Sententiae Syriacae

The propositions, on diverse subjects and organized indiscriminately, are drawn mainly from the statutes (constitutiones) of the Emperor Diocletian (especially those of the years 293–4 in the Codex Hermogenianus), but also from the Pauli Sententiae and the statutes of Constantine the Great and Leo I.

Originally composed in Greek in the eastern Roman Empire, the compilation today survives only in Syriac translations.

[1] In 1968 Walter Selb brought the legal text to general attention with the publication of a fragmentary manuscript of the eighth or ninth century (Vatican Library, Syr.

In 1976 Arthur Võõbus published the first full edition with an English translation based on the manuscript Damascus Patriarchate 8/11, but mistook it for a new recension of the Syro-Roman law book.

Selb, recognising the true significance of the work and having discovered further manuscripts, completed a new critical edition with a German translation in 1990.