Gaius (floruit AD 130–180) was a celebrated Roman jurist. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial JURIST is an online legal news service hosted by the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, written by founder Professor Bernard Hibbitts and a staff of more than Scholars know very little of his personal life. It is impossible to discover even his full name, Gaius or Caius being merely his personal name (praenomen). By the Republican era and throughout the Imperial era, a Name in Ancient Rome for a male citizen consisted of three parts ( tria As with his name it is difficult to ascertain the span of his life, but it is safe to assume he lived from A. D. 110 to at least A. D. 179, since he wrote on legislation passed within that time.

From internal evidence in his works it may be gathered that he flourished in the reigns of the emperors Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Publius Aelius Hadrianus (January 24 76 &ndash July 10 138 as emperor Imperator Caesar Divi Traiani filius Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, and Divus Hadrianus after Titus Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus ( September 19, 86 &ndash March 7 161) generally known in English as Antoninus Pius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (often referred to as "the wise" ( April 26, 121 – March 17, 180) was Roman Emperor Lucius Aurelius Commodus Antoninus ( August 31, 161 – December 31, 192) was a Roman Emperor who ruled from 180 to 192 (also with His works were thus composed between the years 130 and 180. Events By place Roman Empire The praetorian prefect Tarutenius Paternus achieved a decisive victory against the Quadi Most academics hold the view that Gaius lived in some provincial town, and hence we find no contemporary notices of his life or works. It has also been theorised that he was a Roman who left for a career in the provinces, or that he was in fact the jurist Sextus Pomponius writing under another name. Sextus Pomponius was a Jurist who lived during the reigns of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. After his death, however, his writings were recognized as of great authority, and the emperor Theodosius II named him in the Law of Citations, along with Papinian, Ulpian, Modestinus and Paulus, as one of the five jurists whose opinions were to be followed by judicial officers in deciding cases. Flavius Theodosius ( 10 April, 401 – July 28, 450) called the Calligrapher, known in English as Theodosius II, was The Law of Citations ( Lex citationum) was a Roman law created in AD 426 by the emperor Theodosius II. Aemilius Papinianus (142&ndash212 also known as Papinian, was a celebrated Roman jurist magister libellorum and after the death of Gaius Domitius Ulpianus (died 228 anglicized as Ulpian, was a Roman Jurist of Tyrian ancestry Herennius Modestinus, or simply Modestinus, was a celebrated Roman jurist, a student of Ulpian who flourished about 250. Julius Paulus Prudentissimus ( Greek: ο Ιούλιος Παύλος, flourished 2nd century and 3rd century) was one of the most influential and The works of these jurists accordingly became most important sources of Roman law. Roman law is the legal system of Ancient Rome. As used in the West the term commonly refers to legal developments prior to the Roman/Byzantine state's adopting

Besides the Institutes, which are a complete exposition of the elements of Roman law, Gaius was the author of a treatise on the Edicts of the Magistrates, of Commentaries on the Twelve Tables, and on the important Lex Papia Poppaea, and several other works. The Law of the Twelve Tables ( Lex Duodecim Tabularum, more informally simply Duodecim Tabulae) was the ancient Legislation that stood at the foundation His interest in the antiquities of Roman law is apparent, and for this reason his work is most valuable to the historian of early institutions. In the disputes between the two schools of Roman jurists he generally attached himself to that of the Sabinians, who were said to be followers of Ateius Capito, of whose life we have some account in the Annals of Tacitus, and to advocate a strict adherence as far as possible to ancient rules, and to resist innovation. The Sabines ( Latin Sabini, Singular Sabinus) were an Italic tribe that lived in ancient Italy, inhabiting Gaius Ateius Capito (about 30 BCE - 22 was a Roman Jurist in the time of emperors Augustus and Tiberius and Consul suffectus The Annals, or in Latin, Annales, is a history book by Tacitus covering the reign of the four Roman Emperors succeeding Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (ca 56 &ndash ca 117 was a senator and a Historian of the Roman Empire. Many quotations from the works of Gaius occur in the Digest of Justinian, and so acquired a permanent place in the system of Roman law; while a comparison of the Institutes of Justinian with those of Gaius shows that the whole method and arrangement of the later work were copied from that of the earlier, and very numerous passages are word for word the same. Probably, for the greater part of the period of three centuries which elapsed between Gaius and Justinian, whose Institutes had been the familiar textbook of all students of Roman law. Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus ( Greek: Φλάβιος Πέτρος Σαββάτιος Ιουστινιανός; known in English as Justinian I or

The Institutes of Gaius

The Institutes of Gaius are divided into four books: the first treating of persons and the differences of the status they may occupy in the eye of the law; the second of things, and the modes in which rights over them may be acquired, including the law relating to wills; the third of intestate succession and of obligations; and the fourth of actions and their forms. In Common law, a will or testament is a document by which a person (the Testator) regulates the rights of others over his or her Property

Another circumstance which renders the work of Gaius more interesting to the historical student than that of Justinian, is that Gaius lived at a time when actions were tried by the system of formulae, or formal directions given by the praetor before whom the case first came, to the judex to whom he referred it. Without a knowledge of the terms of these formulae it is impossible to solve the most interesting question in the history of Roman law, and show how the rigid rules peculiar to the ancient law of Rome were modified by what has been called the equitable jurisdiction of the praetors, and made applicable to new conditions, and brought into harmony with the notions and the needs of a more developed society. It is clear from evidence of Gaius that this result was obtained, not by an independent set of courts administering, as in England previous to the Judicature Acts, a system different from that of the ordinary courts, but by the manipulation of the formulae. In the time of Justinian the work was complete, and the formulary system had disappeared. The system of Roman litigation passed through three stages over the years until around 150 BC the Legis Actiones system from around 150 BC until around 342 AD the formulary

The work was lost to modern scholars, until, in 1816, a manuscript was discovered by BG Niebuhr in the chapter library of Verona, in which some of the works of St Jerome were written over some earlier writings, which proved to be the lost work of Gaius. Year 1816 ( MDCCCXVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Barthold Georg Niebuhr ( August 27, 1776 &ndash January 2, 1831) was a German statesman and Historian. The greater part of the palimpsest has, however, been deciphered and the text is now fairly complete. A palimpsest is a Manuscript page whether from scroll or Book that has been written on scraped off and used again More recently, two sets of papyrus fragments have been found. Papyrus (/pəˈpaɪrəs/ (Rhymes -aɪrəs)is a thick paper-like material produced from the Pith of the papyrus plant Cyperus papyrus ^[1] The discovery of Gaius' work has thrown a flood of light on portions of the history of Roman law which had previously been most obscure. Much of the historical information given by Gaius is wanting in the compilations of Justinian, and, in particular, the account of the ancient forms of procedure in actions. In these forms can be traced "survivals" from the most primitive times, which provide the science of comparative law with valuable illustrations, which may explain the strange forms of legal procedure found in other early systems.

There are several editions of the Institutes, beginning with the editio princeps of I. In Classical scholarship, editio princeps is a Term of art. It means roughly the first printed edition of a work that previously had existed only in F. L. Göschen (Berlin, 1820). The author of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica recommends the English edition of Edward Poste published in 1885,^[2] which includes an English translation and copious commentary; more recent editions include E. The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc Seckel-B. Keubler (8th edition; Leipzig, 1939), and Francis de Zulueta, with an English translation and commentary (2 volumes; Oxford, 1946). A comparison of the early forms of actions mentioned by Gaius with those used by other primitive societies will be found in Sir Henry Maine's Early Institutions, chapter 9. Sir Henry James Sumner Maine, KCSI ( August 15, 1822 - February 3, 1888) was an English comparative jurist and For further information see M. Glasson, Etude sur Gaius et sur le jus respondendi.

Quotation

"The law is what the people order and establish", Institutiones, 1. 2. 3 ^[3].

Notes

External links

• A collection of resources maintained by professor Ernest Metzger.
• The Roman Law Library by Professor Yves Lassard and Alexandr Koptev

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone