Some Observations on the "Nomos Georgikos"
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11649/ch.2018.011Keywords:
Nomos Georgikos, Farmer's Code, Ekloga, Slavic settlements, casuistic nature, corporal punishment, material punishment, Post-Justinianic legislationAbstract
The subject of this paper is the Byzantine law-code, the Nomos Georgikos (Νόμος γεωργικός) known as the Farmer's Code. This law-code was a subject of research since the 19th century, and many scholars assumed nexus causalis between the Nomos Georgikos and the Slavic settlements based on circumstances mainly. My examination was not oriented towards defining the ethnicity of the Byzantine farmers, but towards defining the nature of the law-code by analysing its form and its penal system. The NG was aiming at protecting the farmer's property – movable and immovable, by proscribing corresponding punishments. The punishments concerning the immovable property are material, while the punishments proscribed for immovable property are material and/or corporal, such as beating, leashing, branding and mutilation. Capital punishment is rare, because the offences done in regard to property are not considered capital offences. The punishments in the NG are very similar to the Ekloga; however, the main difference between the two Codes is the absence of duality of punishment in the NG. In the NG corporal punishments are not alternatives to monetary penalties; they are the only punishment prescribed. This is only natural for a law-code intended to solve disputes between peasants only, a monolithic group of people who did not belong to the category of honestiores.
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