party resident at Rome, while the procurator was appointed in the place of one who was out of Italy, or whose absence from the city was occasioned by some public duty. Besides the Patroni Causarum, or advo cates who appeared in courts, there was an other important class of lawyers at Rome, called Juris Consulti, whom we might not improperly designate as chamber counsel. We have seen that the Jus Civile, properly so called, consisted of the oral or written opinions of lawyers who, when applied to by parties, expounded the doctrines of the law, and informed their fellow-citizens of their rights and liabilities. Their houses were frequented for this purpose, and some of them had such a reputation that their dwellings were styled the oracles of the state. When it was known that they were willing and competent to deliver opinions on points of law, they were even in public addressed by clients on the subject of their affairs, " de omui denique aut officio aut negotio," and used sometimes to walk up and down the forum in a most patriarchal fashion, for the express purpose of being consulted on legal difficulties. And under the tuition of these jurisconsults, the young men at Rome prepared themselves for practice in the courts. "They assembled early in the morning in the atrium, and listened to the advice which was given to those who came to consult the lawyer. This mode of edu cation is the best in all cases where it is practicable." Thus Cicero attached himself to Scaevola, the greatest lawyer of his day; and, in his own strong language, he tells us, that he hardly ever quitted his side until he had acquired a sufficient amount of legal in struction. And to complete their education they generally took as their model one of the famous advocates of the day, and assidu ously attended him whenever he spoke in public, in order that they might become familiar with the proper style of forensic oratory. The introduction to the forum or "calling to the bar," as we may term it, was
observed by the Romans as a most impor tant epoch of life. At the age of seventeen the youthful student laid aside his boyish dress (pratcxta'), and assumed the garb of manhood (toga virilis). He then proceeded to the forum, attended by a festive company of friends, and was there brought forward by some distinguished citizen, generally of consular rank, and formally introduced as a practitioner in the courts of law. After this he might at once undertake the conduct of causes; and we are told that Cotta pub licly accused Carbo in a speech on the very day in which he made his first appearance there. It may give some idea of the inter est taken in the ceremony to know that Augustus, when emperor, accepted his thir teenth consulship expressly for the purpose of ushering his two sons, Caius and Lucius, into the forum, and Tiberius returned from a foreign expedition to Rome in order to perform the same office for Drusus Germanicus. The profession of a jurisconsult w'as in some families, as for instance that of the Scaevolas, hereditary; the members of which, with one exception, that of Quintus Mucins, seem not to have undertaken the conduct of causes in court. They contented themselves with the reputation which they gained as lawyers to whom their fellow-citizens might resort with confidence for advice, or devoted themselves to the study of law for the sake of the emoluments they were thereby enabled to acquire; for although there can be no doubt that in the majority of cases their opinions were given gratuitously, as a means of gain ing popularity and influence, there seems to have been no law against their being paid by fees, which applied only to advocates; and in this respect they resembled the rhetori cians of Athens, who, as we have seen, com posed speeches for litigant parties, and by that means earned a livelihood. As this knowledge of the jus civile was possessed by few, the adepts in its mysteries seem to have had a sufficiently good opinion of them
