| Zusammenfassung: | Using papyrological evidence from the fourth-century archive of Ammon Scholasticus, alongside legal material from the Codes of Theodosius II and Justinian and the post-Theodosian Novellae, this article explores how late Roman processes of 'codification' have obscured the concrete and practice-driven context of law-making and the administration of justice in the later Empire. Legal historians constantly need to go beyond the Imperial texts, for they were (more often than not) prompted by specific cases. Moreover, as the case study of Ammon Scholasticus highlights, once issued Imperial constitutions could be taken up, used, (mis-) interpreted, or indeed wilfully manipulated on the ground and in the courtroom, by interested parties. Thus if we seek to understand the evolution of Roman law, the study of how Imperial constitutions were used in practice is at least as important as the study of the great Codes themselves.
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