l
with mature and deliberate acts of legislation, was ineffectually
condemned by the sense and example of Trajan. The rescripts of the
emperor, his grants and decrees, his edicts and pragmatic sanctions,
were subscribed in purple ink, [47] and transmitted to the provinces as
general or special laws, which the magistrates were bound to execute,
and the people to obey. But as their number continually multiplied, the
rule of obedience became each day more doubtful and obscure, till the
will of the sovereign was fixed and ascertained in the Gregorian, the
Hermogenian, and the Theodosian codes. [4711] The two first, of which
some fragments have escaped, were framed by two private lawyers,
to preserve the constitutions of the Pagan emperors from Adrian to
Constantine. The third, which is still extant, was digested in sixteen
books by the order of the younger Theodosius to consecrate the laws of
the Christian princes from Constantine to his own reign. But the three
codes obtained an equal authority in the tribunals; and any act which
was not included in the sacred deposit might be disregarded by the judge
as epurious or obsolete. [48]

[Footnote 3511: It is an important question in what manner the emperors
were invested with this legislative power. The newly discovered Gaius
distinctly states that it was in virtue of a law--Nec unquam dubitatum
est, quin id legis vicem obtineat, cum ipse imperator per legem imperium
accipiat. But it is still uncertain whether this was a general law,
passed on the transition of the government from a republican to a
monarchical form, or a law passed on the accession of each emperor.
Compare Hugo, Hist. du Droit Romain, (French translation,) vol. ii. p.
8.--M.]

[Footnote 36: His laws are the first in the code. See Dodwell,
(Praelect. Cambden, p. 319--340,) who wanders from the subject in
confused reading and feeble paradox. * Note: This is again an error
which Gibbon shares with Heineccius, and the generality of authors. It
arises from having mistaken the insignificant edict of Hadrian, inserted
in the Code of Justinian, (lib. vi, tit. xxiii. c. 11,) for the first
constitutio principis, without attending to the fact, that the Pandects
contain so many constitutions of the emperors, from Julius Caesar, (see
l. i. Digest 29, l) M. Hugo justly observes, that the acta of Sylla,
approved by the senate, were the same thing with the constitutions of
those who after him usurped the sovereign power. Mor