Beacon Lights of History, Volume 03 | Page 8

works was Q. Mucius
Scaevola, who wrote a treatise in eighteen books on the civil law. "He
was," says Cicero, "the most eloquent of jurists and the most learned of
orators." This work, George Long thinks, had a great influence on
contemporaries and on subsequent jurists, who followed it as a model.
It is the oldest work from which there are any excerpts in the Digest.
Servius Sulpicius, the friend of Cicero and his fellow-student in oratory,
surpassed his teachers Balbus and Gallus, and was the equal in
reputation of the great Mucius Scaevola, the Pontifex Maximus, who
said it was disgraceful for a patrician and a noble to be ignorant of the
law with which he had to do. Cicero ascribes the great superiority of
Servius as a lawyer to the study of philosophy, which disciplined and
developed his mind, and enabled him to deduce his conclusions from
his premises with logical precision. He left behind him one hundred
and eighty treatises, and had numerous pupils, among whom A. Ofilius
and Alfenus Varus, Cato, Julius Caesar, Antony, and Cicero were great
lawyers. Labeo, in the time of Augustus, wrote four hundred books on
jurisprudence, spending six months in the year in giving instruction to
his pupils and in answering legal questions, and the other six months in
the country in writing books. Like all the great Roman jurists, he was
versed in literature and philosophy, and so devoted to his profession
that he refused political office. His rival Capito was equally learned in
all departments of the law, and left behind him as many treatises as
Labeo. These two jurists were the founders of celebrated schools, like
the ancient philosophers, and each had distinguished followers. Gaius,
who flourished in the time of the Antonines, was a great legal authority;
and the recent discovery of his Institutes has revealed the least

mutilated fragment of Roman jurisprudence which exists, and one of
the most valuable, which sheds great light on ancient Roman law; it
was found in the library of Verona. No Roman jurist had a higher
reputation than Papinian, who was praefectus praetorio under
Septimius Severus (193 A.D.),--an office which made him second only
to the Emperor, a sort of grand vizier, whose power extended over all
departments of the State; he was beheaded by Caracalla. The great
commentator Cujacius declares that he was the first of all lawyers who
have been, or who are to be; that no one ever surpassed him in legal
knowledge, and no one will ever equal him. Paulus was his
contemporary, and held the same office as Papinian. He was the most
fertile of Roman law-writers, and there is more taken from him in
Justinian's Digest than from any other jurist, except Ulpian. There are
two thousand and eighty-three excerpts from this writer,--one sixth of
the whole Digest. No legal writer, ancient or modern, has handled so
many subjects. In perspicuity he is said to be inferior to Ulpian, one of
the most famous of jurists, who was his contemporary. Ulpian has also
exercised a great influence on modern jurisprudence from the copious
extracts of his writings in the Digest. He was the chief adviser of
Alexander Severus, and like Paulus was praefectus praetorio. The
number of excerpts in the Digest from him is said to be two thousand
four hundred and sixty-two, and they form a third part of it. Some
fragments of his writings remain. The last of the great civilians
associated with Gaius, Papinian, Paulus, and Ulpian, as oracles of
jurisprudence, was Modestinus, who was a pupil of Ulpian. He wrote
both in Greek and Latin. There are three hundred and forty-five
excerpts in the Digest from his writings, the titles of which show the
extent and variety of his labors.
These eminent lawyers shed great glory on the Roman civilization. In
the earliest times men sought distinction on the fields of battle, but in
the latter days of the republic honor was conferred for forensic ability.
The first pleaders of Rome were not jurisconsults, but aristocratic
"patrons," who looked after their "clients,"--men of lower social grade,
who in return for protection and assistance rendered service, sometimes
political by voting, sometimes pecuniary, sometimes military. But
when law became complicated, a class of men arose to interpret it.

These men were held in great honor, and reached by their services the
highest offices,--like Cicero and Hortensius. No remuneration was
given originally for forensic pleading beyond the services which the
client gave to a patron, but gradually the practice of the law became
lucrative. Hortensius, as well as Cicero, gained an immense fortune; he
had several villas, a gallery of paintings, a large stock of wines, parks,
fish-ponds, and aviaries. Cicero had villas in all parts of Italy, a house
on the Palatine with columns