Ecloga Isaurica (Eklogē tōn Nómōn)

ECLOGA ISAURICA (Eklogē tōn Nómōn). - A compilation, carried out with material drawn chiefly from the four parts of the Corpus iuris civilis (v.), by order of the emperor Leo III the Isaurian and of his son Constantine V Copronymus, and promulgated in 739-740.

It is divided into 18 titles or books and deals almost exclusively with matters of civil law; it was intended essentially for judicial practice. In the E. profound modifications were introduced, especially in the matter of family law and marriage, with respect to what had been the Justinianic discipline; for example, adopting a decision of the Third Council of Constantinople (Trullan), marriage with another man's betrothed is considered adultery; and furthermore marriage between Catholics and heretics is forbidden (decision of the Council of Laodicea). Although subsequently repudiated - because it was the work of the iconoclast emperors - the E. was widely used in practice and served as the basis for other compilations, such as the Ecloga privata, the Ecloga privata aucta and the Ecloga ad Prochiron mutata, the latter two very important for the history of Italian law, because they were composed in the 12th century, in southern Italy, during the Norman domination.

The editio princeps of the E. is that of Zachariae von Lingenthal in the Collectio librorum iuris Graeco-romani ineditorum (Leipzig 1852, pp. 9-52); the most recent reprint, with French translation, is that of C. A. Spulber.

Rodolfo Danieli