CŌDEX

identical with caudex , as Claudius and Clodius , claustrum and clostrum , cauda and coda , originally signified the trunk or stem of a tree. The name codex was especially applied to wooden tablets bound together and lined with a coat of wax, for the purpose of writing upon them, and when, at a later age, parchment or paper, or other materials were substituted for wood, and put together in the shape of a book, the name of codex was still given to them. In the time of Cicero we find it also applied to the tablet on which a bill was written. At a still later period, during the time of the emperors, the word was used to expre any collection of laws or constitutions of the emperors, whether made by private individuals or by public authority, as the Codex Greg or i an us , Codex Theodosianus , and Codex Just in i ane us .