IDEAS OF STOIC PHILOSOPHY IN SERBIAN MEDIAEVAL LAW

Abstract

Although the textbooks of Stoic philosophers did not survive from the period of independence of the Serbian mediaeval State (from the 12th to the 15th century), some Stoic ideas emerged in Serbia through the texts of Roman lawyers, who in the period of the Principate wrote under the great influence of Stoic philosophy. However, Serbian lawyers did not read the original Latin works of Roman jurists, but rather their Greek translations and adaptations from Byzantine legal miscellanies. Some ideas of Stoic philosophy could be found in several chapters of the Serbian translation of the Syntagma, a nomokanonic miscellany put together in 24 titles (each title has a sign of one of the letters of Greek alphabet) by the monk Matheas Blastares from Thessaloniki. The fragments were taken from Roman jurisprudentes Gaius and Florentinus.