Compiled under Theodosius II, Theodosian Code (438)

The collected laws of the Christian emperors from Constantine to 437, arranged by subject in sixteen books. It records how the late Roman state tried to govern its cities: public works, the upkeep of walls and porticoes, and the place of the dead.

A commission appointed by Theodosius II gathered the general laws issued since 312 and published them in 438 for both halves of the empire. Many are fragments of longer letters, cut down to their legal core, with the date and the official addressed.

Two titles matter for the town. Book XV, title 1, On public works, returns again and again to the same problems: governors who begin new buildings while old ones fall down, private people who build against public walls, granaries and porticoes, and the removal of such encroachments. Book IX, title 17, On the violation of tombs, includes a law of 381 that repeats the ancient Roman ban on burial within the city (even of the relics of apostles and martyrs) in Constantinople.

The book, part by part

I IX.17: tombs

The law of 381 (IX.17.6): bodies, urns and sarcophagi to be kept outside the city.

Rules: The dead outside the walls

II XV.1: public works

Repair before new building; private structures against public buildings and in porticoes to be removed.

Rules: Keep the public buildings and porticoes clear

Rules drawn from Theodosian Code

The dead outside the walls

Bury no one inside the city; keep bodies, urns and sarcophagi outside the walls, even the relics of apostles and martyrs. So the great shrines of the martyrs rise in the cemeteries along the roads, not in the town.

Keep the public buildings and porticoes clear

Repair the public buildings of the city before beginning new ones; and pull down the booths, sheds and houses that private people build into the public porticoes or against the walls of public buildings.