The Corpus Juris Civilis represents the Roman law in the form which it assumed at the close of the ancient period (a thousand years after the decemviral legislation of the Twelve Tables), and through which mainly it has acted upon modern times. It was compiled in the Eastern Roman Empire (the Western ceased in 476 a.d.), under the Emperor Justinian (controversies as to his character), who reigned 527-565 a.d. It was divided into fifty books, and each book into several titles. About a third part comes from the jurist Ulpian (died 228), a sixth from his contemporary Julius Paulus, a twelfth from Papinian (died 212), etc. The Digest is the longest component of the Corpus Juris, and much the most important, from the nature and variety of its contents, showing the spirit of the law, and giving illustrations of juristic reasonings and methods. To bring the Codex Constitutionum into better conformity with the Digest, it was revised in 534, and issued as we now have it in November of that year. It was divided into twelve books, and these into titles, with the same general arrangement as the Digest. Yet it contains some topics which do not appear in the Digest, especially all those connected with Christianity and the church. In general, it contains much more of public law than the Digest; and the superior importance of the latter is partly due to this fact, it being the private, not the public, law of Rome which has obtained currency in modern Europe...