CODEX HERMOGENIA´NUS
CODEX HERMOGENIA´NUS (sometimes, though without good
reason, regarded as one collection with the preceding), a compilation of
imperial constitutions made by an equally obscure Hermogenianus: possibly he
was the Hermogenian who wrote the “libri epitomarum” from which
there are excerpts in the Digest, but the name belonged to several high
state officials in the second half of the fourth century (Heinecc.
Hist. Jur. § 369). The oldest enactment which we
know it to have contained is a constitution of Diocletian of A.D. 290 or
291, also embodied in the Codex Gregorianus, and it consists almost entirely
of the legislation of that emperor and Maximian. In the “consultatio
veteris juris consulti,” cap. 9, seven constitutions of Valens
and Valentinian II., probably of the years 364 and 365 A.D., are said to have been contained in it; but many critics
consider this an error, and place the date of the compilation much earlier
(Wenck,
Corpus Juris Antejustin. p. 62), though these
enactments may have been inserted in a later edition; others see no reason
for thinking the Codex was compiled much earlier than Theodosius II., who
mentions it in
Cod. Theod. 1.1, 5. We do not hear of its
being divided into Books, but only into Titles and Rubrics. It seems to have
been intended as a sort of appendix to the Codex Gregorianus. Neither of
them was made by imperial authority ; they were the work of private
individuals, but apparently soon came to be regarded as authority in courts
of justice. (Böcking,
Institutionen; Puchta,
Institutionen, § 135; Zimmern,
Geschichte des
römischen Privatrechts ; Wenck,
Corpus Juris
Antejustinianei ; Hugo,
Lehrbuch der Geschichte des
römischen Rechts.）
[
J.B.M]
