Pragmatic Sanction of 554
Pragmatic Sanction of 554
a law issued by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I after Byzantium’s conquest of the Ostrogothic landholdings in Italy.
The Pragmatic Sanction defined Italy’s internal structure. It was directed at restoring the socioeconomic relations of the Roman Empire by returning to previous owners from the Roman-Italic aristocracy the lands that had been confiscated by the Ostrogoths and the slaves and colons who had been liberated by Totila. Roman administration and the Roman tax system were restored in Italy, and Roman senators had their privileges returned to them. The Pragmatic Sanction was no longer in force after the Lombard invasion of 568.