Basilika

Background

Many changes had taken place within the Byzantine Empire in between Justinian and Leo VI's reign, chiefly the change in language from Latin to Greek. During Justinian's era, Latin was still in common use and Court documents were written in it. However, by the 9th century the use of Latin was obsolete, which in turn made the Corpus Juris Civilis code hard to use for Greek speakers, even in the capital of Constantinople. Furthermore, many of the laws within the Corpus Juris Civilis no longer pertained to most people, and new laws rose up to take their place. This necessitated an overhaul of the Byzantine legal system.

Justinian's Codex had effectively ended juristic developments for the next couple of centuries. Moreover, the Byzantine legal system operated as a codified system, wherein the sentence given by a judge needed to be grounded in a passage of law previously issued by a legislator. This made it impossible for a judge to set precedents. There was vast confusion amongst judges as to which legal documents they should refer to (Justinian's Codex or other books of law which had been written in the ensuing centuries). Additionally, Justinian's Codex had officially stripped the legislative branch of its authority, making it hard for judges to know which law codes they should follow. With a code of law in Greek, lawyers were able to use it in their cases, making its practicality invaluable. This was a stark contrast to the Corpus Juris, which proved to be too complex and comprehensive to be used practicably even within its own time.

In addition, the Basilika and similar legal reform projects helped retain and reinvigorate the Romanitas, or Roman-ness, of the Byzantine Empire. In the same time period, the Carolingian Empire and the Papacy in the west and the First Bulgarian Empire in the Balkans grew in power, and challenged the secular and religious leadership of the Byzantine Empire. Louis II was bemused by the error in Latin within a letter from the Byzantine emperor, and wrote a critical letter accusing the "Greeks" for turning their backs on the city of Rome, the Roman people, and the Roman language (i.e., Latin), and thus were unworthy of being Roman emperors. Although the Arab Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates were powerful geopolitical competitors, and indeed had conquered large areas of Byzantine territory, the Arabs did not challenge Byzantium's Roman identity, but instead claimed to be the heirs of Antiquity.

The Basilika also presents itself as a connection back to earlier times before the period of Iconoclasm, lending the Macedonian dynasty a sense of religious legitimacy. This began with Basil I and his desire to distance himself from the Iconoclasts, and to connect himself and his sons with their Great Predecessor, Justinian I.