😀👇𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐋𝐚𝐰, 𝐀 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐜𝐲 𝐛𝐲 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐱𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐲:

A general and brief observation about law during the Roman Empire with regard to its efficacy. Ulpian proclaimed all issuances of the emperor had essentially the weight of making it law by its relationship to the emperor himself. This relationship gradually extended to some viewing the emperor as having been sent by God to be a living law. However, this does not mean that the word of the emperor was always adhered to and treated with respect despite anecdotal reverences as mentioned in an Epistulae of Augustine. Simon Corcoran has suggested that laws were essentially driven by their proximity to those who were constructing them. Therefore, laws may have come from someone important but we should not always take its implementation as guaranteed. To expand on this further, what could be taken from an important period of Late Antiquity, such as the dissemination and enforcement of Diocletian’s Edict of Persecution?…

It has been attested that the persecution was more efficacious the closer it was to Diocletian. Therefore, the edict in question and laws in general were a reflection of the enthusiasm and will of those in the places it was to be distributed and enforced. As Diocletian was to find out, according to Eusebius, being his imperial colleague did not necessitate his laws always being enacted. One example was through the enforcement of the edict by Constantius Chlorus, the Caesar of the west, as it appeared to have bene lacklustre at best. Despite all the will in the world to progress a political, social, etc., policy, it was only as good as the means and desire of those on the ground level to mobilise it.