[Footnote 36: His laws are the first in the code. See
Dodwell, (Praelect. Cambden, p. 319 - 340,) who wanders from
the subject in confused reading and feeble paradox.
Note: This is again an error which Gibbon shares with
Heineccius, and the generality of authors. It arises from
having mistaken the insignificant edict of Hadrian, inserted
in the Code of Justinian, (lib. vi, tit. xxiii. c. 11,) for
the first constitutio principis, without attending to the
fact, that the Pandects contain so many constitutions of the
emperors, from Julius Caesar, (see l. i. Digest 29, l) M.
Hugo justly observes, that the acta of Sylla, approved by
the senate, were the same thing with the constitutions of
those who after him usurped the sovereign power. Moreover,
we find that Pliny, and other ancient authors, report a
multitude of rescripts of the emperors from the time of
Augustus. See Hugo, Hist. du Droit Romain, vol. ii. p.
24-27. - W.]