ABSTRACT

State registers and collections of decrees have survived: the Notitia Dignitatum3 and the Codex Theodosianus,4 although the former contains later insertions and corrections. The section on Britain in the Notitia gives an account of conditions in the previous century. Generally it records the conditions at the time of Stilicho (died 408). Seeck estimates the date of authorship [MH.III, 3] at 413-16. The Codex Theodosianus is likewise unique: earlier collections of decrees, the Codex Gregorianus and the Codex Hermogenianus, contain judgments passed by the Emperor’s court. The Theodosianus is a collection of laws published under Theodosius II in 438 and extending from the time of Constantine up to Theodosius II. Almost all of it has survived, apart from some gaps in the first five books.