A.D. 364 and 375.
A.D. 379-395. incorporate this law into his celebrated code;[1] the same exemptions being granted by that emperor, in his fourth and fifth law under the same table as the Theodosian code. The laws of the emperors Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian, embodied in the Code of Justinian, likewise forbid, on pain of death, that any one should insult the persons of mariners, while the special enactments of Arcadius, Honorius, and Theodosius treated them with the like respect. The same code furnishes another law of Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius, wherein these privileges are confirmed and ordered to be continued for ever.
Such extraordinary privileges conferred on the seafaring population of the empire—privileges unknown in any other country or in any other age—were probably enacted in order to revive the nautical spirit which had been so long practically treated with contempt. No doubt, special bounties were needed to ensure the import of corn and the construction of vessels adapted to this purpose. Indeed, the necessity of a constant and steady supply of food sufficient to meet the wants of the people, and to prevent the tumults which too frequently arose whenever there was a prospect of a scarcity of corn, sufficiently accounts for the encouragement afforded to this particular trade. But in the later days it was found necessary to create laws to raise further in the social scale the seafaring classes. Indeed this seems the only reason why the emperors Valentinian, Theo-*
- ↑ Cod. Justinian, bk. ii. tit. i. sec. 3. By this code six per cent. was pronounced to be the ordinary and legal standard of interest; eight was allowed for the convenience of manufacturers and merchants, while twelve was granted to nautical insurance.
