Equity in the Middle Ages

Abstract

“For centuries, the academic study of Roman law has centred, with some notable exceptions, on the courts in the city of Rome itself, and especially on the jurisdiction of the urban praetor”. In reality, however, Roman law did not evolve in the capital and in the provinces uniformly, at least since the late Republic and early Principate. In the Eastern part of the empire, local particularities became even more pronounced during the fourth century after the shift of power from West to East under emperor Constantine and especially after the partition of the empire between the sons of emperor Theodosius in 395 AD. Legal homogeneity throughout the whole empire was definitely not a reality at the time of the Diocletian-Constantinian monarchy, and even less so when king Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustus, the last emperor in the West, in 476 AD.