Alle origini dell’idea di Codice: progetti e realizzazioni

The contribution focuses on the origin of the legal idea of "code": through the analysis of the sources (Suetonius, Isidore and Pomponius), the first late-republican codification projects of Pompey and Caesar are followed, systematization projects that failed due to the opposition of the iurisperiti, inclined to preserve an open system. In this context the role of Servius Sulpicius Rufus, Alfeno Varus and Aulus Ophilius is investigated. Through the analysis of the semantic roots of the term "code", we reach the turning point of Late Antiquity, when, starting from the Diocletian era, the projects of collection and organization of the imperial constitutions.