Constitutiones

Constitutiones is a Latin term meaning constitutions, used in antiquity and the medieval period to designate formal imperial or royal edicts, decrees, or legal orders. In Roman law and late antiquity, a constitutio was a binding act issued by the emperor. The plural Constitutiones refers to multiple such acts and to the body of laws produced in that form.

In the later Roman and Byzantine periods, constitutiones covered a wide range of topics—administration, finance, military matters, law, and religion—and were compiled into official codifications. The Theodosian Code, completed in the early 5th century, is a famous collection that preserves numerous imperial constitutiones. Later, Justinian I’s corpus jurists systematized and reorganized existing material, and the Codex Justinianus explicitly includes many constitutiones as part of its statutes. The term also appears in reference to new edicts issued after 534, known as novellae constitutiones.

During the medieval and early modern eras, Latin usage of Constitutiones continued to denote papal or royal constitutions and other high-level decrees, written in formal, legal Latin and circulated as part of legal monuments and commentaries. The concept reflects a governance model in which the ruler’s explicit orders established legal norms and administrative procedures, distinct from statutes enacted by other bodies.

Today, Constitutiones is primarily of historical interest, used by scholars to describe imperial and royal acts within the Roman, Byzantine, and medieval legal traditions. It illustrates how imperial authority sought to structure the state, church, and society through formal, codified commands.