comprehension. The compilers were given no authority to change the substance of the texts, and there is almost no interpolation of substance. For example, the jurists were all pagans, hence no mention is made of Jesus, apostles, saints or fathers of the church. In fact, the term god occurs in only twelve texts and on their face we cannot tell whether this is a pagan deity or the Christian God. Justinian devotes book title to a history of the law, of public offices and of the jurists. Roman jurists, with the exception of Pomponius and Gaius, were little interested in legal history, and the title contains only extracts from them. Both stopped writing shortly after A.D., hence for Justinian legal history stopped then. The great jurists, Papinian, Ulpian and Paul, who are later, do not appear. For historical reasons dating back to the th century B.C., the Roman jurists wrote little on public law, hence that balance remains in the Digest, which accordingly is overwhelmingly about private law. Indeed, since Byzantine administration was very different from that of classical Rome, much of what is said about public law had long been obsolete. The jurists had written almost entirely in Latin, hence that is the language of the Digest even though most of even the educated citizens of the early Byzantine empire could not understand it readily. Somehow connected with the compilation of the Digest is the lost work known as the Fifty Decisions which was meant to settle disputes among classical jurists. The collection is revealing in at least two ways. First, it emphasizes that the compilers of the Digest were not authorized to change the substance of juristic texts, otherwise theFifty Decisions would have been superfluous. Secondly, it shows that Roman jurists were not seriously interested in law reform: otherwise important civil servants such as Julian, Papinian, Ulpian and Paul, would have had the law settled by a ruling of the Emperor. The jurists’ interest and their prestige depended on their skill (and its recognition) in legal interpretation.
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