Basilica

An abridgment of the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian, translated into Greek and first published in the ninth century. The emperor Basilius, finding the Corpus Juri3 Civilis of Justinian too long and obscure, resolved to abridge it, and under his auspices the work was commenced a. d. 807, and proceeded to the fortieth book, which at his death remained unfinished. His son and successor, Leo Philosophus, continued the work, and published it, in sixty books, about the year 880. Constantine Porphyro-genitus, younger brother of Leo, revised the work, rearranged It, and republished it, a. d.

947.

From that time the laws of Justinian ceased to have any force in the eastern empire, and the Basilica were the foundation of the law observed there till Constantine XIII., the last of the Greek emperors, under whom, in 1453, Constantinople was taken by Mahomet the Turk, who put an end to the empire and its laws.

Histoire de la Jurisprudence; Etienne, Intr. a l'Etude du Droit Romain, § 53.

The Basilica were translated into Latin by J. Cujas (Cujacius), Professor of Law in the University of Bourges, and published at Lyons, -2d of January, 1566, in one folio volume.

BAS0CHE (Fi\).

An association of the "Clercs du Parlement" of Paris, supposed to have been instituted in 1302. It judged all civil and criminal matters that arose among the clerks and all actions brought against them. Hist, for Ready Reference.