is generally downplayed by scholars, presumably unwittingly. I suspect that this is due to the success it enjoyed in the Reception. Authority counts for so much in law. But the historical irony for this authority and Reception must be stressed. If the work had been in Greek -- a language virtually unknown in the West until after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in -- the Reception could not have occurred. Without the Institutes -- the only really systematic part of the compilation -- the Reception would have been much more difficult, if it could have occurred at all. If the compilation had adequately reflected social and political realities of early Byzantium it would not have fitted easily into Western Europe. And how could fiercely Catholic Western Europe have coped with law resonating with fiercely Byzantine orthodoxy? These first two lectures set the scene for the third, on the Ten Commandments. I hope I have already demonstrated that law does not develop in a straightforward way. This is true even of legislation. Legislation is often not forthcoming -- this is true for ancient Rome, and also accounts for the Reception. When lawmakers on the grand scale, such as Justinian, appear, it is usually hard to see in their legislation any precise social, political or economic message. I wish to examine the Ten Commandments from this perspective. In this connection I must stress that in what follows my concern is not with historical accuracy but with the tradition in Exodus. For my argument it is irrelevant whether or not God gave the Commandments to Moses. The tradition, accurate or not, corresponds, I suggest, to a general pattern of law making. Law, I have already stressed, must be authoritative. Legislation is different from other sources of law, such as judicial decisions, in that it alone proceeds directly from the government or ruler. And governments and rulers have only one essential talent: to remain in power. Everything else is subordinate. It is not necessary to provide the best
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