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Following this, any new legislation, when needed, was from that point onward
issued in the form of "New Constitutions", known as "Novels". These dealt with
such issues as ecclesiastical and public affairs, private law, and one very long
Novel in particular constitutes a code of Christian marriage law.
A sign of the change between the Roman Empire of old and the Eastern Roman
Empire at the time of Justinian was the fact that all Novels were now written in
Greek. While the Codes were in Latin, the traditional language of the law, this
was not the natural language of judges, lawyers, litigants, and the general
populace in the Eastern Roman Empire. Also, while Justinian was guided by old
tradition in the recodifying of the law, he saw that he could not automatically
perpetuate all laws of the old Roman Empire. Many Roman laws had never been
popular in the Greek east, and local preferences, both Hellenic and oriental in
origin, were now brought within the new legal system to replace old Roman
doctrines. The influence of Greek philosophical thought, which was at the heart
of the educational system, was manifest in many of the classifications and
reasonings of Justinian's legislation. A definite Hellenic and oriental shade in
the new legislation can also be seen in the laws concerning family, inheritance
and dowry. The power of the father, traditional in old Roman thought, was now
considerably weakened. Also attesting to the difference in the times was the
fact that the new laws had a definite Christian sense about them. There was a
desire to make the laws more humane in some ways, in line with the emperors
current emphasis on the concept of Philanthropia, or love of mankind. There was
a marked increase in laws aiming to protect persons of weaker social position
against persons whose position gave them increased power. Justinian's law, for
instance, favoured slave against master, debtor against creditor and wife
against husband. Of course, there still existed laws that seem, by today's
standards quite cruel, and there were still laws that differentiated between
different classes of society, but it was a definite advance in the legal system
since the days of the old Roman Empire.
In old scaned foto part of great walls
in the WS continue the story