Later Roman Empire

(5) The memory of the power which had once belonged to the populus Romanus lingered in the part which the inhabitants of New Rome, and their representatives, played in acclaiming newly elected emperors, and in such ceremonies as coronations. In the 6th century the factions ("demes") of the circus, Blues and Greens, appear as political parties, distract the city by their quarrels, and break out in serious riots. On one occasion they shook the throne ("Nika" revolt, 532). The emperors finally quelled this element of disturbance by giving the factions a new organization, under "demarchs" and "democrats," and assigning them a definite quasi-political locus standi in the public cere monies in the palace and the capital. The duty of providing panem et circenses was inherited from Old Rome ; but the free distribution of bread cannot be traced beyond the 6th century (had the loss of the Egyptian granary to do with its cessation?), while the spectacles of the hippodrome lasted till the end. Outside the capital the people took little interest in politics, except when theology was concerned ; and it may be said generally that it was mainly in the ecclesiastical sphere that public opinion among the masses, voiced by the clergy and monks, was an influence which made itself felt.

The court ceremonial of Constantinople, which forms such a marked contrast to the ostentatiously simple establishments of Augustus and the Antonines, had in its origin a certain constitu tional significance. It was introduced by Aurelian and Diocletian, not, we must suppose, from any personal love of display, but rather to dissociate the emperor from the army, at a time when the State had been shaken to its foundations by the predominance of the military element and the dependence of the emperor on the soldiers. It was the object of Diocletian to make him independent of all, with no more particular relation to the army than to any other element in the State; the royal court and the inaccessibility of the ruler were calculated to promote this object. The etiquette and ceremonies were greatly elaborated by Justinian, and were diligently maintained and developed. The public functions, which included processions through the streets to various sanctuaries of the city on the great feast-days of the Church, supplied enter tainment of which the populace never wearied ; and it did not escape the wit of the rulers that the splendid functions and sol emn etiquette of the court were an effective means of impressing the imagination of foreigners, who constantly resorted to Constan tinople from neighbouring kingdoms and dependencies, with the majesty and power of the Basileus.

The imperial dignity was collegial. There could be two or more emperors (imperatores, OacrAels) at the same time; edicts were issued, public acts performed, in their joint names. Through the period of dualism, in the 4th and 5th centuries, when the ad ministration of the Eastern provinces was generally separate from that of the Western, the imperial authority was also collegial. But after this period the system of divided authority came to an end and was never renewed. There was frequently more than one emperor, not only in the case of a father and his sons, or of two brothers, but also in the case of a minority, when a regent is elected emperor (Romanus I. ; cf. Nicephorus II. and John Zimisces). But one colleague always exercised the sole authority, was the real monarch, the "great" or the "first" Basileus; the other or others were only sleeping partners. Under the Comneni a new nomenclature was introduced ; a brother, e.g., who before

could have become the formal colleague of the ruler, received the title of Sebastocrator (Sebastos was the Greek equivalent of Augustus).

Legislation.

The history of the legislation of the Eastern empire is distinguished by three epochs associated with the names of (I) Justinian, (2) Leo III., (3) Basil I. and Leo VI.

For (I) the Justinianean legislation, see JUSTINIAN.

(2)

Justinian's reign was followed by a period in which juristic studies decayed. The 7th century, in which social order was pro foundly disturbed, is a blank in legal history, and it would seem that the law of Justinian, though it had been rendered into Greek, almost ceased to be studied or understood. Practice at least was modified by principles in accord with the public opinion of Chris tian society and influenced by ecclesiastical canons. In a synod held at Constantinople in the reign of Justinian II. numerous rules were enacted, differing from the existing laws and based on ecclesiastical doctrine and Mosaic principles, and these were sanctioned as laws of the realm by the emperor. Thus Church influence and the decline of Roman tradition, in a State which had become predominantly Greek, determined the character of the ensuing legislative epoch under the auspices of Leo III., whose law book (A.D. 740), written in Greek, marks a new era and reflects the changed ideas of the community. Entitled a "Brief Selection of Laws" and generally known as the Ecloga, it may be described as a Christian law book. In regard to the patria potestas increased facilities are given for emancipation from paternal con trol when the son comes to years of discretion, and the paternal is to a certain extent replaced by a parental control over minors. The law of guardianship is considerably modified. The laws of marriage are transformed under the influence of the Christian conception of matrimony; the institution of concubinatus is abol ished. Impediments to marriage on account of consanguinity and of spiritual relationship are multiplied. While Justinian regarded marriage as a contract, and therefore, like any other contract, dissoluble at the pleasure of the parties, Leo III. accepted the Church view that it was an indissoluble bond. Ecclesiastical in fluence is written large in the criminal law, of which a prominent feature is the substitution of mutilation of various kinds for the capital penalty. Death is retained for some crimes, such as mur der and high treason ; other offences were punished by amputa tion (of hand, nose, etc.). This system (justified by the passage in the New Testament, "If thine eye offend thee," etc.), though to modern notions barbaric, seemed a step in the direction of leniency; and it may be observed that the tendency to avoid capital punishment increased, and we are told that in the reign of John Comnenus it was never inflicted. (The same spirit, it may be noted, is apparent in the usual, though by no means in variable, practice of Byzantine emperors to render dethroned rivals or members of a deposed dynasty innocuous by depriving them of eyesight or forcing them to take monastic orders, instead of putting them to death.) The Church, which had its own system of penalties, exercised a great influence on the actual operation of criminal law, especially through the privilege of asylum (recog nized by Justinian, but with many reserves and restrictions), which was granted to Christian churches and is admitted without exceptions in the Ecloga.