CODEX HERMOGENIANUS. - It is a private collection of imperial constitutions compiled, as most scholars believe, between 314 and 323 A.D., since certain constitutions issued by the emperors Constantine and Licinius still retain in it the mention of the latter emperor, a mention that was subsequently suppressed, as appears in the corresponding constitutions of the Codex Theodosianus. This came about by a provision of 323 A.D., by which all the acts of the emperor Licinius were annulled.
The C. H. is owed to a jurist by the name of Hermogenianus, who may or may not be the same one whose fragments are cited in the Digest.
The composition of the work comprises a single book divided into several titles, under which the relevant constitutions were grouped. Most of the constitutions are dated from the East and are owed to the emperor Diocletian, whence it was supposed that this collection was made in the eastern territory. This could also suggest something about the place of origin of the compiler of the code.
In the same manner as the Codex Gregorianus, the C. H. does not introduce new law, but tends to secure the law already received and by then entered into common use. Both codes seem also to have had the purpose of informing practitioners and initiating students into the laws.
The C. H. too is not known directly in its original composition, but on the basis of the fragments transmitted principally in the Fragmenta Vaticana (v.), in the Collatio legum Mosaicarum et Romanarum (v.), in the Consultatio veteris cuiusdam iurisconsulti (v.), and in the Romano-barbarian laws of the Visigoths and the Burgundians.
Krüger produced a new edition of these fragments in vol. III of the Collectio librorum iuris anteiustiniani (Berlin 1900).
The C. H. must have included in its original composition also constitutions on religious matters. This leads one to infer the numerous series of constitutions of a religious nature, later included in the Codex Theodosianus, for the corresponding period of time. However, in the fragments preserved for us indicatively in the later collections in which they were included, no provisions of an ecclesiastical character are encountered.