Codex Hermogenianus - History

History

It takes its name from its author, Aurelius Hermogenianus, a prominent jurist of the age who acted as the magister libellorum (drafter of responses to petitions) to Diocletian in this period. The work does not survive intact in complete form but a brief section may be preserved on a late antique papyrus from Egypt. Nevertheless from the surviving references and excerpts it is clear that it was a single book work, subdivided into thematic headings (tituli) containing largely rescripts to private petitioners, organised chronologically. Of the texts explicitly attributed to the Codex Hermogenianus, the vast majority date from the years 293–294, though some texts may have been added to this core by Hermogenian in subsequent editions of his work. For the fifth-century author Coelius Sedulius claims that Hermogenian, like Origen, produced three editions of his work in total (though this may relate to his Iuris epitomae). Still, the seven Valentinianic constitutions attributed to the CH by the author of the Consultatio veteris cuiusdam iurisconsulti must reflect on-going insertions by subsequent users rather than authorial appendices. Consensus opinion has it that the first edition collected the rescripts of 293 and 294, which Hermogenian had himself authored as magister libellorum. It has been proposed that Hermogenianus produced the second edition after 298, while praetorian prefect, its inclusion of western rescripts reflecting service as magister libellorum at the court of Maximian (c. AD 295–298), and that the final edition, incorporating extra eastern texts, was achieved c. 320 at the court of Licinius or possibly the law school of Beirut. If Hermogenian applied the same organisational principle to the Codex as he did in his Iuris epitomae, then the order of titles is likely to have followed that of the Praetor's Edict. Scholars' estimates as to the number of titles vary from a minimum of 18 to one of 147, though a majority favour 69. Where evidence as to the circumstances of original publication is preserved, it is overwhelmingly to the giving or subscribing of the constitution, suggesting that Hermogenian's collection was made at source in the imperial archives.