Julius Paulus (; fl. 2nd century and 3rd century AD), often simply referred to as Paul in English, was one of the most influential and distinguished Roman jurists. He was also a

praetorian prefect The praetorian prefect (; ) was a high office in the Roman Empire. Originating as the commander of the Praetorian Guard, the office gradually acquired extensive legal and administrative functions, with its holders becoming the Emperor's chief ai ...

under the Roman Emperor

Alexander Severus Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander (1 October 208 – March 235), also known as Alexander Severus, was Roman emperor from 222 until 235. He was the last emperor from the Severan dynasty. Alexander took power in 222, when he succeeded his slain co ...

Life

Little is known of the life and family of Paulus; he was a man of

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

descent, who originated from an unknown

Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...

n town in

Roman Syria Roman Syria was an early Roman province annexed to the Roman Republic in 64 BC by Pompey in the Third Mithridatic War following the defeat of King of Armenia Tigranes the Great, who had become the protector of the Hellenistic kingdom of Syria. ...

or from Patavium,

Roman Italy Roman Italy is the period of ancient Italian history going from the founding of Rome, founding and Roman expansion in Italy, rise of ancient Rome, Rome to the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire; the Latin name of the Italian peninsula ...

(modern

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

). The possibility that Paulus could come from Patavium is based on a statue with an inscription found in Patavium dedicated to a Paulus. During the reign of emperors

Septimius Severus Lucius Septimius Severus (; ; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through cursus honorum, the ...

and

Caracalla Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), better known by his nickname Caracalla (; ), was Roman emperor from 198 to 217 AD, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father and then r ...

, Paulus served as a jurist. He was exiled by the emperor

Elagabalus Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus, 204 – 13 March 222), better known by his posthumous nicknames Elagabalus ( ) and Heliogabalus ( ), was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. His short r ...

and recalled from exile by his successor, emperor

. Severus and his mother Julia Avita Mamaea in 222, appointed him among the emperor's chief advisers and between 228 and 235, he was the Praetorian prefect of the

Praetorian Guard The Praetorian Guard (Latin language, Latin: ''cohortes praetoriae'') was the imperial guard of the Imperial Roman army that served various roles for the Roman emperor including being a bodyguard unit, counterintelligence, crowd control and ga ...

. Paulus was a contemporary of the jurist

Ulpian Ulpian (; ; 223 or 228) was a Roman jurist born in Tyre in Roman Syria (modern Lebanon). He moved to Rome and rose to become considered one of the great legal authorities of his time. He was one of the five jurists upon whom decisions were to ...

. He partly followed the career path of former Praetorian prefect Aemilius Papinianus. In a

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

of the emperor

Gordian III Gordian III (; 20 January 225 – February 244) was Roman emperor from 238 to 244. At the age of 13, he became the youngest sole emperor of the united Roman Empire. Gordian was the son of Maecia Faustina and her husband Junius Balbus, who d ...

dating from 239 and referring to the marriage, where is cited a response of Paul, he is called ''vir prudentissimus Paulus'' ('' C.J.'' 5.4.6).

Paulus's legal works

The Roman jurist

Herennius Modestinus Herennius Modestinus, or simply Modestinus, was a civil servant and a celebrated Roman jurist, a student of Ulpian who flourished about 250 AD. He appears to have been a native of one of the Greek-speaking provinces, or probably Dalmatia. Poss ...

describes Paulus, along with Ulpian and

Quintus Cervidius Scaevola Quintus Cervidius Scaevola (fl. ) was a Roman jurist of the equestrian order. Both the ''Historia Augusta'Historia Augusta'', "Marcus Antoninus Philosophus"11.10/ref> and the '' Tabula Banasitana'' attest that Scaevola was a member of Marcus A ...

, as among "the last of the great jurists". Paulus’ work was held in high respect. He had written 319 various legal publications. His surviving works are extremely prolific, displaying a keen analysis of other opinions of jurists and Paulus expressed his legal views. He appears to have written on a great variety on legal subjects and had a thorough knowledge of legal subjects and law. Paulus comments on the jurists

Javolenus Priscus Gaius Octavius Tidius Tossianus Lucius Javolenus Priscus was a Roman senator and jurist who flourished during the Flavian dynasty. Many of his judgments are quoted in the '' Digest''. Priscus served as suffect consul for the '' nundinium'' (per ...

Marcus Antistius Labeo Marcus Antistius Labeo (died 10 or 11 AD) was a Roman jurist. Marcus Antistius Labeo was the son of Pacuvius Labeo, a jurist who caused himself to be slain after the defeat of his party at Philippi. Since his name was different from his father's ...

Salvius Julianus Lucius Octavius Cornelius Publius Salvius Iulianus Aemilianus (c. 110 – c. 170), generally referred to as Salvius Julianus, or Julian the Jurist, or simply Julianus, was a well known and respected jurist, public official, and politician who serv ...

and Aemilius Papinianus. He is cited by the jurists Macer and Herennius Modestinus. His writing style is condensed and sometimes obscure; however, his work is just as good as the other Roman jurists. Paulus’ work has survived from excerpts, although his work needs to be carefully read to be understood. Paulus was one of the five jurists whose opinions were made constitutionally authoritative in 426 by Roman Emperors

Theodosius II Theodosius II ( ; 10 April 401 – 28 July 450), called "the Calligraphy, Calligrapher", was Roman emperor from 402 to 450. He was proclaimed ''Augustus (title), Augustus'' as an infant and ruled as the Eastern Empire's sole emperor after the ...

and

Valentinian III Valentinian III (; 2 July 41916 March 455) was Roman emperor in the Western Roman Empire, West from 425 to 455. Starting in childhood, his reign over the Roman Empire was one of the longest, but was dominated by civil wars among powerful general ...

. Another legacy from Paulus is the inclusion of his writings in the '' Digest'' which was written and put together by

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

Emperor

Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

. One sixth of the

Corpus Juris Civilis The ''Corpus Juris'' (or ''Iuris'') ''Civilis'' ("Body of Civil Law") is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, enacted from 529 to 534 by order of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. It is also sometimes referred ...

in the ''Digest'' consists of Paulus’ work. He is the most excerpted Roman jurist in the ''Digest'', ahead of

. The ''Digest'' attributes to Paulus the first articulation of the

presumption of innocence The presumption of innocence is a legal principle that every person Accused (law), accused of any crime is considered innocent until proven guilt (law), guilty. Under the presumption of innocence, the legal burden of proof is thus on the Prosecut ...

in Roman law: ''Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat''"Proof lies on him who asserts, not on him who denies". Paulus in the ''Digest'' is also referred in two passages, which he gave a contrary opinion to Alexander Severus, but Severus chose Papinianus‘ opinion.

Pseudo-Pauline works

Due to his fame, several other works have been attributed to him, in particular the 3rd century compilation ''Pauli sententiae'' ("Paul's Views" or "Sentences"). From Paulus’ surviving works and works attributed to him, the ''Sententiae ad Filium'' have the longest fragments.

Economics

In the '' Digest'', Paulus wrote a passage on

money Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are: m ...

. Paulus presented a theory of money, similar to

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

, similar to the still sometimes abiding theory that it had arisen from the inconvenience of barter (i.e. with a presumption of an initial in-kind or "barter" exchange economy preceding money) due to the "lack of

coincidence of wants The coincidence of wants (often known as double coincidence of wants) is an economic phenomenon where two parties each hold an item that the other wants, so they exchange these items directly. Within economics, this has often been presented as t ...

" in neoclassical terminology.Schumpeter, Joseph A. (1954). ''History of Economic Analysis''. Oxford University Press. — Part II (''From the Beginnings to The First Classical Situation (to About 1790)''), chapter 1 (''Graeco-Roman Economics''), section 7 (''The Contribution of the Romans''), page 70, footnote 6.

Editions

Notes

References

*
The Roman Law Library
by Yves Lassard and Alexandr Koptev.
Google book : ''Latin Literature A History'', Gian Biagio Conte

External links

*, ancientlibrary.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Paul 2nd-century Romans 3rd-century Romans 3rd-century writers Ancient Roman jurists Praetorian prefects Paulus Prudentissimus