International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Paolo Angelini
KU Leuven, Faculty of Law, 
Department for Roman Law and Legal History, Leuven, Belgium; 
[e-mail]
The Reception of Byzantine Criminal Law in Serbia 
through the 
Syntagma
of Blastares
The Syntagma of Blastares is a nomokanon redacted in 1334-1335. Composed of canon and 
secular law, this juridical encyclopaedia was utilized both by the church and by the secular authorities. 
In consequence of that its contents were enacted as law in force in the empire of Stephan 
Dushan, when the tripartite codification was enacted by the first Serbian emperor. The Syntagma of 
Blastares had been translated into Serbian language in 1348-1349 and the introduction of Byzantine 
law was a major change in Serbian society.
According to Greek-Roman law, the mutilations, as well as the physical punishments, and of the 
supreme penalty were introduced in the penal system. Homicide, rape, theft, sacrilege, the belonging 
to a heresy and several other criminal subjects were disciplined according to Greek-Roman law.
The Code of Dushan itself was strongly influenced by Greek-roman law and its contents have 
to be considered an integration of the juridical discipline provided in the Serbian version of the 
nomokanon redacted by Blastares. The introduction of the criminal system based on Byzantine law 
contributed in making Serbia part of the Byzantine commonwealth. Serbian society was probably 
largely based on customary law, and the adoption of the new juridical system supported the creation 
of the central state system. Following the Byzantine model, the justice was administrated in the 
name of the emperor and any other kind of self-justice was forbidden. 
The process of Byzantinization had already started in the first part of the 14
th
century, but during 
Dushan’s reign the process was strongly improved and the adoption of the tripartite codification 
gave a significant contribution in developing the Serbian-Byzantine empire.

---

715