Aspects of the Evolution of Byzantine Law (English version)

PUC-LAW DEPARTMENT

ASPECTS OF THE EVOLUTION OF BYZANTINE LAW

By

ROMULO PEREIRA JANNUZZI

Registration number/PUC-Rio: 9724907

Advisor

PROF. a ANA LúCIA LYRA TAVARES

PONTIFICAL CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF RIO DE JANEIRO

RUA MARQUêS DE S?O VICENTE, 225 - CEP 22453-900

RIO DE JANEIRO - BRAZIL

2002.1

ASPECTS OF THE EVOLUTION OF BYZANTINE LAW

By

ROMULO PEREIRA JANNUZZI

Monograph presented to the Department of Law of the Pontifical Catholic University Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) for obtaining of the Bachelor of Law title.

Advisor: Prof. a Ana Lúcia Lyra Tavares.

2002.1

THANKS

Before exposing (in the following pages) the information on the theme-title of this work, I want to thank the generous guidance granted to me through the Professor Ana Lúcia Lyra Tavares who, for being the holder of the chairs of Roman law and Comparative law, accepted the proposal of this monograph, which focuses on a subject which, because of its characteristics, has an intermediate nature to those of the aforementioned disciplines and which, due to this fact, has enabled me to elaborate a text, at the same time, relevant for professionals lovers of legal practice and interesting for all those who have interdisciplinarity as an original and pleasant means for a new knowledge acquisition dissociated from traditional and limiting memorization techniques that prioritize almost only procedural aspects of the law, despising the theoretical facets that substantiate them.

1 CONTENTS

1.INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................................2

1.1.General features of Byzantine law.......................................................................................3

1.2.Main periods of the evolution of Byzantine law............................................................3

2.PRE-JUSTINIANEAN ERA.............................................................................................................4

3.TIMES THRACE, JUSTINIANEAN AND HERACLIUS............................................................6

3.1.THE LAWS OF ANASTASIS I....................................................................................................6

3.2.JUSTINIAN I..................................................................................................................................7

3.3.HERACLIUS DYNASTY...............................................................................................................8

4.ICONOCLASIST ERA......................................................................................................................9

5.MACEDONIAN ERA....................................................................................................................10

6.TIME OF PALEOLOGISTS AND MONARCHICAL GREECE..............................................11

7.ROMANIA.......................................................................................................................................12

8.RUSSIA.............................................................................................................................................14

9.MONGOLIA/TURKEY..................................................................................................................15

9.1.THE OUTER MONGOLIA........................................................................................................17

10.CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................18

11.APPENDICES...............................................................................................................................19

11.1.The Byzantine Agrarian law...............................................................................................19

11.2.Roman-Hellenic Legislative Scheme........................................................................21;22

11.3.MAPS...........................................................................................................................................23

12.BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................................24

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1.INTRODUCTION

The importance of the legacy of Byzantine law is not, in our view, enough evidenced in contemporary studies. Indeed, in our research, we check the rarity of texts on the subject. And, such scarcity is paradoxical, in view of the fundamental role that this right exerted, extending its influence, far beyond Eastern Roman law, since it provided the bases of systematization of Roman law as resumed By the West, in the renaissance of the studies of the Corpus Juris Civilis, coming from the oriental efforts to reorder the Roman law, and competed for the very identity of the Roman-Germanic system, of which the Brazilian law is part.

It is, on the other hand, of extreme interest, this legacy of eastern law for Western law, since it led to the formation of the european legal systems, of the Roman-Germanic matrix, which find its identity in this fusion of Roman-Byzantine law with the western currents of interpretation of the Corpus Juris Civilis.

Considering the vastness of the theme, we chose to restrict our study to the various periods that marked the evolution of Byzantine law, waiting, regardless, motivating other researchers to deepen this I It seems fascinating.

As a result, the plan of our work accompanies the main pieces of the evolution of Byzantine law,namely: Pre-Justinianean, Justinianean, Iconoclasist, Macedonian and Paleologists. The analysis of these periods, accentuating their differential characteristics, will be preceded by general observations on the hybrid nature (religious and lay) of this right and on its contribution in terms of systematization of Roman law. It should also be emphasized that before addressing the legal data that led to this monograph, it will be necessary _ before each topic _ to make brief historical insights referring to the different Byzantine dynasties (of Theodosians to Paleologists) as well as from countries that, as we will see, either were directly invaded by Roman-Hellenic weapons or were under their influence.

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1.1.General features of Byzantine law:

Hybrid nature (religious and lay); Large encodings; Diversity according to the various historical periods.

1.2.Main periods of the evolution of Byzantine law:

The Pre-Justinianean Era; The times Thrace, Justinianean and Heraclius; The time of Iconoclasists; The time of Paleologists; After the fall of Constantinople: Greece, Romania, Russia, Mongolia/Turkey and Outer Mongolia.

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2.PRE-JUSTINIANEAN ERA

As we know, the legal creativity of the Roman Empire ceased at the time of military anarchy (235 A.D.-268 A.D.), so that in the historical period called Low Empire or Dominato (268 A.D.-395 A.D.) (1) The seven emperors of the Illirian Dynasty (from Claudius II to Theodosius I), in order to reorganize the Empire and restore its greatness, opted to direct its forces to the military and political-administrative spheres.

The legal area was stagnofied and without enrichment of new creations. This situation was only undermined by the making of two particular compilations (the Codex Gregorianus and the Codex Hermogenianus) and an officer (the Codex Theodosianus) who had the great merit of not only having served as the basis for the Corpus Juris Civilis and the so-called Roman laws of the Barbarians, as well as presenting the first, historically known clue, of the Christian influence in the legal sphere (to verify this just consult the sixteenth, and last, book of the Codex Theodosianus, dedicated to Ecclesiastic law).

It should also be noted that:

a)The first two compilations, together, contained from the constitutions of Adrian to the ones of Julian, the Apostate, that is, from 117 A.D. to 365 A.D. Throughout the centuries covered by both works there is a gradual evolution of the secularism and the conciliatory attitude of the emperors with the Senators and juris- consults until the stage of monarchical absolutism which, with its strength, impregnated the calls Sources of Law: Leges (Constitutions or Imperial novels) and Iura (Classical Law created by the former jurisconsults) with doctrine and customs originating from Christianity.

In the constitutions of the C. IV A.D., even, it is noted, with considerable clarity, the reduction of the Senate to the condition of a mere advisory body approving Imperial decisions and the relative discredit suffered by the professionals of the law that did not receive the high wages of the time of the Antoninos (C. II A.D.), nor were consulted with that indispensable character of the times of the Republic and the High Empire (just remember the prominence enjoyed by the Decenvirs who elaborated the Law of the Twelve Boards and the five jurisconsults that organized the Law of Quotations).

b)The third compilation (Codex Theodosianus), however, is the most important for several reasons:

_It was promulgated during the reign of Theodosius II (of the newly created Eastern Roman Empire) and Valentinian III (from the Western Empire), having been conceived in Byzantium and adopted in Rome.

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_Legal nature: It is characterized by a duality, since it contains religious norms that co-exist with secular norms. Thus, the latter, referring to Civil, Criminal and Administrative rights, were distributed in the first fifteen books that compose the Codex, while the religious norms of Canon law were concentrated in the aforementioned sixteenth book remaining.

_Purpose: This compilation obeys two objectives: to save as many contemporary legal monuments as possible and also those later than the time of Constantine I, the Great (306 A.D.-337 A.D.) and to provide the socio-economic progress of the Eastern Empire through a systematic update of all the legal patrimony identified.

_Result: Only partly was achieved, because the Germanic invasions that convulsioned the west, collapsing it, have also reached the orient, disrupting-thus the socio-political peace necessary to the consolidation of legal reforms idealized by Theodosius II (408 A.D.-450 A.D.).

______________________________________________________________________________________(1)This timescale was based on writings by Prof. Leonel Itaussu Almeida Mello, who in the same time, in the 70s, he organized a series of general history issues published by April Publishing Company in order to prepare students for the vestibular of the time.

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3.TIMES THRACE, JUSTINIANEAN AND HERACLIUS

In these three phases it was possible to observe the progress of two simultaneous transformations suffered by the legal sector,who consisted in the:

a)Gradual replacement of Roman immobility by the Greek interpolations of an updater and particularist; and

b)Progressive substitution of laws with double character: secular and religious (as seen in the Codex Theodosianus text) by the genuinely mixed legislations, that is, endowed with standards which, even when dealing with Aspects of civil life, they sought inspiration and justification in dogmas of Orthodox Christianity (which, at this time, began to depart and differentiate themselves from their Roman matrix).

And to exemplify both phenomena it is sufficient to cite three legislative works which, here, will be analysed under the aspects of ''legal nature'', of ''purpose'' and ''result''. Hey them:

3.1.THE LAWS OF ANASTASIS I (491 A.D.-518 A.D.):

This emperor,comprising no longer being in the ''Old Roman world'' and to ensure the continuity of civilization as he knew it, decided to promulgate novels to perfect the monetary system and reform the fiscal system,whose results were: the growth of the Imperial treasury, industry and trade. There was also the Rural Code, whose purpose was to regulate socio-economic life in the field and to ensure agricultural productivity and had as results: increased linking of the servants and settlers to the land and the enrichment of the great rural owners (among those who the Byzantine church).

As for the legal nature of monetary-tax and agrarian legislation, it can be affirmed that both correspond to secular rights. However, the fact that Anastasis I had openly opted for the "monophytic faith", which attributed to Christ a purely divine nature, created great disorders in the empire, leading the monarch to expedite decrees of a juridical-religious nature for the purpose of restoring social peace, the result of which was a precarious peace.

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3.2.JUSTINIAN I (527 A.D.-565 A.D.)

It is known that this monarch undertook the greatest compilation of Roman law in history, without which the imperial constitutions of Adrian to Anastasis I would not have reached the knowledge of the Carolingian jurists (C. VIII and IX A.D.) and the Sacrum Roman-German Empire (C. X to XIII) which, in turn, were the main disseminators, in the West, of the Corpus Juris Civilis.

Thus, the mankind has come to know, to the present day, this colossal legislative work. As for its characteristics, you can see:

a)A bilingual essay (Latin: In the Code, in the Digesto or Pandectas, where there is a parallel text in Greek, and in the Institutas; and only Greek in the Imperial constitutions of Justinian I, said Novels or Authentic).

b)Legal nature: the Code, the Digesto and the Institutas have a secular character, while the Novels have a hybrid character (secular and religious).

c)Purpose: of the Code: perform a systematic review of all laws enacted since the time of Adrian; of the Digesto: summary of all the writings of the great jurists; of the Institutas: compendium of Legal principles that guided the Code and the Digesto; of the Novels: Meeting of the Justinianean constitutions in a single work to facilitate the consultation of them.

d)Results: The four major titles that compose the Corpus Juris had great success during and after the Justinianean period, because the later legislations,even with with the proposal to conceive totally unpublished or pure norms (as said the Macedonic jurisconsults), always resurrected in whole or in part norms, principles and institutions created or recreated by Justinian I and his collaborators.

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3.3.HERACLIUS DYNASTY (610 A.D.-717 A.D.)

At this time, Byzantium counted on four notable emperors, the first of which, Heraclius I, innovatively adopted the title of ''Basileus Autokrator''. And despite the undeniable administrative and military qualities of these basileus, the continuing wars with neighboring peoples (Sassanids, Arabs, Bulgarians and Serbo-Croats) prevented them from giving due attention to the need to adapt the institutions and Legal Norms Justinianean to the new Roman-Hellenic Empire, arising from the loss of Syria, Palestine, Egypt-Cyrenaica and Andalusia. Therefore, the concern to update or to fill any loopholes in the laws was borne by the private initiative, whose only example is the Nautical Code, of unknown author. Its characteristics are:

a)Legal Nature: It has a secular character.

b)Purpose: to regulate the discipline of ships, as well as the making of maritime trade contracts.

c)Result: He had great acceptance for about 200 years, that is, until the end of the Isauric Dynasty, after which he suffered successive modernising additions.

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4.ICONOCLASIST ERA

According to the scholar Dr. Mário Curtis Giordani, renowned specialist in Roman law, ''The codification of Leo III replaced the Institutas of Justinian I as Manual of teaching of law during the eighth and ninth centuries until the advent of the Macedonic Dynasty'' and that ''Theophilus (829 A.D. - 842 A.D.) was the last iconoclasist emperor.'' (2)

Thus, it can be concluded that the iconoclasist legislation was not restricted, as to the validity, to the Isauric Dynasty that conceived it, but also struck the Phrygian or Amorian Dynasty, having the work begun by Leo III (717 A.D.-741 A.D.) and concluded by the successor Constantine V (741 A.D.-775 A.D.) who baptized her as an Ecloga Legum Compendiaria or Abbreviated Selection of Laws.

a)Legal Nature: Seventeen of the eighteen titles that compose the Ecloga deal with matters of Private Law (civil), whose character is mixed with secular with ecclesiastic; while the eighteenth title devoted to the Penal Law _ has a lay Greek-Oriental consuetudinary character (since its cruel feathers, such as eye leakage and mutilation of the hands, tongue and nose,date back to the Seleucid Empire, which lasted from 301 B.C. to 129 B.C.).

b)Purpose: This name is very appropriate, because soon in the introduction of the technique, both sovereigns expose the reasons for being of the work, which are:

_A unique adoption of the Greek in the making of the legal text, not only because this is the official language of the Empire since the time of Heraclius I, but also because of the non-understanding of Latin by the population of the century VIII A.D.;

_Introduce, with legal obligation status, Professional Ethics standards for judges and justice officials to hinder the action of corruptors;

_Remake the Corpus Juris by taking as parameter Greek paraphrases to obtain clarity and concision.

c)Result: It had great success, to the point of not even later legislations, such as the extended Basilicas, to fully supplant the Isauro-amorian laws.

______________________________________________________________________________________(2)See pages 66, 67 and 240 written by GIORDANI, Mário Curtis _ ''The History of the Byzantine Empire'' _ Voices Publishing Company _ 2nd Edition (1977).

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5.MACEDONIAN ERA

Unlike the Macedonian Dynasty (867 A.D.-1056 A.D.) it produced not only the Basilicas but also two other earlier works: the Prokeiros and the Epanagogé. The latter were idealized by the founder of the Dynasty: Basil I (867 A.D.- 886 A.D.), while the work of the Basilicas was done by the successor: Leo VI, the Philosopher (886 A.D.-912 A.D.). And as the three works have a relationship of meaning and continuity, the analysis of these will be done jointly:

a)Legal Nature: The Macedonian legislation has a markedly mixed character (lay and religious), since in its composition, apart from the jurisconsults, the basileus mentioned above and the Byzantine patriarch Photius (858 A.D.-867 A.D. and 877 A.D.-886 A.D.).

b)Purpose: To achieve a "pure and unmixed right" with the new socio-economic reality of the Empire. It should be noted that Civil Law was inspired by the Institutes of Justinian I, Criminal Law was based on Ecloga of Leo III and Constantine V, while the Administrative Law consisted of texts created by the members of the legislative commission led by Basil I and Photius.

c)Results: Under the utilitarian aspect of the up-to-date reorganization, the Macedonian legislation was a success. However, the promise to make the Corpus Juris ''evolve'' without using hybrids with other legal texts (especially Ecloga, banned in introductions of Prokeiros and Epanagogé) resulted in failure.

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6.TIME OF PALEOLOGISTS AND MONARCHICAL GREECE

First of all, it is necessary to justify the non-reference to the legislations of the dynasties subsequent to Macedonian. The Ducas and Comnenos, for example, because they consider the Macedonian legislation somewhat extensive (Basilicas) on the one hand, and somewhat insufficient (Prokeiros and Epanagogé) on the other hand, motivated the making of a succinct and methodical extract from the Basilicas and from enlarged versions of Prokeiros and Epanagogé.

As for the Angels Dynasty and the Latin emperors, of Nicaea, Epirus and Trebizonda, nothing can be said, for the continuous struggles between them and against Bulgarians, Turks, and the Italian States, plus the shortage of sources and time, prevented to legislate.

Thus, with the reunification of the Byzantine Empire under the Paleologist Dynasty (1261-1453) and alliance with the Comnians of the Empire of Trebizonda (1204-1461) an atmosphere conducive to legislative activity was created, especially Constantine Harmenopulos, judge and jurist from Thessalonica who organized the Hexábiblos or Record, a veritable legal monument bringing together the écloga, the Prokeiros, the Epanagogé, the Basilicas and the sources of the Corpus Juris Civilis (without the additions and changes made by the Tribonian Commission in the 6th century AD). Its peculiarities are:

a)Legal Nature: The Record, being a concise compilation composed of six books, had unified the mixed characters of its sources.

b)Purpose: To update, simplify and reduce the legislation compiled to give Roman-Hellenic Law a "definitive aspect".

c)Results: It was so successful that it survived the historical vicissitude of the Ottoman conquest, whose sultan Muhammad II (1451-1481) equated this work (published in 1345) with a Civil Code, allowing the Greeks, placed under the jurisdiction of the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, ruled by it. And this situation of survival of the Hexabiblos persisted while it lasted the independent Greek monarchy (1830-1923).

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7.ROMANIA

As we have seen, just as it says que ''Rome stormed Greece with their weapons, while this won one with their culture'', one can say that ''Ottoman Empire militarily dominated Byzantium, although this has contributed to the administrative and economic enrichment of that".

These proverbial equivalences can be exemplified by the role played by the below-mentioned fanariots, who, seeing the Romanians as a "brotherly people" (due to the Roman past they have in common and the Orthodox Christian religion) solved, from 1711 to 1821 , to diffuse Neo-Orthodox culture and Western ideas of political autonomy and economic liberalism, which led the Romanians to rediscover their origins (Dacia) just as it did with the Greeks in relation to their glorious past (Hellas).

Thus, even after the departure of these Greek officials * from Bucharest (as they were dismissed and expelled by the Turkish authorities with the beginning of the Hellenic War of Independence: 1822-1830), the Romanian nationalist movement, led by the future king Alexandre Jo?o Cuza, was already ideologically consolidated and relying on the same Euro-Western support (given to the Greek revolutionaries decades before).

But in addition to the Anglo-French, Austria-Hungary intervened in the Turkish-Romanian conflict for Russia to renounce the co-protectorate with Turkey over Moldavia-Wallachia and then reassume its role as a "protector of Orthodox Christians in the Balkans". Then, in 1859, the following was done:

_England endowed the Romanian monarchy with the same institutions modern who reformulated the Greek monarchy (which evolved from the old Byzantine absolutism to parliamentarism);

_France provided the Romanian juridical revival by literary means, translating and disseminating in French old constitutions(Novels) of the Roman emperor Trajan, as well as the Roman laws of the Gepid barbarians (451 A.D.-567 A.D.), whose state was founded by king Ardarico I and later destroyed by the Lombards;

_Russia, to which the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate Orthodox after the conquest of Constantinople (1453), promoted the restructuring of Romanian ecclesiastical organization and the updating of their respective Canon Law;

_Austria-Hungary, in order to appease the Romanians of Hungarian Transylvania (who wanted to unite with neighboring Moldavia-Wallachia), enacted a federalist constitution in 1860 in which the rights of the eleven nationalities that made up the Empire had a civil and politics. And as this standardization of the different citizenships was inspired by the progressive Byzantine Novels on the Rights of Nationalities of the 6th and 7th centuries A.D., the new Romanian Unitarian National State, formed

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in 1919 with the union of Moldavia-Wallachia with Transylvania, Bucovina and Bessarabia (present Republic of Moldova), decided to amend to the Constitution of 1866 these Austro-Byzantine laws to regulate relations between Romanians (89.4%) and minorities (10.6%) of Hungarians, Germans, Jews, Ukrainians, Serbo-Croats, Greeks and Turks to this day.

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8.RUSSIA

In addition to the Roman dominions (read: Kingdom of Sirius, the last Roman bastion in Gaul, situated between the Somme and Loire rivers, lasting from 464 A.D. to 486 A.D.), Franks, Byzantine or Germanic, there was the vast plain between the Volga, Dnieper and Dniester rivers. From the sixth century A.D., it was occupied by Samoied, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Finnish and Slavic tribes and finally by the Varangians of Norman origin who came from Scandinavia via the Volga River, of which the Rus group stood out (origin of the name Russia).

Headed by the leader Rurik, they settled on the strategic points of Byzantine and Eastern trade routes (like Reval, Novgorod and Minsk), dominating the Slavic majority, in 856 A.D. Oleg I, who succeeded to the previous chief, installed the center of its dominions in Kiev and expanded the conquests to the banks of the Dnieper. For more than two centuries the Principality of Kiev retained its predominance over all other populations.

At the end of the 10th century A.D., a marked transformation took place in the Principality of Kiev. The ruler of that time received support from Byzantium in struggles against neighboring peoples. And, as before, among the Bulgarians, Byzantine emperor also sent the Orthodox Christian religion. The conversion of the Russian populations to Christianity also meant the introduction of writing. From Byzantium they received the Slavic or Cyrillic alphabet, which was composed by the Byzantine preachers St. Cyril & St. Methodius, to spread Christianity in the region of the Podolsk Plateau (current Ukraine). Nothing more was that the Greek alphabet with some additions and simplifications. Its main sovereigns were:

_Vladimir I, Grand Prince of Kiev (c.980 A.D.-1015). He received baptism, married Anna, sister of the Byzantine Emperor Basil II, and after having made Greek and Bulgarian priests go to Kiev, baptized the inhabitants of the city and he had his idols destroyed (988 A.D.- 989 A.D.). He was canonized by the Orthodox Church at the beginning of the 12th century.

_Iaroslav, the Sage, Grand Prince of Kiev (1015-1054), son of Vladimir, the Saint. He defeated the Petchenegues (1036) and undertook the colonization of the right bank of the Dnieper. He concluded with Byzantium an agreement at the end of which Kiev became the seat of a metropolitan bishopric for all Russia, had the cathedral of Hagia Sophia II built and drafted the 1st part of the Russkaya Pravda or The Russian Law.

_Vladimir II Monomachus, Grand Prince of Kiev (1054-1125). He commanded great expeditions against the Polovtses (1103, 1107 and 1111) and tried to remake the union of the Russian princes. He wrote to his sons the 2nd part of the Russkaya Pravda or The Instruction.

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9.MONGOLIA/TURKEY

Worthy of note is the performance of Gengis-Khan's grandson, Hulagu (1256-1265), who contributed to the recovery of the army of the Empire of Nicaea, led by Miguel Paleologus, who until the mid-twentieth century was not managing to obtain a decisive victory over the forces of Baldwin II, basileus of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, as he was constantly fighting along the Asian borders with the neighboring Sultanate of Rum (headquartered in Konya).

However, with the arrival of the Mongols of the Ilkhans Empire, the Seljuks of Rum were neutralized and included in a state that already comprised the Caucasus, Persia (future Iran), Mesopotamia and western Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

At the same time, Miguel Paleologus, with the Asian front cleared, was able to regroup his army near the Bosphorus Strait and the Sea of Marmara, to establish a military alliance with the Greek Empire of Trebizonda, with Despotate of Epirus (ex-Byzantine Albanian or Durazzo ) and with Bulgaria to then return to Thrace (with Constantinople), Greece (with Crete) and the city of Dyrraquium (Venetian enclave situated on the north coast of the Despotate of Epirus).

Having reunited the Byzantine Empire, he confederated with the Greek Empire of Trebizonda (that continued, from 1204, under the command of the Comnenos), signed non-aggression pacts with the Bulgarians (who were coexisting with Romanians) and with the Mongols Hulagu Khan. The latter, even though he was administering people who, although Muslims, had already had some contact with the Roman-Hellenic civilization, found itself in the contingency of reformulating the Mongol Law to receive legal norms originating from Islam, of Rome and Byzantium and thus to provide an internal peace (which lasted until 1335) with:

_The Ghanaian Arabs of Mesopotamia (who, from the time of the Roman emperor Trajan, constituted the Province of the Nabataean Arabs from 106 to 635 A.D.);

_The Turks of the Sultanate of Rum (who, although governed by Sharia in relation to Common law, adopted the Byzantine Administrative Law in force in the provinces of Anatolia at the time of its conquest in 1077 A.D.);

_The other peoples of the Ilkhans Empire who, since the middle of the 7th century A.D., had been organizing themselves into Muslim theocracies.

But during the reigns of Basileus Andronicus III (1328-1341) and the last Khan ilkhan Tchormaghan, the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) and the Black Death (1334-1352) overthrew three quarters of the Eurasian population. These facts, evidently contributed to the shattering of the Ilkhans Empire in three zones:

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_The Sultanate of Rum, after liberating himself from the Mongols, resumed the policy of conquest of the Byzantine provinces of Anatolia, completed at the end of the reign of John VI Cantacuzeno (1341-1354), defeated by Orkhan (1326-1359), sultan of the Ottomans (successors of the Seljuks from 1281: beginning of the reign of Osman I);

_The Western Ilkhans Empire, which comprised the Caucasus and Mesopotamia, was founded by a Mongolian nobleman named Hasan Jalai (creator of the Jalair Dynasty who lived from 1335 to 1393) and based in Baghdad;

_The Orthoquid Empire, which included Persia (with the capital in Persepolis) and western Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. This dynasty is located between the Abbasids (Arab dynasty that lasted from 750 A.D. to 1250) and the Sephevids (Persian Shiite dynasty that lasted from 1501 to 1736).

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9.1.THE OUTER MONGOLIA

Subsequently, with the military-political pressure that the Ottomans made to the west and the orthoquids (later replaced by the sephevids) were making east, the last remnants of the Jalair Dynasty chose to flee through the north of the country, through the Caspian Sea and in to Siberia, thus bypassing the route used by the Tartars of Timur Lang (Tamerlane), who crossed (Soviet) Central Asia, arrived in an abandoned Baghdad in 1393.

In the meantime, the Mongols of the Jalair House arrived in what today would be Outer Mongolia (capital: Ulan Bator) until they were dominated by the Chinese emperor Kang-Hi (1662-1722) of the Mandchu Dynasty (1644-1911) who forced them to abandon the ''Mongolian Law of Hulagu Khan'' and replace it with the legal system in force in China since 125 A.D., the Confucian, which lasted until 1905.

With the replacement in 1912 of the last mandchu emperor Pu Yi by the Republican leader of Kuomintang (National People's Party), Sun Yat-Sen (1912-1925), the Outer Mongolia declared its independence by turning into a Buddhist theocracy led by Living Buddha of Urga or Bogdo Gegen (1912-1924). However, after his death, the local Communists staged a coup d'Etat with the support of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, whose consequences were:

_The closing of all Buddhist monasteries between 1937 and 1939;

_The languages: Mongol (written in Mongolian kalkha characters) and Turkish (written with Arabic characters) were reformulated in 1946 to use the Cyrillic alphabet, one of the greatest Byzantine legacies to the Slav peoples of the Orthodox religion, such as Russia, which served as a vehicle for these legacies to the far East.

_And this spread has made the new Socialist Mongolia rediscover the Roman-Hellenic Administrative Law (only ''de-Islamized'').

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10.CONCLUSION

Although this work has addressed, in general lines, the evolution of the Byzantine law from the time of the Universal Roman Empire until the appearance of the Roman-Hellenic Empire (C. VII A.D.) and its later falls (1453 and 1461, in the case of Trebizonda), it was concluded that the continuous struggles between the latinizing and hellenizing of Byzantine jurists have brought about, throughout the centuries, great variations of ''legal nature'', ''purpose'' and ''results or effects'' in the laws they designed.

These variations had as a consequence the inequality in the duration and the internal and external acceptations of these legislative works. There were also cases of countries that,due to the cultural differences with the Greeks (which were accentuated after their independence from Byzantium), ended up leaving aside the most important legacy: the legal one; so that some preserved the Orthodox Christian faith and the Cyrillic alphabet (Bulgaria and Serbia). (3)

Others, even though they were of different faiths like Islam (Turkey) and Buddhism (Mongolia), eventually acceded the said legal legacy not only by the direct or indirect contact they had with the Byzantines, but also by the fact that Turks and Mongols had glimpsed in these contacts opportunities for civilization.

A third group of countries (Greece, Romania, and Russias (4)),however, even in different historical circumstances, more fully absorbed Romanian-Hellenic culture(legislation, alphabet, customs and religion) by making it survive to the ostracism that could arise with the disuse and, finally, to come to the actuality like one of the majors and greatness in the patrimony of Humanity.

______________________________________________________________________

(3)Slovenia (formerly Aquileia), Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina are Slavic neighbors to Serbia that also integrated the Byzantine Empire. But the first two chose the Roman Catholic faith and the Roman alphabet, and the third was Islamized after the Ottoman conquest. (4)The plural expression ''Russias'' was used in the Middle Ages to denote the ensemble: Belarus or White Russia, Ukraine and Russia itself.

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11.APPENDICES (TRANSCRIPTIONS)

11.1.The Byzantine Agrarian Law

''The agriculture did not favor the population, because it was essentially landed and dominated by the Church.

The land was divided into large estates of few lords. Except in the rugged and mountainous regions, large numbers of peasants were made up of sharecroppers and servants. And for the independent few, it was increasingly difficult to survive.

The wealth of agriculture was concentrated in the hands of the Church, and particularly of the monasteries, for with the popularity of asceticism many small proprietors entered the cloister, donating their lands to the entities that welcomed them. Owner of a figure that was already, the Church (Byzantine) passed to the position of greater owner.

But the lands were not cultivated by the religious, they continued to be worked by servants. The condition of them worsened when the most important emperor of the Thracian Dynasty: Anastasis I (491 A.D.-518 A.D.) forbade them to abandon any property on which they had worked for thirty years. The decree was intended to ensure a minimum of agricultural production, but, in fact, served only to link the peasants to the land even more.

However, between the centuries 7th (Heraclius Dynasty) and 8th (Isauric Dynasty), some servants succeeded in becoming owners of the lands they cultivated. But in the 9th century (Phrygian or Amorian Dynasty and period of disturbances from 802 to 820 A.D.), the previous situation has been restored and independent farmers have virtually ceased to exist.'' (5)

______________________________________________________________________ (5)''Byzantium: Permanence of an Empire'' _ In: ''Knowledge Research _ Universal History I'' _ Book Circle (1987), pp. 96 and 97.

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''Attributed to the iconoclasist emperors still the enactment of the Rural Code, characterized by Zacarias Von Lingenthal, the eminent expert in Byzantine law of the last century as a rural police code (Eine L?ndliche Polizei-ordnung).

This small manual of Agrarian Law is a collection made by a private jurist, of a series of dispositions concerning the relations between the peasants and the multiple incidents of rural life. The eighty-five titles deal with various forms of robbery in the woods and fields, property violations, shepherd negligence, damage caused by animals or in animals, etc.

It is undeniable that the rural framework painted by the Code must correspond to a very definite period of Byzantine history. And the absence of any allusion to settlement or servitude is very significant.

From the time of the Macedonian emperors we will also record the following novels related to the struggle that these sovereigns, at least from Romano I Lecapeno until the death of Basil II (957 A.D.-1025 A.D.), sustained against the great owners of land. In 922 A.D., Romano I published a novel that protected the small proprietor and the military properties. No powerful one could, under any title, acquire properties of the poor. All the military property alienated in the last thirty years should be returned to its old ones owners.

In 934 A.D., another novel dealt with the latifundia and the absorption of small estates by them. In 996 A.D., a novel by Basil II abolished the forty years prescription that secured the right of the powerful who had illegally appropriated the property of peasants and sought, or with gifts or with their power, to acquire the definitive property of what they had taken by illicit means. " (6)

______________________________________________________________________

(6)GIORDANI, Mário Curtis _ ''History of the Byzantine Empire'' _ Voices Publishing Company _ 2nd Edition (1977).

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11.2.Roman-Hellenic Legislative Scheme

11.2.1.Cyclogum Legum Compendiaria (Epitome of Selected Laws)_ Ano 740 A.D., being emperor Leo III, Isauro (the Iconoclasist). Based on the Digest, Institutes and Novels. Contains eighteen titles on matters of Civil Law: marriage, donations, succession, guardianship, manumission of slaves, obligations in general, peculums, penalties,etc. It constitutes a reaction against the work of Justinian I.

11.2.2.Lex Rhodia de Jactu_ Of much earlier date was, however, included in the Digest, XIV, 2. Of this extracted and again published, in appendix to the écloga Legum Compendiaria.

11.2.3.Prochiron Legum (Manual of Laws)_ Year 870 A.D., being emperor Basil I, Macedonian (867 A.D. - 886 A.D.). This same emperor proceeded the second edition of the Prochiron Legum already with another denomination: Epanagogé (repetita praelectio).

11.2.4.Basilicas_ Initiated by Basil I, Macedonian, and terminated by his son Leo VI, the Philosopher (886 A.D. - 912 A.D.). Divided into 60 books, subdivided into titles. Based on Digest, Institutes, Code and Novels and sought to unify the sparse compilations of Justinian I, also translating into Greek the legislation in Latin language.

Second edition of the Basilicas by the son of Leo VI, the Philosopher: Constantine VII Porphyrogeneta (912 A.D. - 959 A.D.). This edition is from the year 945 A.D. and entitled Basilica Repeatitae Praelectionis. Editions of Heimbach: in Greek and Latin, six volumes (1833-1870).

11.2.5.Novellae Leonis_ The same emperor Leo VI, the Philosopher, promulgated them in Greek. These novels were translated into Latin by Henrique Agileu, in the 16th century (1560). Some are incorporated into the edition of the Academicum Parisian of the Corpus Juris Civilis. There is an edition of Beck: De Novellis Leonis líber singularis.

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Synopses, Indexes and Repertoires:

11.2.6.Synopsis Basilicorum_ From the 10th century, unidentified author. Contains a summary of the Basilicas, as the denomination itself indicates, in alphabetical order.

11.2.7.Synopsis, by Miguel Ataliata_ From the 11th century, is also a summary of the Basilicas.

11.2.8.Tipucito, author unknown_ From the 11th century, contains material extracted from the Basilicas.There are controversies as to the meaning of its title.A few authors understand that Tipucito was the author's name, others translate it as ''where is it?''

11.2.9.Synopsis legum, by Miguel Constantino Pselo_ From the 11th century, work dedicated to the disciple of the author, Miguel Ducas, who became emperor from 1071 to 1078.

11.2.10.Epanagogé aucta_ From the 12th century, is a new and improved edition of Epanagogé (Prochiron Legum).

11.2.11.Synopsis minor_ From the 13th century, is an edition that contains extracts of the Synopsis Basilicorum and the Synopsis of Miguel Ataliata.

11.2.12.Prochiron auctum_ From the 14th century, improved edition of Prochiron Legum.It is the year 1300.

11.2.13.Promptuarium or Manuale legum (Hexabiblos), by Constantino Harmenopulos. Divided into six books.Constantino Harmenopulos was a judge in Thessalonica (according to Terrasson in 1143, according to Marcos Peixoto in 1345, and for Mackelday, died in Constantinople in 1382). It is a compilation composed by the Prochiron Legum, excerpts from the Synopsis Basilicorum and other laws and compilations.

The Hexabiblos was used for many centuries with authority of law, even at the time when Greece was under the domination of the Turks (1453). It was first published in Paris by Teodorico Adamée in 1540. There is a good edition of Otto Heiz, with translation in Latin, of 1780.

In 1830, a commission of jurisconsults was appointed by President Capo of Istria of Greece to review the Basilicas, Novels and other ancient legislation. (7)

______________________________________________________________________ (7)MEIRA, Sílvio A.B. _ ''Course of Roman Law'' _ Saraiva Publishing Company (1975).

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11.3.MAPS: See the two annexes of this monograph.

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12.BIBLIOGRAPHY

_REINACH, Julian _ ''Gaius Institutes'' _ Paris _ Company Edition Les Belles Lettres (1950);

_HERMIDA, Ant?nio José Borges _ ''Compendium of General History'' _ National Publishing Company (1970);

_MEIRA, Sílvio A.B. _ ''Course of Roman Law'' _ Saraiva Publishing Company (1975);

_MELLO, Leonel Itaussu Almeida _ ''Entrance Exam April' 76'' _ Fascicle # 11 of General History: ''Byzantine Empire and Islamic Empire'' _ April Publishing Company (1976);

_GIORDANI, Mário Curtis _ ''History of the Byzantine Empire'' _ Voices Publishing Company _ 2nd Edition (1977);

_Knowledge Research, Encyclopedia _ Volumes: ''Universal History I'' & ''The Countries of the World II'' _ S?o Paulo _ Book Circle (1987);

_LAROUSSE, Encyclopedia Delta _ Volumes 3, 5, 6, 8, 24, 26 and of Update _ S?o Paulo _ Book Circle (1987 and 1993);

_APRIL'88, Almanac _ April Publishing Company (1988);

_CRETELLA JR., José _ ''Course of Roman Law'' _ Rio de Janeiro _ Forensic Writer _ 18th Edition (1995);

_https://www.nomismatike.hpg.ig.com.br/ImpBizantino/ImpBizantino.html (19/04/2002).