In 533, Justinian published the Digest, an 800,000-word condensation of 1,528 Latin law books. And to go along with this, he published the Institutes, which was like a curriculum for the Roman law schools that existed all through the empire. Justinian, incidentally, was by far the most awesome of the Byzantine emperors. He was like the David Tennant of doctors. He was born a peasant somewhere in the Balkans and then rose to become emperor in 527. He ruled for almost 30 years, and in addition to codifying Roman law, he did a lot to restore the former glory of the Roman Empire. He took Carthage back.