The late antique emperor Justinian was not only a successful ruler, but also had an important influence on Roman legislation to this day. It is striking that the Eastern Roman emperor issued a particularly large number of laws relating to the role and rights of women. Some of them gave them more freedom, others curtailed it. A historian from Würzburg is currently investigating what lies behind Justinian’s focus on women’s rights.
Justinian I is one of the most famous rulers of late antiquity. The ruler, who originally came from a humble background, was named heir to the throne by his uncle and predecessor Justin I in 525, became co-emperor in April 527 and after the death of Justin I he ascended the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire in August 527. Justinian is considered crucial for the change from the ancient Roman era to the Christian-influenced Byzantine Empire. As a successful general, Justinian I also ensured the expansion of the Eastern Roman Empire in several campaigns against the Germans, Vandals and Persians.
Groundbreaking compilation of the law
But Justinian was also a pioneer in another area: he commissioned a complete compilation of Roman law, the so-called Corpus Iuris Civilis. This legal basis shaped the development of jurisprudence in Europe: in the 12th century it was an integral part of legal doctrine in Bologna and became the basis of jurisprudence in the medieval Staufer Empire. Many laws date back to Justinian I’s Corpus Iuris. Emperor Justinian not only collected all relevant legal sources, he also issued numerous new laws himself.
The amazing thing about it: more than 200 laws of the late antique ruler dealt with the role of women and their rights and duties in everyday life. Given the subordinate status of women in Roman culture, it was extremely unusual for an emperor to be so concerned with the rights of the female sex. The historian Katharina Wojciech from the Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg is currently investigating in a research project what is behind this and what Justinian’s amendments to the law reveal about the role of women in the Eastern Roman Empire.
Why is the emperor so concerned with women?
“Justinian seems to have been interested in many aspects that were not necessarily typical of a ruler of the time. This also includes women,” says the historian. It is unclear why the Eastern Roman emperor cared about women’s rights. However, some scholars suspect that this may have been due to his wife Theodora, who, like Justinian himself, came from a humble background and is said to have practiced the then disreputable profession of actress for a time before becoming empress. According to some historical sources, Theodora was a strong-willed woman who may well have influenced her husband’s decisions and rule.
It would therefore be quite plausible if Empress Theodora had insisted on improving the situation of women. “But that’s by no means guaranteed,” says Wojciech. In fact, some of Justinian’s amendments to the law helped improve the status of women in at least some respects: They made it easier for women in the Eastern Roman Empire to enter into legitimate relationships. In addition, the new laws improved the property status of women and helped them to own more property. However, Justinian also issued regulations that significantly restricted women’s rights and freedoms. For example, if a woman was beaten by her husband, she could not get a divorce. She was only entitled to financial compensation.
Exciting search for clues
“This shows that his legislation was not free of contradictions and that there were also different developments. The question of his motivation is an exciting factor,” explains Wojciech. As part of her project, she will now give in to the question of why many of Justinian’s novellas dealt so explicitly with women and what says about their role at the time. In addition to Justinian’s amendments to the law and his collection of Roman law, Wojciech also evaluates other contemporary texts, including the historiography of Procopius of Caesarea and religious writings.
“I want to question why women are visible in these laws. What expectations were formulated of women? Did women live up to these expectations? And if they didn’t, to what extent did these laws have their place in everyday life? “One must always bear in mind that our historical sources have always been written by men. So in antiquity we encounter an alien view of women. That’s why it’s particularly important to me to give them a voice today and to question the male discourses, expectations and value judgments of the time.”
Source: Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg; Research project “Justinian and the women – imperial law from a gender perspective”