Gaius and his Institutes
The famous and enigmatic provincial legal teacher and modest jurist of the second century, Gaius is known only by his praenomen. He held no office, and he probably never had the privilege of the ius respondendi.
Most likely an adherent of the Sabinian group during his instruction in Rome, he was teaching and writing in the East, perhaps in Berytus (Beirut). Although the exact date of his death is unknown, we know it occurred after 178 ce because he wrote a commentary on the senatus consultum Orfitianum of that year (D. 8.17.9). Unlike Pomponius, who surpassed him in acuity, Gaius was entirely ignored by classical jurists. He was mentioned, however, in the Law of Citations of 426, and for compilers of the Digest Gaius was a popular author. Justinian affectionately called him “our Gaius” (Constitution Omnem 1).Gaius was a legal writer with a clear and lucid style who emphasized systematization and classification. He authored an introduction to the law (res cottidianae), some commentaries, and monographs on trust, manumissions, verbal obligations, and so on. Among his commentaries are one on the Twelve Tables and the only known commentary on the provincial edict. Gaius is best known, however, for his celebrated Institutes, a teaching course in four books for law students delivered around 161 CE but probably not published by him. The date for this work is derived from references to Emperor Antoninus Pius (died 161) in book one and the first part of book two as if he were still alive (Gaius 1.53, 1.74, 1.102, 2.120, 2.126, 2.151a), while in book 2.195, Gaius mentions the emperor as if he were departed (“divus Antoninus”).
The importance of the Institutes lies in at least three facts. First, it is the only work of a classical jurist that has survived in its original state. Second, the Institutes of Justinian were mainly based on those of Gaius. Thus, in comparing both works, we can know Justinian’s contributions and thus distinguish classical from postclassical law. Third, the Institutes of Gaius provide new and sound information on legal procedure. The Institutes thus are an extraordinarily valuable means for learning and understanding Roman law and subsequent legal history. The main division of Gaius’s Institutes into persons, things, and actions formed the basis of civil law systems and international law until the nineteenth century and was instrumental for the development of common law systems.
More on the topic Gaius and his Institutes:
- LEGAL SCIENCE AND RHETORIC IN GAIUS' INSTITUTES
- The second branch of the threefold division of all of private law which Gaius employs in his Institutes is that of the law of 'things'.
- The Institutes
- Gaius: personae, res, actiones
- The Institutes
- Back at the beginning, in the section on the conceptual map, we noticed how Gaius divided obligations into two categories.1
- Extracts from Gaius’s and Justinian’s Institutes
- The Institutes
- The Institutes
- Arrangement of the List in Gaius’s and Justinian’s Institutes
- A fourth category of obligations referred to in the Institutes of Justinian are the obligations arising from quasi-delicts (obligationes quasi ex delicto or quasi ex maleficio).
- Literal Contracts
- It is difficult to provide a comprehensive and finite list of the sources of Roman law, since the Roman jurists never defined the term 'source of law' and different sources were emphasized at certain periods in the history of the Roman legal system to reflect their prominence as instruments of legal reform.
- SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Abbreviations
- The classification of property
- D. COMPARISON AND STRATIFICATION OF TEXTS
- THE MURECINE ARCHIVE AS A WINDOW IN IURE
- ABBREVIATIONS