14 Exemption of Synagogues from Hospitality Duty
Valentinian I (with Valens)
6 May 368 or 370 or 373
A mandate to Remigius, Master of the Offices, to evacuate from synagogues all who invaded them claiming “right of hospitality.” It was given at Trier in the names of Valentinian I and Valens, and the editors of both Codex Theodosianus and Codex Justinianus date it to 6 May.
As the consular data may equally apply to three years, either 368,370, or 373, it is to be concluded that this law was given on the 6 May of one of these three years. The presence of the Imperial court and of a sizeable army in Trier during the years 367-373, due to military activity on the German border, was bound to result in the imposition of heavier duties on the civilian population of that region, and our text records, in effect, an abuse of the “right of hospitality.” The mandate is addressed to Remigius, the official responsible for the body of the ‘mensores’, who were charged with lodging and victualling the court. The exemption from “hospitality duty” it refers to was not limited to synagogues alone, but applied in general to all religious edifices. Justinian’s editors received this text, though they altered it slightly in order to mitigate the severity with which it referred to the occupation of synagogues. While this mandate testified to the preservation of the rights of the Jews by the administration under Valentinian I and Valens, Jerome records a law passed in the East by Valens, in 377/378, which prohibited the consumption of calf-meat.1 Though motivated by a temporary shortage of cattle, it had repercussions on the religious sphere to the extent that it was seen as obliging the Jews to consume “impure” meat. Later tradition, however, presented Valens as benefactor of the Jews.2Codex Theodosianus, 7:8:2, ed.
Mommsen, p. 327IMPP. VALENTINIANUS ET VALENS AA. REMIGIO* MAG(ISTRO) OFFICIORUM*
In synagogam ludaeicae legis hospitii* velut merito inruentes iubeas emigrare, quos privatorum domus, non religionum loca habitationum 5 merito convenit adtinere.
DAT. PRID. NON. MAI. TREVIRIS VALENTINIANO ET VALENTE AA.
CONSS*
THE TWO EMPERORS AND AUGUSTI VALENTINIAN AND VALENS TO REMIGIUS,3 MASTER OF THE OFFICES4
You shall order those that invade a synagogue of the Jewish law as though on right of hospitality5 to evacuate it, for they ought to occupy houses of private persons, not places of religion, on right of habitation. GIVEN ON THE DAY BEFORE THE NONES OF MAY AT TRIER IN THE CONSULATE OF THE TWO AUGUSTI VALENTINIAN AND VALENS.6
Codex Justinianus, 1:9:4, ed. Krüger, p. 61
IMPP. VALENTINIANUS ET VALENS AA. REMIGIO MAGISTRO OFFICIORUM
In synagoga ludaicae legis velut hospitii merito inruentes iubeas emigrare: quos privatorum domus, non religionum loca habitationum 5 merito convenit attingere.*
D. PRID. NON. MAL TRIVERIS VALENTINIANO ET VALENTE AA. CONSS.
THE TWO EMPERORS AND AUGUSTI VALENTINIAN AND VALENS TO REMI
GIUS, MASTER OF THE OFFICES
You shall order those that invade a synagogue of the Jewish law as though on right of hospitality to evacuate it, for they ought to come7 to houses of private persons, not places of religion, on right of habitation.
GIVEN ON THE DAY BEFORE THE NONES OF MAY AT TRIER IN THE CONSULATE OF THE TWO AUGUSTI VALENTINIAN AND VALENS.
NOTES
1. Contra lovinianum: 2:7, PL, XXIII, Col.
308. See also I. Opelt, “Ein Edikt des Kaisers Valens,” Historia, XX (1971), pp. 764-767.2. See Theophanes, Χρονογραφία, ed. C. de Boor, I, Leipzig 1883, p. 59; Theodoret, ’Εκκλησιαστική Ιστορία, IV:21, PG, LXXXII, Col. 1181.
3. Remigius was a native of Mainz, Master of the Offices to Valentinian I in the years 368, 370, and 373, according to Ammianus Marcellinus (Rerum Gestarum Libri, 27:9:2; 28:6:8; 29:5:2; ed. C. U. Clark, II, Berlin 1963, pp. 437, 482, 507). Stein dates his tenure of this office to the period between the end of 364 and 372/73; see Stein, I, p. 178. He was deposed in 373, and committed suicide when a judicial investigation was opened concerning his part in covering up malpractices committed by his relative Romanus in Africa. See Ammianus Marcellinus, op.cit., 15:5:35, I, pp. 54-55; B. S. Rodgers, “Merobaudes and Maximus in Gaul,” Histo- ria, XXX (1981), pp. 84-87; O. Seeck, PW, 11:1, 1914, s.v. Remigius, Col. 594; B. H. Warmington, “The Career of Romanus, Comes Africae,” BZ, XLIX (1956), pp. 55-64.
4. Master of the Offices was the highest official in the Imperial court administration. He was responsible for correspondence, policing, provisions, ceremony, diplomatic missions, secret service, and other functions. He concentrated in his hands extensive powers in the spheres of the military and the civil administration, the judiciary, and foreign policy. He was also a member of the Emperor’s Council (consistorium principis), of proconsular rank, and was entitled to the rank of “spectabilis” until Valentinian (see below, No.
18, n. 5). On the term ‘magister’ consult M. A. de Dominicis, Novissimo Digesto Italiano, X, 1964, s.v. Magister, Col. 27.5. Right of hospitality: the term ‘hospitium’, like its Greek equivalent ξενία, denoted the duty of the civilian population to lodge and make provision for soldiers and officials. Evidence concerning this custom is known from as early as the first century lang=EN-US style='font-size:6.5pt;text-transform:uppercase; font-style:normal'>c.e., but it became more common with the growing inability of the administration to cover these expenses from its own resources. The administration gradually adopted this method as a solution to the army’s needs in lodgings and provisions, although this meant a change of its traditional policy, maintained till the fourth century, to keep the army quartered apart from the civilian population. These developments resulted, frequently enough, in arbitrary exploitation of the population by military and civil functionaries, and it was never entirely or satisfactorily checked, despite the numerous attempts made in this direction. Constantius II exempted, on 30 May 361, senators’ houses from “hospitality duty” (CTh 7:8:1), and our text indicates that religious edifices were likewise exempted. See Alon, Jews, II, pp. 703704; S. Lieberman, “Palestine in the Third and Fourth Centuries,” JQR, XXXVI (1945-1946), pp. 354-357; F. Demougeot, “Une lettre de I’Empereur Honorius sur 1’Hospitium des soldats,” RHDFE, Series 4, XXXIV (1956), pp. 25-49.
6. Given... Valens: the 6 of May. A joint consulate of the two brothers, without its ordinal number, can indicate one of the following years: 365, 368, 370, or 373.
7. Ought to come: Justinian’s editors replaced ‘adtinere’ by ‘attingere’, mitigating, in this way, the aggressive character of the occupation as referred to in the original text. Grupe, on the other hand, thinks that this alteration was introduced in order to clarify the legislator’s intention. See E. Grupe, “Zur Latinitat Justinians,” ZSSRG, RA, XIV (1893), p. 226. Compare, however, the replacement of accusative with ablative in the object of the verb ‘inruere’.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Godefroy, II, pp. 343-344; Juster, I, p. 460; Seeck, Regesten, pp. 31, 232; Ferrari dalle Spade, pp. 104-105; Seaver, p. 34; A. Berger, “The Jewish Synagogue and the ‘aedes sacrae’ in Roman Law,” Studi in onore di Biondo Biondi, I, Milan 1965, pp. 145-163; Avi-Yonah, p. 210; Reichardt, p. 29; Vogler, p.47.