Justinian I, emperor of Byzantium

Hearing. In 530 AD, promulgated a code of laws that, among other things, said that persons who were both born-deaf and could not speak had no legal rights or obligations. Those born hearing and later deafened still had most legal rights, even if they also lost the power of speech. This law, and the many European and Asian laws influenced by Justinian for the next 1400 years, helped keep born-deaf and nonspeaking deaf people oppressed and powerless. It must be pointed out that Justinian simply continued the law and attitudes already established by the ancient Romans and other cultures; he did not originate this legal oppression, but simply codified it in a formal collection of laws.