The origin of the Digest goes back to 530 AD, when the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I ordered

the compilation and codification of the legal works of the Roman jurisconsults. The volumes
that make up the codex of the Digest have reached us through copies made at different times
and places.

The Digest has the value of having allowed the preservation of classical legal doctrine, serving
as a link with modern law, through constant citations and references, as a precedent and
justifier of doctrines and opinions in modern legislation. The historical objective of this
compilation was oriented, according to Justinian's ambition, to the restoration of the old
Roman Empire, allowing rescuing its legal tradition and, at the same time, imposing a uniform
set of laws over the vast territory of its empire. The selected texts had to be harmonized,
eliminating the repetitions and nullifying the contradictions that could exist between them, for
this the classic writings had to be agreed with the solutions provided by the Emperor Justinian.
The passages collected in the Digest were reinforced by the imperial authority and the rest of
the writings that were not contained in it were rejected, although they belonged to classical
authors; the work was intended both for legal schools and for practice in the courts.

Justinian inherited a Roman Empire in clear decline, however, in his tenacious attempt to
return to the resurgence of the greatness of the Empire led him to act from three different
fronts to achieve it: military, religious and legal. The idea of reunification of the Roman Empire
that Emperor Justinian conceives is also reflected in the legal aspect as it carries out the
codification of legal texts with greater influence throughout the Empire.

His work is divided into two, one part is called CORPUS IURIS CIVILES and another part called
CODEES PRERIRAE PREAELECTIONIS.

CORPUS IURIS CIVILES

The whole of the Justinian compilation that is contextualized in the Middle Ages the Corpus
Iuris Civiles consists of four books or texts:

1st) the Digest (D.)

2nd) Justinian institutions or INSTITUTE (I.J)

3th) the CODEX or Justinian Code (C.J)

4th) the novels of Justinian or NOVELLAE LEGES (Nov.J)

As far as the legal authority of the emperor, this is derived from an extraordinary
concentration of individual powers and the existing positions in the Republic and not from a
new political office; the emperors were elected regularly to the positions of consul and censor.
Among its permanent privileges were the traditional republican title of princeps senatus and
the religious charge of the pontifex maximus.

These titles and offices conferred great personal prestige (Dignitas), but the basis of the
powers of an emperor were derived from his auctoritas; this implies that his greater command
powers and tribunicia potestas are conceived as personal qualities, independently of his public
office. As a result, the emperor formally surpassed the provincial governors and ordinary
magistrates; he had the right to promulgate or revoke the sentences of death penalty, he
owed the obedience of private citizens and by the terms of the auxiliary ius could save any
plebeian from the taking of any patrician magistrate. He could veto any act or proposal of any
magistrate, including the tribunes of the plebs (ius intercedendi or intercessionis ius). His
person was considered sacrosanct.

When Augustus established the Princeps, he rejected the supreme authority, in exchange for a
collection of various faculties and offices, which in itself was a demonstration of his auctoritas.
As Senatus princeps maintains, the emperor declared the opening and closing of each session
of the Senate, declared the agenda of the Senate, imposing rules and regulations that the
Senate must follow, and met with foreign ambassadors on behalf of the Senate. Being pontifex
maximus he became the emperor as the chief administrator of religious affairs, granting
himself the power to carry out all religious ceremonies, consecrate temples, control the
Roman calendar, direct the Collegium Pontificum, and summarize the dogma of Roman
religion.

Although these powers gave the emperor great dignity and influence, they did not in
themselves include any legal authority.

Later, Augustus tried to grant the Emperor the right to he held two different types of
imperium: the first as consul, which gave him the power of the highest magistracy within
Rome, and the second with the title of Imperium Maius, which gave him powers outside of
Rome, that is, as proconsul. The consuls and the Emperor therefore had a similar authority,
each of them being able to veto the proposals and acts of the others. However, outside Rome,
the emperor outdid the consuls and could veto them without the same effects on him.
Imperium Maius also granted emperor authority over all provincial governors, making him the
final authority in provincial affairs and gave him the supreme command of all the legions of
Rome.