Death, Blood, and Succession: Justinian’s Novel 158 and the relationship between inheritance law and imperial power in late Roman law

Abstract

Romanist historians have consistently argued that Justinian’s revision to the agnatic line of succession in Novel 118 signifies an increased recognition of the blood principle. This paper takes a corrective approach to the place of blood in late Roman inheritance patterns and argues that the exchange of agnatic for general blood principle was not a policy change insofar that the imperial state had always dealt with a kind of blood. Thus, the change in succession law from agnatic line to general blood line should be viewed as a development within the principle of blood. Within this paper, ‘blood’ and ‘blood relationship’ refer to those in kinship, for example, mothers, fathers, children and so on. I will use this definition to explain how blood connections were endowed with proprietorial value through the imperial state’s developments in inheritance law. Power refers to imperial state’s ability to influence family hierarchy and Empire. Thus, the concept of blood was malleable because it’s cultural value and it legal value could be altered through imperial power. The approach of this paper is guided by David Miller and Peter Sarris’ annotated translations of Justinian’s Novels which treats the sources as self-conscious literary constructions. The analysis emphasises how juristic science itself functioned as part of imperial power. Ultimately, this paper argues that Justinian's Novel 158 exemplifies how the imperial state manipulated legal definitions of 'blood' to consolidate its control over family structures and inheritance.