Sоurce: The Cоde оf Justiniаn, а collection of Romаn laws and legal principles enacted by the Roman Emperor Justinian, 524. Justinian issued the code in order to update the Roman legal system. THE LAW OF PERSONS: The chief division in the rights of persons is this: men are all either free or slaves. Freedom, from which men are said to be free, is the natural power of doing what we each please, unless prevented by force or by law. Slavery is an institution of the law of nations, by which one man is made the property of another, contrary to natural right. Slaves either are born or become so. They are born so when their mother is a slave; they become so either by the law of nations, that is, by captivity, or by the civil law, as when a free person, above the age of twenty, suffers himself to be sold, that he may share the price given for him. (debt slavery) THE POWER OF PARENTS: Our children, begotten in lawful marriage, are in our power. Marriage, or matrimony, is a binding together of a man and woman to live in an indivisible union. The power which we have over our children is peculiar to the citizens of Rome; for no other people have a power over their children, such as we have over ours. The child born to you and your wife is in your power. And so is the child born to your son of his wife, that is, your grandson or granddaughter; so are your greatgrandchildren, and all your other descendants. But a child born of your daughter is not in your power, but in the power of its own father. MARRIAGE: Roman citizens are bound together in lawful matrimony when they are united according to law, the males having attained the age of puberty, and the females a marriageable age; but, of the latter, they must first obtain the consent of their parents, in whose power they are. There are also restrictions on marriage between collateral relations. A brother and sister are forbidden to marry, whether they are the children of the same father and mother, or of one of the two only. A man may not marry the daughter of a brother, or a sister, nor the granddaughter, although she is in the fourth degree. For when we may not marry the daughter of any person, neither may we marry the granddaughter. THE LAW OF THINGS: The following things are by natural law common all—the air, running water, the sea, and consequently the sea-shore. 1. No one is forbidden access to the seashore, provided he abstains from injury to houses, monuments, and buildings generally; for these are not, like the sea itself, subject to the law of nations. 2. On the other hand, all rivers and harbors are public, so that all persons have a right to fish therein. 3. Again, the public use of the banks of a river, as of the river itself, is part of the law of nations; consequently every one is entitled to bring his vessel to the bank, and fasten cables to the trees growing there, and use it as a resting-place for the cargo, as freely as he may navigate the river itself. QUESTIONS: 1. What do these laws tell us about gender roles during the reign of Justinian? 2. How did these laws regulate life in the Byzantine Empire? 3. How do these laws relate to other law codes we have read about this semester? Your answer must be in your own words- do not use direct quotes. Your answer must be a minimum of 200 words.