Beritus (Berytus) Nutris Legum (Beirut Mother of Law)

In many respects, one of the most important cities of Phoenicia during the time of the Roman Empire was Berytus. It became the seat of the most famous provincial school of Roman law. The school, which probably was founded by Septimius Severus, lasted until the destruction of Berytus itself by a sequence of earthquakes, tidal wave, and fire in the mid-6th century. Two of Rome's most famous jurists, Papinian and Ulpian, both natives of Phoenicia, taught as professors at the law school under the Severans. Their judicial opinions constitute well over a third of the Pandects (Digest) contained in the great compilation of Roman law commissioned by the emperor Justinian I in the 6th century AD.

Papinian, Jurist

Latin in full AEMILIUS PAPINIANUS (b. c. AD 140 -- d. 212), Phoenician Roman jurist who posthumously became the definitive authority on Roman law, possibly because his moral highmindedness was congenial to the worldview of the Christian rulers of the postclassical empire.

Papinian held high public office under the emperor Lucius Septimius Severus (reigned AD 193-211) and was the best known of the Roman prefects. He was killed at the order of Severus' son and successor, Caracalla, perhaps for refusing to supply a legal excuse for the new emperor's murder of his brother and political rival, Geta.

The most important of Papinian's works are two collections of cases: Quaestiones (37 books) and Responsa (19 books) Definitiones (2 books), and De adulteriis (2 books), attained the highest authority and are regarded today as among the principal Roman contributions to the foundation of modern law. In the postclassical law schools, the third-year students, who were called Papinianistae, used the Responsa as the basis of the curriculum. The Law of Citations (AD 426) of the emperor Theodosius II made Papinian predominant among five classical jurists whose works were to be authoritative in legal proceedings. His books were written in precise and elegant Latin.

Ulpian, Jurist

Latin in full DOMITIUS ULPIANUS (b. Tyre, Phoenicia--d. AD 228), Phoenician Roman jurist and imperial official whose writings supplied one-third of the total content of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I's monumental Digest, or Pandects (completed 533). He was a subordinate to Papinian when that older jurist was praetorian prefect (chief adviser to the emperor and commander of his bodyguard) under Lucius Septimius Severus (reigned 193-211), and he annotated Papinian's works. Afterward Ulpian was master of petitions to the emperor Caracalla, and under Severus Alexander he served as praetorian prefect from 222 until 228, when he was murdered by officers in his command.

Ulpian wrote prolifically on law in a clear, elegant style. Like Papinian, he was an intelligent editor and interpreter of existing ideas rather than an original legal thinker, such as Marcus Antistius Labeo. His major works are the commentaries Libri ad Sabinum (51 books interpreting the civil law; incomplete) and Libri ad edictum (81 books concerning praetorian edicts). Justinian's compilers, headed by Tribonian, drew heavily on these and other treatises and monographs by Ulpian. A work variously called Tituli ex corpore Ulpiani, Epitome Ulpiani, or Regulae Ulpiani is no longer believed to be his.

Dorotheus, Jurist and Professor of Roman Law

Dorotheus (first half of the 6th century AD), jurist, was one of the principal codifiers of Roman law under the emperor Justinian I.

Dorotheus helped to compile the Digest, or Pandects (published in 533), and the second edition of the Codex Constitutionum (published in 534). With Tribonian (Tribonianus), head of the Digest's compilers, and Theophilus, he also prepared the Institutes (533) as an introduction to the Digest. Fragments of his Index (542), a commentary on the Digest, are preserved in the 9th-century law code called the Basilica. Dorotheus taught jurisprudence in the school of Roman law at Berytus at that time probably the best law school in the eastern Roman Empire.