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ER 2143
The Emperors Valentinian, Theodosius, and Arcadius issue the law which allows the decurions who became presbyters, deacons, or exorcists before the year 388 to be exempt from the service in municipal councils. Whoever was ordained later, must offer his property for the municipal service. The law issued on 17 June 390, included in the Theodosian Code published in 438.
XII.1.121
 
IDEM AAA. TATIANO P(RAEFECTO) P(RAETORI)O. Qui ante secundum consulatum mansuetudinis meae ex ordine curiali vel presbyteri fastigium vel ministerium diaconi vel exorcistae suscepit officium, omne eius patrimonium immune a curialibus nexibus habeatur ac liberum. Is vero, qui se ad religiosa divini cultus obsequia quocumque sub nomine post memorati consulatus tempora praescripta contulerit, omni sciat cedendum esse patrimonio. DAT. XV KAL. IUL. MED(IOLANO) VAL(ENTINI)ANO A. IIII ET NEOTERIO CONSS.  
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 702)
XII.1.121
 
The same Augusti to Tatianus, Praetorian Prefect.
If any person of the order of decurions, before the second consulship of My Clemency, has either achieved the exalted rank of presbyter or has performed the service of deacon or has undertaken the duty of exorcist, all his patrimony shall be held exempt and free from the bonds of decurions. But if any person should betake himself to religious duties of divine worship, under any title whatsoever, after the prescribed time of the aforesaid consulship, he shall know that all his patrimony must be surrendered.
Given on the fifteenth day before the kalends of July at Milan in the year of the fourth consulship of Valentinian Augustus and the consulship of Neoterius. June 17, 390.
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 359-60)

Discussion:

The emperors are named in XII.1.116. The second consulship of Valentinian was in the year 388.

Place of event:

Region
  • East
City
  • Constantinople

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code
Origin: Constantinople (East)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
The Theodosian Code is a compilation of the Roman legislation from the times of the Emperor Constantine to the times of Theodosius II. The work was begun in 427 and finished in autumn 437 when it was accepted for publication. It was promulgated in February 438 and came into effect from the beginning of the year 439.
 
The compilation consist of sixteen books in which all imperial constitutions are gathered beginning with the year 312. Books 1-5 did not survive and are reconstructed from the manuscripts of the Lex Romana Visigothorum, i.e. the Breviary of Alaric, the legal corpus published in 506 by the Visigothic king, Alaric, containing excerpts from the Theodosian Code equipped with explanatory notes (interpretationes), post-Theodosian novels and several other juristic texts.
 
A new compilation was undertaken during the reign of the emperor Justinian. A committee of ten persons prepared and promulgated the Codex in 529. It was quickly outdated because of the legislative activities of the emperor and therefore its revised version had to be published in 534. The Codex together with the novels, the Pandecta, a digest of juristic writings, and the Institutes, an introductory handbook are known under the medieval name "Corpus Iuris Civilis".
Edition:
Theodor Mommsen and Paul Martin Meyer (eds.), Theodosiani libri XVI cum constitutionibus Sirmondianis et leges novellae ad Theodosianum pertinentes, 2 vols., Berlin 1905
Paul Krüger (ed.), Codex Iustinianus, Berlin 1877
Gustav Hänel (ed.), Lex Romana Visigothorum, Leipzig 1849
 
Translation:
The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions, a translation with commentary, glossary, and bibliography by C. Pharr, Princeton 1952
Bibliography:
(all those entries with extenstive, recent bibliography)
 
 

Categories:

Social origin or status - Social elite
    Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
      Impediments or requisits for the office - Social/Economic/Legal status
        Public functions and offices before ordination
          Public functions and offices after ordination - Civic office
            Public law - Secular
              Economic status and activity - Indication of wealth
                Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2143, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2143
                Record by: Marta Szada
                last edited: 2019-08-12 10:22:26
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