A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

5. NOMOPHYLAX. He is commonly called a scholiast on the Basilica, but was rather a jurist, whose Scholia are appended to that work. In the heading of the Scholia taken from Joannes he is called, from his office, Joannes Nomophylax, and sometimes κατ̓ ἐξοχήν. Nomophylax alone. In the Scholia (vol. ii. p 549-648, vol. iii. p. 400, ed. Fabrot.) he appears to cite the text of the Basilica; and Assemani (Bibl. Jur. Orient. vol. ii. p. 415) believes him to have lived about A. D. 1100, under Alexius Comnenus; while Suarez (Notit. Basil. § 42) confounds him with Joannes Antiochenus. In his Scholia appended to the Basilica, he interprets passages in the Digest, the Code, and the Novells. (Schol. Basil. vol. ii. pp. 544, 558, 559, 587, vol. iii. pp. 360, 390, vol. iv. pp. 658, 662.) Constantinus Nicaeus (who, in Basil. vol. iii. p. 208, calls himself a disciple of Stephanus) cites Joannes Nomophylax, with whom he disagrees. ((Basil. vol. ii. p. 549.) Joannes is coupled with Dorotheus in Basil. vol. v. p. 410. In Basil. vol. iii. p. 360, and vol. ii. p. 587, we find him citing Athanasius and Theodorus Hermopolita. From these indications, we believe him to have lived not long after the reign of Justinian, and would explain his apparent citations of the Basilica by supposing that his original citations of the Digest were subsequently adapted to the Basilica--a charge which was frequently made, and which has occasioned much chronological difficulty. Many of the jurists, whose fragments appear appended to the Basilica, have, for this reason, been referred to too late an age. Thus, every circumstance tends to show that Constantinus Nicaeus, who cites Joannes, lived before the compilation of the Basilica, if we except his supposed citations of the Basilica, and of the στοιχείον of Garidas.

[J.T.G]