On this day 1675 years ago, the second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus was published. Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus was born in 483 AD, the son of a peasant family. He was adopted by Justin, a member of the Imperial Guard, and received a good education in jurisprudence, theology and Roman history. After the death of Emperor Anastasius in 518, Justin became emperor and Justinian became his close advisor, and succeeded him as emperor in 527.
The Western Roman Empire had fallen some 50 years previously, so the empire Justinian presided over was the Eastern Roman Empire, with its capital at Constantinople. Justinian’s most enduring legacy was the Corpus Iuris Civilis, a compilation and codification of the existing laws. The Corpus Iuris Civilis consisted of the Codex Justinianus, a collection of the decrees made by Roman Emperors, the Pandectae, a collection of legal writings, the Institutiones, a legal textbook, and the Novellae, containing new laws passed after 534 AD.
The Corpus Iuris Civilis had almost passed into obscurity when a small law school started in the 11th century in Bologna, teaching Roman Law. The study of Roman law spread throughout Europe, and Roman Law became the basis for the French Civil Code established under Napoleon in 1804 and for similar civil codes adopted by most countries in Europe. The Roman Law embodied in the Corpus Iuris Civilis remains a key part of the law in continental Europe.