Matrimonio e religione nella legislazione dell’imperatore Giuliano

An anonymous Christian author, also known as Ambrosiaster, around the year 385 attests to the full freedom of wives to repudiate their spouses; he traces back this freedom to an edictum Iuliani, which has not survived among the normative sources. An innovative restriction on the right to repudiate had been imposed by Constantine; although there is no trace in the remains of Julian’s legislation of an edict repealing Constantine’s statute, there are some provisions by Julian that repeal Constantinian laws and others that deal with patrimonial aspects of family law. After a brief analysis of the separate picture that emerges from the papyrus documentation, the paper examines the patristic evidence, which requires to be interpreted with caution, but provides clues as to whether or not there were regulatory restrictions on the repudium. Further confirmation of the existence and impact of the edictum Iuliani on the legal system of the empire can be drawn from the reconstruction of regulatory developments. There are no valid reasons to dismiss Ambrosiaster’s testimony: the edictum Iuliani is consistent with patristic sources, with the evolution of imperial legislation, and with the ideals and practice of Emperor Julian as a legislator.