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Chap, xliv] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 491 from every system the most probable doctrines. 70 But their writings would have been less voluminous, had their choice been more unanimous. The conscience of the judge was perplexed by the number and weight of discordant testimonies, and every sentence that his passion or interest might pronounce was justified bv the sanction of some venerable name. An indulgent [Law of m . , . -, i ■ r nil Citations. edict of the younger Theodosius excused him from the labour a.d. 426] of comparing and weighing their arguments. Five civilians, Caius, Papinian, Paul, Ulpian, and Modestinus, were established as the oracles of jurisprudence ; a majority was decisive ; but, if their opinions were equally divided, a casting vote was ascribed to the superior wisdom of Papinian. 71 When Justinian ascended the throne, the reformation of the Reforma- Koman jurisprudence was an arduous but indispensable task. Roman law In the space of ten centuries, the infinite variety of laws and i an . ad. legal opinions had filled many thousand volumes, which no di fortune could purchase and no capacity could digest. Books could not easily be found ; and the judges, poor in the midst of riches, were reduced to the exercise of their illiterate discretion. The subjects of the Greek provinces were ignorant of the language that disposed of their lives and properties; and the barbarous dialect of the Latins was imperfectly studied in the academies of Berytus and Constantinople. As an Illyrian soldier, that idiom was familiar to the infancy of Justinian ; his youth had been instructed by the lessons of jurisprudence, and his Imperial choice selected the most learned civilians of the East, to labour with their sovereign in the work of reforma- tion. 72 The theory of professors was assisted by the practice of 70 Mascou, de Sectis, e. viii. p. 120-144, de Herciscundis, a legal term whioh was applied to these eclectic lawyers : herciscere is synonymous to dividere. [In the third century the schism was obliterated under the conciliatory influence of Ulpian and Papinian. Cp. Accarias, i. p. 63.] 71 See the Theodosian Code, 1. i. tit. iv. with Godefroy's Commentary, torn. i. p. 30-35. This deoree might give occasion to Jesuitical disputes like those in the Lettres Provinciales, whether a judge was obliged to follow the opinion of Papinian, or of a majority, against his judgment, against his conscience, &c. Yet a legislator might give that opinion, however false, the validity, not of truth, but of law. 72 For the legal labours of Justinian, I have studied the preface to the Institutes ; the 1st, 2d, and 3d prefaoeB to the Pandects ; the 1st and 2d Preface to the Code ; and the Code itself (1. i. tit. xvii. de Veteri Jure enucleando). After these original testimonies, I have consulted, among the modems, Heineccius (Hist. J. K. No. 383-404), Terrasson (Hist, de la Jurisprudence Eomaine, p. 295-356), Gravina (Opp. p. 93-100), and Ludewig, in his Life of Justinian (p. 19-123, 318-321 ; for the Code and Novels, p. 209-261 ; for the Digest or Pandects, p. 262-317). [H. J. Roby, Introduction to Justinian's Digest, 1884.]