him to his own free birth: provided he either offers the price which he may be worth, or supplies a slave in his place.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Italicus. If anyone shall believe something ought to be brought against our lessee, it ought to be referred to the illustrious Count of the Privy Purse, lest peril of reputation and of office threaten both the judge and the safety of his office. Given the Kalends of February, the Consuls being (as named).

Emperor Constantius to the people. We have ordered that lawful interest be paid or promised for gold and silver and clothing, a written bond having been made.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Patraclus. There can be no marriage with maidservants: for from such cohabitation slaves are born; and therefore we command that decurions not take refuge in the bosom of the most powerful houses, led by lust for slave-women. For if a decurion, without the knowledge of the stewards and procurators, shall have been secretly joined to another's slave-woman, we order that the woman be thrust into the mines by sentence of the judge, and that the decurion himself be deported to an island; all his goods being made over to the city of which he had been a curial, if he shall have been freed from paternal power, and shall have no children, or parents, or even relatives, who according to the order of the laws might be called to his succession. But if the stewards or procurators of the place in which the crime was committed were privy to it, or, the deed having been discovered, were unwilling to reveal it, it is fitting that they be condemned to the mines.

But if the master (of the place) permitted this to be done, or afterward concealed it upon learning of it, if indeed it was done in the field, let the estate with its slaves and cattle, and other things which are maintained for rustic cultivation, be claimed for the rights of the fisc. But if it was done in the city, we command that half of all his goods be confiscated, increasing the penalty, since the crime was committed within the domestic walls, which he was unwilling to make public once it became known.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Praetorian Prefect. Before our council, or before consuls, praetors, presidents, presidents, or magistrates of those cities to which such right belongs, diligent servitude can obtain liberty by the judgment of the patrons.

Emperors Constantine and Licinius Augusti to Euthymius, president of Cappadocia. We command that all the letters of the plaintiff, which she had written to Aelius as though to a principal person, be void and empty, and be recalled to nothing; and that inquiry be made concerning the free birth of the same Aelius, nor let it be prejudicial to the woman that she wrote to him as to a decurion and a principal person, or that he himself feigned to be a decurion or a principal person; especially since not only by the profession of witnesses, and the servile yoke of his kindred is it known, but also by the very voice of the same Aelius it had appeared before another tribunal that his condition seemed to be servile.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Orphitus, Prefect.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Aelius, proconsul of Africa. Let legates hear not only civil but also criminal cases, in such a way that, if they foresee that sentence must be pronounced against the accused, they do not delay to transmit them to the proconsuls.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to the agentes in rebus. The privileges long ago granted to your school being reserved intact, let no one attain to the rank of ducenarius, centenarius, and biarchus by favor, but each by labor; but let him obtain the principate as the roll runs its course, so that those whom the order of military service calls go forth to conduct their duties and their course, and as an aid to its labors. Moreover, in that in which the status of the whole school and the security of the master is established, let one suitable in probity of character and endowed with good qualities be presented to our attention through the master, that he may be ordained by our judgment. Given at Rome, in the Forum of Trajan.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Constans, Praetorian Prefect. Let absolutely no original colonus of our privy estate be called to any honors, or to any other municipal duties whatsoever. For it is not fitting, by an injurious nomination, to descend to these lowest supports, when the councils of the cities and the rest, from whose multitude nominations ought to be made, are in every respect flourishing.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Januarius, Praetorian Prefect. We command that our coloni, who belong to the privy estate, whether suitable for conducting accounts or for cultivating fields, be recalled, and be assigned only to the cultivation of our estates; moreover that it be observed for the future that none of them undertake to conduct another's private affairs, or to administer anything.

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Equitius, Master of Horse and Foot. Let slaves, and coloni, and their sons, or grandsons, or whoever from our estates and possessions shall have secretly fled to various offices, be restored, even if they have taken up the oaths of armed military service. For we command that even those be stripped of their belts and restored, who have obtained the name of protectors.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus. Let no one of the Counts, or Tribunes, or Prefects, or under the name of soldiers, on the pretext of salgamum, extort from their hosts mattresses, wood, or oil; nor let them, even with the hosts willing, take away anything of the aforesaid kinds; but let our Provincials be secure from this exaction, the Counts, Tribunes, or indeed Prefects and soldiers being liable to grave punishment. Given.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus, Vicar of the East. If any tenant is exacted more by his lord than had been customary before, and than had been exacted in former times, let him go to the judge whose presence he can first obtain, and prove the deed, so that he who is convicted of demanding more than he had been accustomed to receive may be forbidden to do so for the future, after first restoring what he is known to have extorted by the overcharge committed.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus to Catullinus the Vicar. It has seemed good that merchants dealing in garments, linen-workers, purple-dyers, and provisioners, who serve our devotion, should, according to the ancient custom, be exempt from every public burden.

The Emperor Constantine Augustus. If ever a ship, driven by shipwreck, shall be cast up upon the shore, or if it shall touch any land, let it belong to its owners: let my Treasury not intervene. For what right has the Treasury in another's calamity, that it should pursue gain from so lamentable a matter?