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THE SOURCE OF ROMAN CIVIL LAW Reprint of the sole edition. Written around 161 CE, the Institutes is an elementary treatise on Roman private law that served as a standard textbook for 300 years. During the Early Modern Era it was combined with three other texts, the Digest, Code, and Novels to form the Corpus Juris Civilis, a profound influence on European law from the tenth century onwards. Novel 118 (Successions) outlines the rules of succession in intestacy. These rules were carried over into later civil law and have influenced English common law. Grapel's is a notably lucid translation. "Each Latin word, if technical, has been carefully given in a plain English equivalent; and where it has been deemed advisable to give the original term, a literal rendering has always been added" (Preface vi).