Byzantine law

Byzantine law was essentially a continuation of Roman law with growing Orthodox Christian and Hellenistic influence. Most scholars define it as the Roman legal tradition beginning after the reign of the emperor Justinian I in the sixth century and continuing until the fall of Constantinople in the fifteenth century. Later Byzantine codes and constitutions were derived largely from Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis, but their purpose became more idealistic and ceremonial than practical, following Hellenistic and Near Eastern political models in which legislation served to display the sacred role of the emperor as a holy monarch chosen by God and the living embodiment of the law, nomos empsychos, giving Byzantine lawmaking philosophical and religious as well as practical purposes. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/