EN
The text presents a few reflections on the Roman criminal law in the Institutions of Marcianus. During the analysis it has been established that the Justinianic compilers drew heavily on this jurist’s work. This was applied not only to individual institu- tions of criminal law (e.g. intentional and unintentional fault or crimen maiestatis), but also Marcianus’s fragments repeatedly pointed to titles of the books in librii terribiles (books 47 to 48 in the Digest of Justinian). Marcianus knew well the imperial constitutions (in particular rescripts), which was probably related to the work in the imperial office (scrinium libellorum). The imperial constitutions suit, primarily, the shape of criminal law in the imperial period, should be noted. One cannot exclude that the hypothetical work in the imperial office and a good knowledge of the imperial rescripts determined the frequent reaching for the Institutiones by the compilers of Justinian.