Code of Justinian

Although the Code of Justinian was not, in itself, a new legal code, it rationalized hundreds of years of existing Roman statutes. Contradictions and conflicts were eliminated, and any existing laws that were not included in it were repealed. Later laws written by Justinian himself were compiled in the Novellae Constitutiones Post Codicem.

Roman law provided the foundation for civil law, the legal code currently used in continental Europe and throughout Latin America. Common law, the other major body of law used around the world, developed in British courts in the Middle Ages and subsequently spread to the United States and the member states of the Commonwealth.

The Law of the Twelve Tables is traditionally dated 451–450 BCE. It was inscribed on 12 bronze tablets and displayed in the Roman Forum. Its rules were chiefly concerned with property and the settlement of debts.

Justinian preserved the eastern border of the Byzantine Empire despite repeated invasions by the Persians. He also waged successful wars against the Vandals and the Goths, conquering the Vandal kingdom in North Africa and, for a brief period, reestablishing Roman rule in Italy.