LEGAL EDUCATION

§ 145 Cicero, Brutus LXXXIX.306

/, meantime, attached myself to Quintus Scaevola, son of Quintus, for the study of the civil law, who although he gave instruction to no one. yet by the responses given to his consultants, taught those students who wished to hear him.

Cicero, De oratore 1.43.191

'Do you not see that C. Aculeo, Roman knight, a man of the highest intelligence, who dwells and has always lived with me (Licinius Crassus, Jurist), of little accomplishment in any other art, is so skilled that if you except our discussant here (Q. Mud us Scaevola, augur), not one of the most learned (in the law) is to be placed above him.'

Cicero, Orator XLII.143

'But the one (the law) is a well-known study, the other (rhetoric) new', you will say- I agree; but reason exists for both subjects. It was sufficient for the ones (law students) to listen to those responding, as those (jurists) who taught set aside no special time for that purpose, but at the same time satisfied both the students and the consultants. The others (orators), since they spent the time at home in order to study and prepare the cases, to plead them in the forum, all the rest in getting back their strength, what time did they have left for instructing or teaching?...

In the time of the republic the training of the young men of the foremost senatorial families to become the future leaders of the state was, in fact, training in the law. Possessing knowledge of the law the career of public service was made available and political prominence among the populace could readily be gained. Legal training for these scions of the top families was quite informal? Early notices of training in the law are references to the

1. For general treatment of Roman legal education, see Jta, Rechiswissemchaft 231-38; Kubler, s.v. Rechtsuntercicht, RE IA (1914) 394-405; Kunkel, Herkunfi 334-45, a recent article, Atkinson, *The Education of the Lawyer in Ancient Rome’, SaLJ 87 (1970) 31-52; see also, Kodrcbski, ANRWII 15 (1976) 177-96.

§ 145 attendance of young men (auditores) at the occasions where jurists gave answers (responsa) to the legal questions put them by prospective party liti­gants.^{[960] [961] [962] [963] [964] [965] We further learn that following upon the primary schooling which the upper class Roman youth received, and which would have provided some elementary notions of the law, the young man frequently took resi­dence as a house guest in the family of a renowned jurist? As such, he was present at the morning salutatio when consultants sought out the jurist for advice for all manner of legal affairs.}

When the formal type of schooling imported from Greece became the model for teaching the ‘arts’ in Rome, a cleavage arose in the teaching for the legal profession? The art of rhetoric and the formal rhetorical training which had been developed in Greece was wholly taken over in Rome as the basis for the training of the Latin orator, including the trial lawyer. The handbooks of the unknown Auctor ad Herennium, of Cicero and of Quintilian indicate that this formal training for the rhetor persisted through­out the classical era. The education of the future jurist, however, was not appreciably altered by reason of the new formal methods, though there is no doubt but that the jurists were affected to a degree by the teachings of the schools of Greek philosophy, and adapted systems of logic, dialectical method and techniques of decision making in their own activities (see supra, § 134)? For the most part, however, the informal relation of master and disciple, ‘Doctor* and ‘student’, or the 19th century American attorney and his apprentice clerk, was characteristic of the Roman jurist and his auditor throughout the classical era.

Pomponios, Libra singuiari enchiridii (D. 1.2.2.42,43)

The pupils of Mudus (Scaevola) were many, but those of the greatest authority were A quilius Gallus, Balbus Ludlius, Sextus Papirius, Gaius luventius; of these Servius says Gallus had the greatest weight before the people....

Gelljus, Nodes Atticae XIII. 13.1

When I come now from the hidden matters and secrets of books and of magis­trates into the midst of men and into the light ofthe forum, I recollect that in the many stations in Rome of those who taught law publicly or responded, the question was debated whether a quaestor of the Roman people can be summoned to trial by the praetor.

Scholion, Ad luvenali Satiras 1.128

io the temple of Apollo the learned in the law were wont to sit together and discuss cases.

Marcianos, Libro singuiari de delatoribus (D. 40,15.1.4 i.f.)

... Marcellus, in the 5 th book De officio consults wrote that this should be done. I also adopted the same opinion in the audience room (in auditorio publico).

Cf. also D. 12.1.40; 23.3.78.4.

In the last century of the republic a distinction is alleged to have been made between instituere and instruere, to which many scholars have at­tached the meanings of the imparting of elementary instruction and the teaching at the higher level, respectively.’ It appears that by the first century of our era formal lecture courses of elementary nature, academic instruction in law, were available in Rome, as well as in Italy and the provinces.’Indeed,

8.

9. Bruns-Lcncl, Gesdudut 361; Kubler, Geschtchie 494; Kunkel, Herfcunft 344 f. But contra, Atkinson, SALJ 87 (1970) 31,43 ff.

§ 145 several of the jurists, particularly those without ius respondendi, are said to have gained their reputations as law teachers and not as responding jurists.^{[966] [967] However, the formal teaching seems to have been exclusively intro­ductory in nature. The public places devoted to legal discussion, such as the stations mentioned by Gellius or the area near the temple of Apollo, were locales for consultation, discussion and disputation much like the places frequented by the republican jurists. The halls (auditoria) mentioned in the sources were more likely to have been courtrooms than, as formerly thought, lecture halls.'“ Nor, in spite of Schulz and other scholars, are the Sabinian and Proculian schools true educational establishments.[968]}

Ulpianus, Libro VIII de omnibus tribunalibus (D. 50.13.1.5) In the same way (provincial governors) should not entertain cases (respecting the salaries) of the professors of the civil law. Indeed, the knowledge of the ius civile is a most sacred thing which should not be valued or dishonored by a money price: [since in trial remuneration is sought, which ought to be turned over upon entry into the teaching group. ] There are some things for which it is not respectable to sue although honorable to accept.

See Index Interp. Ill 579 f.; Kunkel, Herkunft 343.

Ulpianus, Libro... de excusationibus (Fr. Vat. 150) Neither those who teach mathematics nor the civil law are excused from (the burden of) guardianship.

Modestinus, Libro II excusationum (D. 27.1.6.12) Those who teach the civil law in a province do not have the exemption (from guardianships) that those teaching at Rome have.

The education of the aspiring jurist was, as has been shown, almost ex­clusively concerned with practical experience, not as an attorney, but as observer and participant in the handling of law cases, whether hypothetical or actual.

possessed auctoritas prudentium (the authority of the learned). Such a position in society was not to be dishonored by the receipt of pay.^{[970] [971] [972] Those emoluments which were received by jurists during the latter stages of the classical era were either exceptional allowances for expenditures1 * or salaries as clerks and department heads in the chancellery of the emperor.** The question of excuse from public obligations, including guardianships, cannot be determined with any measure of certainty.[973] [974] The social and economic position of law teachers in the last decades of the classical era foreshadows the formal legal education, the law schools with their professors, typical of the post-classical and Justinianian periods.1*}