How Did Justinian Use The 12 Table Of Roman Law

Unlike most past emperors before his rise to power Justinian did not come from a noble family, Still, using his intelligence and leadership he was able to stand out as one of history’s most influential and relevant emperors to this day.

The first reason why Justinian caused the Byzantine empire to succeed during his reign was because of his new coded system of laws. Justinian inherited a vast amount of Roman laws, called the twelve tables. (Allen Evans 24, Commire). In 528, Justinian set up a commission to codify the Roman law (Ostrogorski 74). 1528 books of Roman law were scanned and combined into fifty books divided into 432 chapters (Allen Evans 24). The work was called the Digest, and had immediate impacts on the Byzantine Empire and then it’s long-success (Allen Evans 24, Commire). Lawyers were able reference the laws in court, allowing fairer decisions to be made. The government, now was not only supported by its army, was also supported by the law (Allen Evans 24, Commire). Both of these things were very important to the success of the empire. Civilians had the ability to go to court and make sure that decisions were based on hundreds of years of law written out in one place, and not an impulsive decision of a judge. The government also had an extreme benefit in terms of having written out code of law, so there could be no arguments in terms of taxation or punishments. This attributed to the success of the empire because this helped stabilize the empire because important decisions could have been made based on hundreds of years of law and farer decisions prevented revolts. Coded laws also

The Code of Hammurabi from the ancient Babylonian civilization, and the Twelve Tables from Ancient Rome society were both sets of laws from by which their societies had to abide. The Ancient Babylonian society abided by the Code of Hammurabi while the Ancient Romans abided by The Twelve Tables. Although they both served as promising laws to live by, they also served as tools that defined and distinguished each citizen’s position in the social order. Depending on where they stood in the social order, any criminal punishment would be tailored to that specific class. In Mesopotamian history, the most consummate code of law was the Code of Hammurabi, engendered by the King Hammurabi. The Twelve Tables was created by the Roman elites in order to create justice and fairness between the plebian and patricians. Both these sets of laws, although belonging to different societies, sought to create the illusion of fairness and equality outwardly towards the people, and inwardly, reward the rich and elite of their respective social class with power. Although these sets of laws belonged to different societies, they both casted an illusion of fairness and equality. However, in actuality these regulations only benefited the rich and elite.

The Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I, was known for his accomplishment, such as improving the Roman law code. This changed the development of law.

Justinian repaired the legal system and called it Justinian code. Like old Roman Empire women, slaves, and lower class-men had now say with the legal system. Only upper class males could assist in reviving the law's. Justinian and ten men set laws for their people to live honesty and not harm others (Document 7 and 9). This helped unify the Eastern and Western. territories (Document 1).

Laws are usually inspired and taken from the common knowledge of the society, whether the common knowledge was good or bad it does not make a difference. To illustrate, common laws derive from ethical backgrounds passed through generation to generation, where they feel that these traditions are sacred, and they cannot change it, because they fear the resistance that might develop form that change. Similarly, any religion after certain time gets to change in the name of modernity and prestige. To explain more, Hammurabi

Since the law code was created to keep the empire established, being distrustful to the laws back in those days would have resulted in severe consequences. “If this ruler does not esteem my words,... if he destroys the law which I have given,.. May the great gods of heaven and earth… inflict a curse…

By combining laws from both the eastern and western part of the Roman Empire, The Theodosian Code was able to promote unity throughout the empire and subsequently strengthened ties between the east and the west.8 In retrospect the Roman Empire had the laws necessary for governing the large empire; they just were not organized in a way that was easy to follow. That is why Theodosius II had all of the laws organized and compiled into subjects to make governing the empire simpler.

that were created. In Mesopotamia, the Babylonian king Hammurabi, created a set of law 's

Justice has been misperceived to go hand and hand with rules in which a society must conform to, mostly in due part to the enlightenment era. In the case with the Romans, the laws they established, especially early on, dealing with the spread of Christianity has been interpreted with a sense of disgust for the unfair treatment targeted towards Christians, and later on to those of other faiths. However, I argue that, Roman law, when concerning religion, was used to strengthen the identity of what it meant to be Roman. Furthermore, as Rome, the political institution, was beginning to decay, as an act of acclamation, the formulation of Roman Laws allowed Christianity to be a main means of connection to what it meant to identify as Roman. Utilizing various primary sources, it is evident that faith had been gradually accepted as the dominant form of unity and law, beginning with Emperor Diocletian to Emperor Theodosia, even among emperors, the Catholic faith had shown that all men were under God, and under God they were all Roman.

Hammurabi created 282 laws for the people of Babylonia. Hammurabi claimed that he got the laws from the god Shamash. There were over 1 million people in Babylonia. Even though he lived 38 centuries ago his laws still stand. So many people will study it and make a decision on if the laws are just or unjust.

Hammurabi’s code of law is like our school rules because they help things to stay in order and stop chaos. Hammurabi was a king of Mesopotamia, but just started out as a “mayor” as Babylon. He lived in Babylon, Mesopotamia which is also where he wrote his 282 laws. This was about 4,000 years ago. He did this because he wanted to stop chaos. After careful analysis, the law code of Hammurabi was not just, in the area of family law.

Hammurabi was the king of Babylonia around 4000 years ago. Hammurabi had a code of laws with 282 laws. He had 3 different types of laws, family laws, property laws, and personal injury laws. These laws might seem just, but they are unjust.

The Byzantine Empire, though often forgotten among better-known empires, such as the Roman Empire, ran for nearly one thousand years, occupying the eastern half of what once was the Roman Empire. It engaged in trade, expansion, and decades of warfare. It also gave women a better status then men, valued and preserved Greek history, and eventually fell to the Ottomans.

It may also have included laws laid down by especially wise kings of previous dynasties (Diodorus cited in Erman 141). Regardless of its origin, it is certain that there must have been an established system of rules of conduct beyond the whims of the king.