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The Basilika (, "the imperial laws") was a collection of laws completed in Constantinople by order of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise during the Macedonian dynasty. This was a continuation of the efforts of his father, Basil I, to simplify and adapt the Emperor Justinian I's Corpus Juris Civilis code of law issued between 529 and 534 which had become outdated. The term comes from the Greek adjective Basilika meaning "Imperial (laws or enactments)" and not from the Emperor Basil's name; both sharing a common etymology from the term Basileus.
Justinian's Codex had effectively ended juristic developments for the next couple of centuries. Moreover, the Byzantine legal system operated as a codified system, wherein the sentence given by a judge needed to be grounded in a passage of law previously issued by a legislator. This made it impossible for a judge to set precedents. There was vast confusion amongst judges as to which legal documents they should refer to ( Justinian's Codex or other books of law which had been written in the ensuing centuries). Additionally, Justinian's Codex had officially stripped the legislative branch of its authority, making it hard for judges to know which law codes they should follow. With a code of law in Greek, lawyers were able to use it in their cases, making its practicality invaluable. This was a stark contrast to the Corpus Juris, which proved to be too complex and comprehensive to be used practicably even within its own time.
In addition, the Basilika and similar legal reform projects helped retain and reinvigorate the Romanitas, or Roman-ness, of the Byzantine Empire. In the same time period, the Carolingian Empire and the Pope in the west and the First Bulgarian Empire in the Balkans grew in power, and challenged the secular and religious leadership of the Byzantine Empire. Louis II was bemused by the error in Latin within a letter from the Byzantine emperor, and wrote a critical letter accusing the "Greeks" for turning their backs on the city of Rome, the Roman people, and the Roman language (i.e., Latin), and thus were unworthy of being Roman emperors.Nicholas I, Letter to Michael III 459.5–7 Although the Arab Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates were powerful geopolitical competitors, and indeed had conquered large areas of Byzantine territory, the Arabs did not challenge Byzantium's Roman identity, but instead claimed to be the heirs of Antiquity.Fögen, Marie Theres. "Reanimation of Roman Law in the ninth century: remarks on reasons and results." PUBLICATIONS-SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF BYZANTINE STUDIES (1998): 11-22.Trοianos, S. N. (2001) “Δίκαιο και ιδεολογία στα χρόνια των Μακεδόνων,” Βυζαντινά 22: 239–61.
The Basilika also presents itself as a connection back to earlier times before the period of Iconoclasm, lending the Macedonian dynasty a sense of religious legitimacy. This began with Basil I and his desire to distance himself from the Iconoclasts, and to connect himself and his sons with their Great Predecessor, Justinian I.
It greatly differed however in its use of commentaries (scholia), which were pieces of juristic works from the sixth and seventh centuries as well as the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Previously, Justinian I had outlawed commentary on his set of laws, making the scholia on the Basilika unique. The actual format of the books themselves vary greatly. Some are represented in one manuscript, which may or may not contain scholia or full parts of other juristic works which have been mentioned. Likewise, some books have been lost entirely.
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