Byzantine Legal Culture under the Macedonian Dynasty, 867-1056

Abstract

Building upon the pioneering work of legal historians as well as recent scholarship on the Middle Byzantine administration, "Byzantine Legal Culture under the Macedonian Dynasty, 867-1056" is a study which seeks to situate Byzantine law within its broader historical and societal context. This dissertation is an examination of Byzantine Legal Culture, which can be loosely defined as the interaction between laws, jurisprudence and ideas about justice as well as their implementation. The period under examination, from roughly the middle of the ninth to the middle of the eleventh century, was characterized by a "Recleansing of the Ancient Laws", in which the emperors of the Macedonian dynasty made a concerted effort to reassert the empire's Roman legal heritage. This epoch represented the last great efflorescence of Byzantine secular law, as from the twelfth century onward the importance of Byzantine canon law gradually came to encompass and supplant secular law.

Underneath an imperially-sanctioned façade of legal continuity, law and legal culture underwent momentous transformations during this period: models and paradigms outside of Roman law considerably influenced judges and jurisprudence; the mores and customs of the élite were legitimated through the legal system; and private law collections seemed to challenge the monopoly of authority held by Roman law. By examining the interplay between Byzantine law and Byzantine culture, this dissertation represents a dynamic new way of examining one of the world's richest legal traditions.