Basilica

Lat. [horn Qr. Paai Uxa, royal, or ^aadiog, Basil.] A compilation of Roman and Greek law, in the Greek language, made during the latter part of the ninth and the beginning of the tenth centuries, under the superintendence of the Greek emperors of Constantinople. It was first undertaken by Basilius Macedo, (from whom it is supposed by some to derive its name,) and completed by his son Leo Philosophus, who published it as a code, A. D. 887. It consisted of sixty books, embracing tbe whole of Justinian's law collections, as well as the single constitutions issued by him and his successors. About the year 945, the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus undertook a new edition of the Basilica, ('^vaxd Oagatg twi' ^aat Xixoiv,) through which the work has been preserved to the present time, although only thirty-six books have reached us complete.

1 Mackeld. Civ. Law, 61, § 75.

This Romano-Greek code continued to be of authority imtil after the conquest of Constantinople, and the destruction of the Greek empire by the Turks, A. D. 1463; and even forms at the present day the principal foundation of the private law of Greece.

Id. 64, § 77.