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| Following in the footsteps of his father, Basil I, Leo VI was greatly
interested in jurisprudence. Based on the legislative work of his father
he decided to elaborate and render into Greek Justinian's system. The
new code was named "Basilika" ("Imperial Laws"),
because it contained the "Basilikos Nomos" (Royal Law), but
was characterized also "Exabiblos", because the manuscripts
were divided into 6 issues, or "Exikontabiblos" because it
contained sixty books. Its editing was carried out in the first years of
Leo΄s reign (possibly in 889-890), by a committee under the presidency
of the protospatharios Sabbatios or Symbatios. The text of
"Basilika" has not been preserved in its entirety in any
manuscript. The method, however, of the constitution of the dispositions
and the fact that it was written in Greek show the importance of
"Basilika" for Byzantine Law. Apart from the "Basilika" Leo VI issued a collection of 113 "Novels". Important among those considered important are the "Novels" 46, 47 and 109 which with their dispositions limiting the jurisdiction of the senate and of the members of parliament to a minimum, reinforcing in this way the authoritarian power of the emperor. Equally important was the Leo΄s "Novel" concerning the land property which set limitations on the principle of protimesis (preemption). According to this Novel the sale of the rural estates to the large-scale owners was prohibited. With this "Novel" Leo VI in a way legitimized the expansion of the dynatoi (powerful) landowners, which by means of legal or illegal artifices, had appropriated the biggest part of the rural communities and turned the formerly independent peasants into paroikoi. Nevertheless this was very dangerous for the economic and military power of Byzantium, which was based on the existence of free smallholders. With the reduction of the estates belonging to the peasants the state was gradually losing its taxpayers and though the limitation of its military estates, its soldiers. Leo΄s successors to the Byzantine throne having understood the danger very well, tried to protect the smallholders from the expansive aspirations of the powerful landowners. Leo΄s VI "Novel" constituted the beginning of a series of "Novels", issued by later emperors covering the regulation of these vital issues.
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