The Theodosian and Justinian Codes share a similar name, and to any casual onlooker their respective editions resemble one another very much. But this apparent similarity is treacherous, for the essence of the two enterprises which yielded these works was very different indeed. The Theodosian Code, compiled in the 430s, is merely an ordered collection of the relevant material. In its creation, constitutions were stripped of their non-juristic parts. The remaining juristic cores were split if they pertained to more than one subject, and the resulting excerpts were then organized according to their content matter (for example, a juristic rule pertaining to heretics was put into book 16 on religion, and there into the partition, ‘title,’ devoted to heretics, i.e., title 5). One might describe the creation of the Theodosian Code, therefore, as a taking of inventory and preparation of the raw material. This had not been the original purpose: initially, Theodosius II had planned the logical next step too, namely the removal of outdated rules and the elimination of contradictions. But nothing came of it, and he settled for what he had, merely adding the rule that any newer rule supersedes the older ones, even if the older ones themselves were included in the Theodosian Code.