Chap, xliv] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 495 people, and the decrees of the senate, succeeded to the authority of the text ; and the text was abandoned, as an useless, though venerable, relic of antiquity. The Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes were declared to be the legitimate system of civil jurisprudence ; they alone were admitted in the tribunals, and they alone were taught in the academies of Rome, Constanti- nople, and Berytus. Justinian addressed to the senate and provinces his eternal oracles > and his pride, under the mask of piety, ascribed the consummation of this great design to the support and inspiration of the Deity. Since the emperor declined the fame and envy of original Praise and composition, we can only require at his hands method, choice, the code and fidelity, the humble though indispensable virtues of adects an compiler. Among the various combinations of ideas, it is difficult to assign any reasonable preference; but, as the order of Justinian is different in his three works, it is possible that all may be wrong, and it is certain that two cannot be right. In the selection of ancient laws, he seems to have viewed his pre- decessors without jealousy and with equal regard : the series could not ascend above the reign of Hadrian, and the narrow distinction of Paganism and Christianity, introduced by the superstition of Theodosius, had been abolished by the consent of mankind. But the jurisprudence of the Pandects is circum- scribed within a period of an hundred years, from the Perpetual Edict to the death of Severus Alexander; the civilians who lived under the first Caesars are seldom permitted to speak, and only three names can be attributed to the age of the republic. The favourite of Justinian (it has been fiercely urged) was fear- ful of encountering the light of freedom and the gravity of Roman sages. Tribonian condemned to oblivion the genuine and native wisdom of Cato, the Scaevolas, and Sulpicius ; while he invoked spirits more congenial to his own, the Syrians, Greeks, and Africans, who flocked to the Imperial court to study Latin as a foreign tongue, and jurisprudence as a lucrative profession. But the ministers of Justinian 7g were instructed to labour, not for the curiosity of antiquarians, but for the im- mediate benefit of his subjects. It was their duty to select 79 An ingenious and learned oration of Schultingius (Jurisprudentia Ante- Jnstini- anea, p. 883-907) justifies the choice of Tribonian, against the passionate charges of Francis Hottornan and his sectaries.
