LIBRO SIRO-ROMANO. - This is the name assigned by modern scholars to an Eastern legal compilation which, in different versions, bears the title Δικαιώματα, Leges saeculares, and Leges Constantini Theodosii Leonis. According to the more widely held opinion, the L. S. R. was composed in Greek, according to another in Latin (the original has been lost), in the second half of the 5th century and, in all probability, episcopalis audientia (v.). The Syriac versions (Paris and London), on the other hand, must be assigned to the 7th or 8th century. The other extant versions are one Arabic, one Armenian, and three Aramaic (Vatican Library).
Drawn up, as has been said, for practical purposes and perhaps also for school use, it presents an original core of civil law comprising the treatment of the four subjects customarily dealt with together (dower, guardianship, testament, legacy); this is followed by scant elements of criminal law, civil and criminal procedural law, and administrative law. The Paris manuscript follows, in its treatment, the order of the Sabinian system.
The first edition was produced by Land (1862); the principal one is that of E. Sachau (Syrisch-römische Rechtbücher, I, 1907, with German translation). The Latin translation, the work of Ferrini, was republished, after revision by G. Furlani, in Fontes iuris romani anteiustiniani, II, Firenze 1940, pp. 759-98, with extensive bibliographical references.