Post-classical jurists and law-schools

As was said in chapter 8, in the time of Hadrian the practice of granting the ius publice respondendi to individual jurists came to an end. From that time leading jurists were drawn more and more into the imperial circle and, by the end of the third century, they had been incorporated into the administrative machinery of the emperor.

The earliest law-schools of the empire were established in Rome and in Beirut in the early third century AD. The purpose of these schools was to train those wishing to practise law as advocates or to join the imperial civil service. As the administrative needs of the empire increased, following the reorganisation of the government by Diocletian and Constantine, a number of new law-schools were established in places such as Alexandria, Caesaria, Athens and Constantinople^[1176] in the East, and Carthage and Augustodunum in the West.

Legal education in the law-schools was based largely on the study of the extant works of the classical jurists and collections of imperial constitutions. In the schools of the East legal instruction was given in Greek, although knowledge of Latin was necessary for the study of the classical texts. As to the method of instruction adopted, this was similar to that followed in the schools of rhetoric: the literary works of the classical period and imperial constitutions, as found in various compilations of law, were discussed and explained step by step and, when possible, compared to or contrasted with parallel texts. On this basis general legal principles were formulated and then applied to resolve specific problems of law emerging from actual cases. The teaching was done by professional law-teachers, not by practitioners, and the courses offered were fitted into a fixed curriculum. At the end of their studies, which lasted up to five years, students were awarded a certificate which entitled them to serve as advocates in the courts or to join the imperial civil service. The quality of the legal education offered varied from time to time and from place to place.

Among the most distinguished of the east-Roman law professors, the 'teachers of the universe', as they were admiringly called, were Cyrillus, Patricius, Eudoxius, Leontius, Amblichus and Demosthenes.^[1180] It is known that these men produced several works of various kinds, such as commentaries on imperial constitutions and works of classical jurists, summaries {indices'), annotations and collections of rules on particular legal questions. As was noted before, these works were concerned not so much with developing new legal doctrine but with helping students and legal practitioners to gain a sound knowledge and understanding of the classical sources. In the eyes of the east-Roman law professors the works of the classical jurists constituted a valuable heritage which had to be studied and preserved. This 'classicism' of the post-classical legal science, combined with Greek modes of thought and methods of instruction, did succeed in getting back genuine familiarity with the whole of the classical achievement. The new insight into the workings of the classical law had a considerable impact on the technique of imperial legislation, as manifested by the fact that the imperial laws of the late fifth and sixth centuries were superior, both in clarity and style, to those of the early post-classical age. Despite its lack of originality and its tendency towards simplification, post- classical jurisprudence succeeded in drawing attention to the perennial validity of the classical system and facilitated its adaptation to the conditions of the times. It was largely due to the work of the post-classical scholars that the spirit of classical jurisprudence was preserved and found its way into the codification of Justinian and, through it, into modem law.^[1181] [1182]