Emperor gave to his code can only be understood to relate to constitutions since Constantine, and he must have relied on the Gregorian and Hermogenian Codes for earlier constitutions still in force, and on the text-books of the lawyers, approved by his constitution of 426, for supplying the requisite details of practical law.
The Code of Theodosius was divided into sixteen books, each book having a number of titles and each title usually containing a number of constitutions or fragments of such. The order of subjects is similar to that of Justinian's Code with some exceptions. Private law is treated in Books ii-v, military matters in vii, crime in ix, revenue law in x and xi, municipal law in xii, official duties in i, and xiii-xv, and ecclesiastical matters in xvi. The names of the Emperors at the time of enactment and the date and the place either of framing or of publication were given with each constitution though they are not wholly preserved. Compared with Justinian's Code it contains a much larger proportion of administrative law and a much smaller proportion of ordinary private law. The Code remained in force in the East and in Italy until Justinian superseded it, though the traces of its use are few. In the West, in Spain, France, and Lombard Italy, it remained in practical use for long, chiefly as part of the Code issued to the Visigoths by Alaric II in 506.
A number of constitutions issued by Theodosius and his successors after the Code and therefore called Novellae (i.e. leges), "new laws," have come down to us — 84 in number, the latest of which bearing the names of Leo and Anthemius was issued in 468. Of further legislation by Roman Emperors until Justinian we have only what he chose to retain in his Code.
After the Theodosian Code and before Justinian there were compiled and issued codes of laws for the Romans in Burgundy, for the Ostrogoth subjects in Italy, and for the Romans in the Visigothic kingdom in South France and in Spain; and we have evidence of other laws prevailing in the Eastern part of the Empire, before and after Justinian's time.
In Burgundy about the beginning of the sixth century King Gundobad issued a short code of laws for all his subjects whether Burgundian or Roman. A few subsequent constitutions by him or his successors have been appended to it. Somewhat later he issued a code for his Roman subjects, when suits lay between them only. This code is about half the length of the other but many of the headings of the chapters are the same. The matter is principally torts and crimes (e.g. cattle-lifting), runaway slaves, succession, gifts, marriage, guardianship, process, and some brief rules on other parts of the law. It appears to have been taken from the same sources as the Lex Visigothorum and the particular source is frequently named. But instead of simply repeating selected words of the source, it is rather an attempt at real codification. (The name Papianus often given to it arises probably from this Code
