Code of Justinian


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On November 16, 534, Justinian I, the ruler of the Eastern Roman (or Byzantine) Empire, issued his Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law), commonly called the Code of Justinian. It expanded on Justinian's earlier release of the code (in 529) and was divided into three parts: the Codex, which was a compilation of the existing decrees of emperors and statesmen; the Digest (or Pandects, as they were termed in Greek), an anthology of the thoughts and decisions of the famous lawyers of...