Marcus Aurelius and the Edict of Perpetuity

Marcus Aurelius: Rome's Philosopher King — Fexingo History · Oct 24, 2026 · 8m · transcript

While Marcus Aurelius is often remembered as Rome’s philosopher-king who wrote Meditations in military camps, his most enduring legacy may be legal rather than philosophical. This episode explores the final years of Emperor Hadrian’s grand project: the codification of Roman law. We trace the journey of Salvius Julianus, the praetor tasked with editing the annual edicts into a permanent, unified code known as the Edictum Perpetuum. By fixing the Praetor’s promises to the people, Hadrian and Julianus transformed Roman justice from a system dependent on individual magistrates’ whims into one…