Book XVI
Concerning Representatives
De vicariorum
Diocletian and Maximian, 14 July 286
The labour of those zealous to learn deserves that those who desire to choose counsellors as associates in public administrations, should call forth those whose learning they deem necessary for themselves, through hope of reward and honour.
Theodosius II and Valentinian III, Constantinople, 14 October 427:
Those who represent and administer a Town as Acting Representative by order of the Monarch or their Town Council will have the power to do all things within the jurisdiction of the Representative of a Town.
Zeno, Constantinople, 11 October 479:
No Representative shall, after they have received a successor, dare to permanently depart from the place which they have represented and administered until after fifteen days have passed. And they shall not hide at home or within holy precincts, or in the houses of men of power, but shall appear in the most frequented places and in sight of all those whom they recently represented and administered, so that free opportunity may be open to all to lodge complaints concerning misconduct, corruption or other crimes against them. Such individuals shall be protected from all insult and violence by the care of their successor. But if anyone, by punishable rashness thinks of undertaking to evade or violate this most beneficial law, they shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, as will their successor who has taken up the administration after them if they have made no honest effort to retain them or to immediately report their flight.