THE JUSTINIAN CODIFICATION COMMISSION OF 528 A. D.

The famous epigram of Sir Henry Maine that the Roman Law "begins as it ends with a code," has the characteristic common to epigrams that it is not quite true, or at least it states but a partial truth. Roman Law as a system of justice does not begin with a code, nor does it end with a code. The formulation of the Corpus Juris Civilis made fourteen centuries ago gets its significance, therefore, not because it is the final and greatest codification of the classical Roman law but because it is a white stone that marks our progress toward an ideal, the attainment of a perfect justice in the affairs of men. As such we may first look at its antecedents.