Procopius of Caesarea, the lex tricennalis, and the ‘time of the Vandals’: historiography, law, and political debate in mid‐sixth‐century Constantinople

Abstract

The article critically discusses the legal issues raised in Procopius’ account of the Vandal settlement in Spain under the west Roman emperor Honorius around 410. In particular, it looks at Honorius’ alleged suspension of the ‘thirty‐year rule of prescription’ (lex tricennalis), a suspension that prevented the Vandals from acquiring permanent property in the Roman provinces according to Roman civil law. As is shown, this measure was only enacted by the emperor Valentinian III in a law issued in 452 exclusively for North Africa, as a reaction to expropriations of land carried out by the Vandals. Consequently, the article discusses why Procopius attributed such prominence to these legal measures and what might have caused the east Roman historian to antedate them by attributing them to Spain.