THE NAME OF THE EMPEROR SHALL BE PLACED AT THE HEAD OF ALL PUBLIC DOCUMENTS, AND THE DATE SHALL BE WRITTEN PLAINLY IN LATIN CHARACTERS.

  Documents and contracts in which the dates are given are the ones to which the greatest credit shall attach. The same rule applies to those in which the name of the Emperor appears. For the consuls, the indictions, and the dates mentioned in public documents indicate the time when they were executed, as well as the signification applicable to them. We have no intention of suppressing anything of this kind; but, on the other hand, We desire to make additions to it, so that the course of time may be designated more explicitly and perfectly therein. For whoever studies the events of past ages, and the ancient history of the government, will learn of Aeneas the King of Troy, Prince of the Republic, from whom We are said to descend; and if he turns his attention to the second epoch, when the Roman name attained great lustre among mankind, he will ascertain that Romulus and Numa founded the government and constructed the city, and that the latter regulated and adorned it with laws. If he should consider the third epoch, namely, that of the Empire, he would read of the Great Caesar and the Pious Augustus, and would find that the government which now is so powerful was rendered immortal by the acts of these sovereigns. It would, however, be absurd for the name of the Emperor to be placed at the head of all contracts, judicial decisions, and, generally speaking, all of those in which any mention of the date is made.

  Wherefore We order that all those officials employed in drawing up documents or decisions, no matter where this may be, and that the notaries who, in compliance with certain rules, draw up various instruments in this great city, or in other parts of the Empire, over which God has given Us the right to preside, shall begin as follows: "The year of the reign of the Most Holy and August Emperor," and, afterwards insert the name of the Consul for that year, and then the indiction, month, and day; in order that the date may be entirely preserved by the mention of the reigning sovereign and the order of the consulate, and the other formalities be observed, as is customary, and when this has been done no changes should be made.
  (1) Where, however, the inhabitants of the East, or any other nations, are accustomed to state in their public documents the date of the foundation of their cities, We do not prohibit them from doing so, but We desire that the year of the reign shall first be written, and that (as We have already said) the name of the Consul, the indiction, the month and the day when the transaction took place, and was committed to writing shall follow, and that afterwards the year of the foundation of the city shall be inserted; for We do not abolish any of these former customs, but merely add the Imperial designation. From the date of the preceding indiction, documents shall be begun in the name of God, for instance: "The eleventh year of the reign of the Most Holy Emperor Justinian, the second year after the Consulate of that most illustrious man, Flavius Belisarius, on the .... day of the Kalends of ........" Thus in all public documents, the year of the Empire, that of Our reign — so far as God may be pleased to prolong it — and, in the future, the names of succeeding Emperors, will be mentioned. This is perfectly clear, because at present the eleventh year of Our reign is written; but from the beginning of next April, the day upon which God invested Us with the government of the Empire, the twelfth year shall be stated; and so on, as long as God may permit Us to reign, so that this name may survive the laws, and the mention of the latter may remain immortal, while the commemoration of the Empire shall be introduced in all transactions for all time.

  We also add that those who insert the date in judicial decisions, and who now use for that purpose ancient and uncertain characters, shall hereafter, in every judicial decision, be obliged to write after the ancient characters, others which are familiar to all, and can be easily read; and which will intelligibly indicate the date of the documents, and not embarrass those who wish to know it, and compel them to seek someone who is able to understand the characters which have been used. When, however, the body of these documents which follows the date written in characters that cannot easily be deciphered is in the Greek language, the date shall be inserted in Greek letters underneath just as where all the document is in Latin, the date also shall be in that language. When letters which are easily read are employed in this way, their meaning will readily be intelligible, and all persons who are not absolutely ignorant of Latin will be able to understand them.

  Your Highness will cause the regulations which We have been pleased to lay down in this Imperial Law to be published in this great city and in all the provinces subject thereto, in order that no one may presume to reckon the time in a different manner, or to do anything else in violation of what We have recently decreed.