553 
L A W. 
into three periods a'moft equal in duration, and diftin- 
guilhed from each other by the mode of inftrurtion and 
the chararter of the civilians. 
Pride and ignorance contributed, during the firft pe¬ 
riod, to confine within narrow limits the Icience of the 
Roman law. On the public days of the market or alfein- 
b!;-, the mafters of the art were feen walking in the fo¬ 
rum, ready to impart the needful advice to the meaneft of 
their fellow-citizens, from whole votes, on a future occa- 
lion, they might folicit a grateful return. As their years 
and honours mcreafed, they feated themfelves at home on 
a chair or throne, to expert with patient gravity the vi- 
fits of their clients, who, at the dawn of day, from the 
town and country, began to thunder at their door. The 
duties of focial life, and the incidents of judicial proceed¬ 
ings, were the ordinary fubjert of theie confutations; 
and the verbal or written opinion of the jurifconfults was 
framed according to the rules of prudence and law. The 
youths of their own order and family were permitted to 
H(fen; their children enjoyed the benefit of more private 
leffons, and the Mucian race was long renowned for the 
hereditary knowledge of the civil law. 
The fecond period, the learned and fplendid age of ju¬ 
rifprudence, may be extended from the birth of Cicero to 
the reign of Alexander Severus. A fyftem was formed, 
fchools were inftituted, books were compofed, and both 
the living and the dead became fubfervient to theinftruc- 
tion of the ltudent. The Tripartite of fElius Psetus, fur- 
named Catvs, or the Cunning, was preferred, as the oldeft 
work of jurifprudence. Cato the Cenfor derived fome 
additional fame from his legal lludies, and thofe of his 
fon; the kindred appellation of Mucius Sctevola was il- 
luftrated by three fages of the law ; but the perfection of 
the fcience was aferibed to Servius Snlpicius their difciple, 
and the friend of Tully ; and the long fucceffion, which 
fhone with equal luftre under the republic and under the 
Ctefars, is finally clofed by the refpertable characters of 
Papinian, of Paul, and of Ulpian. Their names, and the 
various titles of their productions, have been minutely 
preferred, and the example of Labeo may fuggelt fome 
idea of their diligence and fecundity. That eminent law¬ 
yer of the Auguftan age, divided the year between the 
city and country, between bufinefs and compofition; and 
four hundred books are enumerated as the fruit of his re¬ 
tirement. Of the collections of his rival Capito, the two 
hundred and fifty-ninth book is exprefsly quoted ; and 
few teachers could deliver their opinions in lefs than a 
century of volumes. 
In the third period, between the reigns of Alexander 
and Juftinian, the oracles of jurifprudence were almolt 
mute. The meafure of curiofity had been filled ; the 
throne was occupied by tyrants and barbarians ; the ac¬ 
tive fpirits were diverted by religious difputes, and the 
profefibrs of Rome, Conftantinople, and Berytus, were 
humbly content to repeat the lelTons of their more en¬ 
lightened predeceffors. From the flow advances and ra- 
.< pid decay of thefe legal ftudies, it may be inferred that 
they require a ftate of peace and refinement. From the 
multitude and voluminous civilians who till the interme¬ 
diate fpace, it is evident, that fuch ftudies may be pur- 
fued, and fuch works may be performed, with a common 
fliare of judgment, experience, and induftry. The genius 
of Cicero and Virgil was more fenfibly felt, as each re¬ 
volving age had been found incapable of producing a liini- 
3 ar or a fecond ; but the 1110ft eminent teachers of the 
law were affured of leaving difciples equal or fuperior to 
themfelves in merit and reputation. 
When Justinian afeended the throne, the reformation 
of the Roman jurifprudence was an arduous but indifpen- 
fable tafk. In the fpace of ten centuries, the infinite va¬ 
riety of laws and legal opinions had filled many tHoufand 
volumes, which no fortune could purchafe and no capa¬ 
city could digeft. Books could not eafdy be found ; and 
the judges, poor in the midft of riches, were reduced to 
the exercife of their illiterate dilcretion. The fubjerts of 
the Greek provinces were ignorant of the language that 
difpofed of their lives and properties; and th e. barbarous 
dialed of the Latins was imperfertly ftudied in the aca¬ 
demies of Berytus and Conftantinople. As an Illyrian 
foldier, that idiom was familiar to the infancy of jufti¬ 
nian ; his youth had been inftruded by the lelfons of ju¬ 
rifprudence, and his imperial choice felerted the moll 
learned civilians of the Eaft, to labour with their fove- 
reign in the work of reformation. The theory of profel- 
fors was aftifted by the prartice of advocates, and the ex¬ 
perience of magiftrates; and the whole undertaking was 
animated by the fpirit of Tribonian. 
This extraordinary man, the objert of fo much praife 
and cenfure, was a native of Side in Pamphylia; and his 
genius, like that of Bacon, embraced, as his own, all the 
bufinefs and knowledge of the' age. Tribonian compofed, 
both in profe and verfe, on a ftrange diverlity of curious 
and abftrufe fubjerts ; a double panegyric of Juftinian, 
and the life of the philofopher Theodotus; the nature of 
happinefs, and the duties of government; Homer’s cata¬ 
logue, and the four-and-twenty forts of metre ; the altro- 
nomical canon of Ptolemy ; the changes of the months 5 
the houfes of the planets ; and the harmonic fyltem of the 
world. To the literature of Greece he added the ufe of 
the Latin tongue; the Roman civilians were depoiited in 
the library and in his mind ; and he molt alfiduoully cul¬ 
tivated thofe arts which opened the road of wealth and 
preferment. From the bar of the praetorian praeferts, he 
raifed himfelf to the honours of quaeftor, of conful, and 
of mailer of the offices ; the council of Juftinian liltened 
to his eloquence and wifdom, and envy was mitigated by 
the gentlenefs and affability of his manners. But the re¬ 
proaches of impiety and avarice have ftained the virtues 
or the reputation of Tribonian. In a bigoted and perfe¬ 
cting court, the principal minifter was accufed of a fe- 
cret averfion to the Chriftian faith, and was fuppofed to 
entertain the fentiments of an atheift and a pagan, which 
have been imputed, inconfiftently enough, to the kill phi- 
lofophers of Greece. His avarice was more clearly proved 
and more fenfibly felt. If he were fwayed by gifts in the 
adminilfration of juftice, the example of Bacon will again 
occur; nor can the merit of Tribonian atone for hisbafe- 
nefs, if he degraded the fanftity of his profeffion ; and if 
laws were every day enarted, modified, or repealed, for 
the bafe conlideration of his private emolument. In the 
fedition of Conftantinople, his removal was granted to the 
clamours, perhaps to the juft indignation, of the people; 
but the queeftor was fpeedily reftored, and, till the hour of 
his death, he polfelfed, above twenty years, the favour 
and confidence of the emperor. His paffive and dutiful 
fubmiffion has been honoured with the praife of Juftinian 
himfelf, whofe vanity was incapable of difeerning how of¬ 
ten that fubmiffion degenerated into the groffelt adula¬ 
tion. Tribonian adored the virtues of his gracious rnaf- 
ter; the earth was unworthy .of fuch a prince ; and he af- 
ferted a pious fear, that Juftinian, like Elijah or Romulus, 
would be fnatched into the air, and tranllated alive to the 
manftons of cceleftial glory ! 
Xnftead of a ftatue caft in a fimple mould by the hand 
of an artift, the works of Juftinian reprefent a telfelated 
pavement of antique and coftly, but too often of incohe¬ 
rent, fragments. In the firft year of his reign, he dirert- 
ed the faithful Tribonian, and nine learned alfociates, to 
revile the ordinances of his predeceffors, as they were con¬ 
tained, fince the time of Adrian, in the Gregorian, Her- 
mogenian, and Theodofian, codes ; to purge the errors 
and contradictions, to retrench whatever was obfolete or 
fuperfluous, and to lelert the wife and falutary laws belt 
adapted to the prartice of the tribunals and the ufe of his 
fubjerts. The work was accomplifhed in fourteen months;. 
and the twelve books, or tables, which the new decemvirs 
produced, might be defigned to imitate the labours of their 
Roman predeceffors. The new Code of Juftinian was, 
honoured with his. name, and confirmed by his royal fig- 
natures authentic tranferipts were multiplied by the.pens 
