Salvius Julianus facts for kids

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Lucius Octavius Cornelius Publius Salvius Iulianus Aemilianus (born around 110 AD – died around 170 AD), often called Salvius Julianus or Julian the Jurist, was a famous and respected jurist (legal expert), public official, and politician in the Roman Empire. He was from North Africa and worked during the reigns of emperors Hadrian (117–138 AD), Antoninus Pius (138–161 AD), and Marcus Aurelius (161–180 AD). He also served during the shorter reign of Marcus Aurelius's co-Emperor, Lucius Verus (161–169 AD).

In the Roman government, Julianus slowly moved up through important positions. He was a quaestor (financial officer) for Emperor Hadrian, a plebeian tribune (representing common people), a praetor (judge), and held two positions managing public money. Later, in 148 AD, he became a consul, which was a very high annual office. Julianus also worked closely with the emperor in a group called the consilium principis. This group was like a modern cabinet, helping to create new laws and sometimes acting as a court. Emperor Hadrian made it a permanent group with experts like jurists and senators.

Julianus served several emperors at high levels for many years. His most important work was about law. He focused on organizing and completing the "edict law" and wrote a large collection of legal ideas called his Digest in ninety books.

Life and Early Career
Important Legal Works
Influence and Legacy
- Among Roman Jurists
- Among Modern Scholars
See also

Life and Early Career

Julianus was born during the last years of Emperor Trajan's rule (98–117 AD). He was likely born in a village called Pupput, near the Roman city of Hadrumetum on the east coast of Africa Province. This area is now Sousse in Tunisia. His family probably spoke Latin. An inscription found in Hadrumetum describes his career in the Roman government.

He studied law with Javolenus Priscus, who was the leader of the Sabinian school of legal thinking. Julianus mentioned Javolenus in his later legal writings. Even when he was young, Julianus was known for how much he knew about law. Another Roman jurist, Sextus Pomponius, said that Julianus eventually became a leader of this important legal school. One of Julianus's students, Sextus Caecilius Africanus, might have become the head of the Sabinian school after him.

During the time of the Principate (the early Roman Empire), Roman law became very advanced. There were two main schools of legal thought: the Proculian and the Sabinian. It seems there was some friendly competition between Julianus, who led the Sabinian school, and another jurist named Publius Iuventius Celsus, who led the Proculian school. They didn't seem to quote each other in their writings. Julianus also worked closely with jurists like Africanus and Pomponius.

Around this time, Emperor Hadrian (117–138 AD) asked Julianus to put the Praetor's Edict into its final form. Before this, the Edict was announced every year. After this important task, Julianus started writing his own large book about Roman law, called Digestorum libri xc (Digesta in 90 books).

Under the next emperor, Antoninus Pius, Julianus continued to serve in the emperor's council. He later became the governor of Germania Inferior (a Roman province in modern Germany) and then the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis (a province in modern Spain) under Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Julianus then returned to his home region and finished his career around 168–169 AD as the proconsul of Africa Province. He likely died during the time when Lucius Verus (161-169 AD) was co-emperor.

We don't know much about Julianus's personal life. However, he was related to Emperor Didius Iulianus (133–193 AD). Perhaps through his daughter, who married into a prominent family in Milan, he became Didius Iulianus's grandfather or uncle. Didius Iulianus was raised by the mother of the noble Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Important Legal Works

Senatus Populusque Romanus.

The Praetor's Edict

Soon after 125 AD, Emperor Hadrian asked Julianus to gather and organize all the edicta praetorum, or Praetors' Edicts. For many centuries, each new praetor (a Roman judge) would announce these annual edicts. They explained how the praetor planned to handle legal matters for the next year. This document was a very important part of Roman law for a long time.

By the 2nd century AD, the Praetor's Edict mainly helped to put new laws into practice. Emperor Hadrian ordered that Julianus's revised version of the Edict should be permanent. Some scholars believe this revision helped poor people. It made the Edict, which was a masterpiece of earlier Roman law, stable and unchanging.

However, we don't have many details about this big change, so it's hard to know exactly what Julianus did. A key part of the Praetor's Edict was how it was organized, showing different legal topics. This order had developed over many generations. We don't know how much Julianus changed this traditional arrangement, except for a few cases. For example, he made changes to how inheritance worked when someone died without a will. Julianus's work on the Edict was seen as very important by Roman jurists.

His Digesta in 90 Books

Julianus's main written work was the Digesta. This was a detailed book about civil law (laws between citizens) and praetorian law (laws from the praetors). Other Roman legal writers often referred to it. It was a large collection of legal opinions on real and made-up cases, following the system of the Edict. Julianus's works, especially his Digesta, are considered some of the best Roman legal writings.

Scholars note that Roman jurists usually focused on specific cases rather than creating general rules. Even in Julianus's Digesta, case examples were very important. However, he didn't just list cases; he discussed problems from a general point of view, using imagined cases to explore legal ideas. But he usually avoided stating the final legal principle directly.

Other scholars say that Julianus's writings became very influential. His work helped to bring together the different schools of Roman law that had existed for centuries. One scholar, Professor Sohm, said that Julianus's deep knowledge of real cases, his clever decisions, and his ability to find general rules from specific situations made his work powerful. He helped Roman law apply its principles to a huge amount of legal information. After Julianus, there was mostly one unified Roman law, following the path he set.

The goal of his Digesta was to explain all of Roman law. It contained many different kinds of legal opinions: answers given in letters, answers from debates, and answers to questions he thought about while studying law.

Other Works

Julianus also wrote commentaries (explanations) on the works of two earlier, less known jurists: Urseius Felix (in 4 books) and Minicius (in 6 books). He also wrote a small book called De ambiguitatibus (On doubtful questions).

Quotes in Justinian's Law Books

Many of Julianus's writings, mostly from his Digesta, were included in the Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law). This huge collection of laws was put together in 533 AD by Emperor Justinian I in the Byzantine Empire. The part of the Corpus called the Digesta Iustiniani (Justinian's Digest) has 50 books and contains hundreds of quotes from Julianus.

Here are a few simple examples of his legal ideas:

"If a seller lies about the condition of a farm but not its size, he is still responsible to the buyer."
"If we agree on what is being given but have different reasons for giving/receiving it, the transfer of ownership can still happen."
"Not every legal point can be covered by specific laws. But if the meaning is clear, a judge should use similar reasoning to decide the law."
"We cannot follow a legal rule if it goes against the reason behind the law."
"Old customs that have been used for a long time are almost as strong as laws. This is because if people accept laws by voting, they should also accept what people have agreed upon without writing it down. It doesn't matter if people show their will by voting or by their actions. So, laws can be canceled not just by voting, but also by everyone silently agreeing not to use them anymore."

Influence and Legacy

Among Roman Jurists

Julianus's ideas influenced many other legal experts because his reasoning was so clear and clever. This is shown by the fact that 457 parts of his writings are included in the Digest (Justinian's). His name also appears first in the list of important jurists that Emperor Justinian ordered to be made. Centuries after Julianus died, Emperor Justinian called him "the most skilled creator of laws and the permanent edict."

The Digesta written by Salvius Julianus in the 2nd century was quoted hundreds of times by the people who put together the Pandectae (or Digest) in the 6th century. This was done under the order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (527–565 AD). This imperial Pandect was meant to be a collection of legal knowledge from earlier Roman jurists. It is thought that Justinian's compilers used Julian's Digest as a main source, as nearly 500 passages are quoted from it.

Julianus died during the rule of the wise emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD), who called him "our friend." Julianus's fame continued to grow over time, and later emperors spoke very highly of him. Justinian even called him "the most famous of the jurists."

Among Modern Scholars

Some modern experts believe Julianus was the greatest of all Roman jurists, even more important than Papinian. They say that Roman law reached its highest point with Julianus. Scholars like Professor William Warwick Buckland and Professor Peter Stein have compared Julianus to a great English judge, Lord Mansfield, who lived in the 18th century.

They said that no other jurist had such a big impact on the future of law. His Digest was a complete book on both civil and praetorian law. Julianus's work was known for its very clear style and his understanding that legal ideas must change with the times. He did a great job of organizing and simplifying the law, getting rid of confusing and unnecessary differences.

Professor Fritz Schulz praised Julianus's personal contribution to Roman law. He said that the time of great legal pioneers had passed, and now their ideas needed to be fully developed. The peak of this development was during the time of emperors Trajan and Hadrian, when the Roman Empire was at its strongest. Julian's Digesta are the greatest work of Roman jurisprudence, and they were dominant until the end of the Principate. After Julian, there was a slight decline, but law generally stayed at a high level until the mid-3rd century.