Justinian's Legal Code

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.9K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2016

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas brought together under Justinian I, Byzantine emperor in the 6th century AD, which were rediscovered in Western Europe in the Middle Ages and became very influential in the development of laws in many European nations and elsewhere.

With

Caroline Humfress Professor of Medieval History at the University of St Andrews

Simon Corcoran Lecturer in Ancient History at Newcastle University

and

Paul du Plessis Senior Lecturer in Civil law and European legal history at the School of Law, University of Edinburgh

Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time, for news about In Our Time, and
0:04.8	for recommendations about our archive, please follow us on Twitter at BBC In Our Time.
0:10.1	I hope you enjoyed the program.
0:12.3	Hello, the Emperor Justinian the Great ruled the Eastern Roman Empire for almost 40 years
0:17.3	from Constantinople in the 6th century AD.
0:20.3	One of the first things he did was to bring the sprawling mass of Roman laws together
0:24.5	in one place in what are common-known as Justinian's legal code.
0:28.8	He denied posterity with this code, and as he reconquered some of the fallen Western
0:33.7	empire in North Africa and Italy, he hoped this clear, strong laws would consolidate his
0:39.2	holder.
0:40.3	The land was one, the land that was one was quickly lost after his death, but the legal
0:44.4	code has had an impact beyond Justinian's dreams, re-emerging vigorously in the early
0:49.0	Middle Ages, and influencing the development of laws in Europe and around the world to
0:53.3	this day.
0:54.3	So, according to contemporary sources, most of them written by elite Constantinoplean writers,
1:18.5	it's an amazing story of rags to riches.
1:20.7	So, Justinian was born in the early 480s in a village called Tarisium in the southern
1:25.5	Balkans.
1:26.5	He whettled that he was the son of a farmer, a peasant.
1:29.9	His uncle Justin, apparently fled a barbarian raid, packed a bag full of grain, headed off
1:35.2	to Constantinople.
1:37.0	Rose up through the army, sent for his nephew, who was originally born Petra Sabateus.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.