A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

a Graeco-Roman jurist, who probably flourished shortly before Justinian, or in the commencement of that emperor's reign. He may be the same person to whom was addressed a rescript of the emperor Zeno. (Basil. vii. p. 711, Cod. 10, tit. 3, s. 7.) He was a commentator upon the Gregorian, Hermogenian, and Theodosian Codes. (Reiz, ad Theophilum, pp. 1243, 1245.) Theodorus, a contemporary of Justinian, calls him his " very learned teacher" (Basil. vi. p. 217); but Zachariae imagines that Domninus could scarcely have been, in a literal sense, the teacher of Theodorus, who survived Justinian, and lived under Tiberius. (Zachariae, Anecdota, p. xlviii.) By Suarez (Notit. Basil. § 42), Domninus is called Leo Domninus ; but this seems to be a mistake. (Assemani, Bibl. Jur. Orient. lib. 2. c.20, p. 405.) By Nic. Comnenus Papadopoli (Praenot. Mystag. pp. 372, 402), a Domninus, Nomicus, JCtus, is quoted as having commented upon the Novellae Constitutiones of Constantinus and Leo; but the untrustworthiness of Papadopoli, in this case, is exposed by Heimbach. (Anecdota, i. p. 222).

The names Domnus and Domninus are sometimes confounded in manuscripts. They are formed from the word Dominus, and, like other words denoting title (as Patricius), became converted into family names. (Ménage, Amoen. Jur. p. 171.) A jurist Domnus is mentioned by Libanius, who addressed letters to him. (Liban. Ep. 3.277, 1124, ed. Wolff.)

[J.T.G]