ABSTRACT
This is an important, if very limited, body of material. East Roman imperial legislation virtually ceases after Heraclius, who himself produced only a minute fraction of the legislation of Justinian. l It increases again only during the later ninth and tenth centuries. In the intervening period, there is very little, but what there is has, perhaps inevitably, taken on an importance far outweighing the quantity of material which survives. For this reason a number of texts compiled during the later ninth and early tenth centuries are included, since their value for the development of both legal literature and imperial legislation as well as the administration of the empire in the preceding period cannot be ignored. The material can be grouped under three heads: state legislation; official codifications; and related but 'unofficial' or 'private' collections oflegislative norms and practice, including legal handbooks or reference works. Of the day-to-day administrative legislation, issued in the form of imperial ordinances, commands, and rescripts, very few of the original texts have survived, but many are referred to and quoted or summarized, not always accurately, in the histories and chronicles of the period, or in letters. 2
State legislation is, as noted, very limited. At the beginning of the period, there is the Ekloge or Ecloga of Leo III and Constantine V, issued probably in 741, as well as an associated legal decision concerning the division of property upon the termination of an agreement made between the head of a household and an outsider, usually associated in the manuscript tradition with the Ecloga itself. Its purpose, as is made clear in the Prooimion, was to present a selection from a range of key areas of
For a survey of the legislative activity of the emperors of the sixth and seventh centuries, see Haldon, Byzantium in the Seventh Century, 254-80. In general, for further discussion and literature, see L. Wenger, Die Quellen des romischen Rechts (Vienna 1953), especially 'Das Justinianische Recht in Byzanz' (679-726) for a survey of Byzantine law and legal literature; see also P.l Zepos, 'Die byzantinische Jurisprudenz zwischen Justinian und den Basiliken', Berichte zum XI. Internat. Byzantinisten-Kongress V, 1 (Munich 1958) 1-27; and Karayannopoulos and Weiss, especially I, 91-134; H.l ScheItema, 'Byzantine law', in Cambridge Medieval History vol. iv, 1 and 2, rev. edn lM. Hussey (Cambridge 1966) 2, 55-77; and P.E. PieIer, 'Byzantinische Rechtsliteratur', in Hunger, Literatur, II, 343-480.
