A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

an eminent Roman jurist, contemporary with Trebatius, whom he exceeded in eloquence, though Trebatius surpassed him in legal skill. Their contemporary, Ofilius, the disciple of Servius Sulpicius, was more learned than either. Cascellius, according to Pliny the Elder (H. N. 8.40), was the disciple of one Volcatius, who, on a certain occasion, was saved by a dog from the attack of robbers. Pomponius (Dig. 1, tit. 2, s. 2.45), according to the Florentine manuscript, writes thus--" Fuit Cascellius, Mucius, Volusii auditor: denique in illius honorem testamento P. Mucium nepotem ejus reliquit heredem." This may be understood to mean that, at the end of a long life, Cascellius made the grandson of his fellow-pupil his heir, but a main is more likely to honour his praeceptor than his fellow-pupil, and, on this construction, the Latinity is harsh, both in the use of the singular for the plural, and in the reference of the word illius to the former of the two names, Mucius and Volusius, which are connected merely by collocation. Hence the conjectural reading of Baldninus adopted by Bertrandus (de Vitis Jurisp. 2, 19), viz. " Fuit Cascellius Mucii et Volcatii auditor," has gained the approbation of many critics.

Cascellius was a man of stern republican principies : of Caesar's proceedings he spoke with the utmost freedom. Neither hope nor fear could induce him, B. C. 41, to compose legal forms for the donations of the triumvirs, the fruits of their proscriptions, which he looked upon as wholly irregular and illegal. His independence and liberty of speech he ascribed to two things, which most men regarded as misfortunes, old age and childlessness. In offices of honour, he never advanced beyond the first step, the quaestorship. though he survived to the reign of Augustus, who offered him the consulship, which he declined. (V. Max. 6.2.12, Dig. l.c.)

Cascellius is frequently quoted at second hand in the Digest, especially by Javolenus. In Dig. 35, tit. 1, s. 40, s. 1, and 32, s. 100.1, we find him differing from Ofilius. In the latter passage, the case proposed was this :--A man leaves by will two specific marble statues, and all his marble. Do his other marble statues pass ? Cascellius thought not, and Labeo agreed with him, in opposition to Ofilius and Trebatius.

In Dig. 38, tit. 5, s. 17.5, the following words occur in a quotation from Ulpian, " Labeo quarto Posteriorum scripsit, nec Aristo, vel Aulus, utpote probabile, notant." For Aulus here it is not unlikely that Paulus ought to be read, for Cascellitis is no where else in the Digest called Aulus simply. Moreover, he was of older standing than Labeo, and the only work of Cascellius extant in the time of Pomponius (who was anterior to Ulpian), was a book of legal bons mots (benedictorum liber).

In conversation, Cascellius was graceful, amusing, and witty. Several of his good savings are preserved. When a client, wishing to sever a partnership in a ship, said to him, "Navem dividere volo," his answer was, " You will destroy your ship." He probably remembered the story of the analogous quibble on the words of a treaty, which,

to the disgrace of the Romans, deprived Antiochus the Great of his whole fleet. Vatinius, an unpopular personage, for whom it is to be presumed that Cascellius had no great liking, had been pelted with stones at a gladiatorial show, and consequently got a clause inserted in the edict of the aedilcs, " ne quis in arenam nisi pomum mitteret." About this time, the question was put to Cascellius, whether a nux pinca were a pomum, it being a legal doubt whether fruits with hard as well as with soft external rind, were included in the term. "Si in Vatinium missurus es, pomum est." (Quint. Inst. 6.3; Macrob. Saturn. 2.6.)

Horace (Ars Poet. 371, 372) pays a compliment to the established legal reputation of Cascellius--

"----nec scit quantum Cascellius Aulus, Et tamen in pretio est."

The old scholiast on this passage remarks, that Gellius mentions Cascellius with praise, but this seems to be a mistake, unless the lost portions of Gellius should bear out the scholiast's assertion. He probably confounds the jurist with Caesellius Vindex, the grammarian, who is frequently cited by Gellius. The inane of the jurist is often corruptly spelt Caescllius, Ceselius, &c.

When an interdictum recuperandae possessionis was followed by an action on a sponsio, if the claimant were successful in recovering on the sponsio, he was entitled as a consequence to the restitution of possession by what was called the Cascellianum or secutorium judicium. (Gaius, 4.166, 169.) It is likely that this judicium was devised by A. Cascellius.

Cicero (pro Balbo, 20) and Val. Maximus (8.12.1) say, that Q. Mucius Scaevola, the augur, a most accomplished lawyer, when he was consulted concerning jus praediatorium, used to refer his clients to Furius and Cascellius, who, being themselves praediatores, and consequently personally interested in that part of the law, had made it their peculiar study. The quotations from our Cascellius in the Digest, do not point to praediatorian law, and a consideration of dates goes far to prove, that Cascellius praediator, was not our jurist, but perhaps his father. The old augur died when Cicero was very young, but our Cascellius might still have been his disciple.

(Amm. Marc. 30.6; Rutilius, Vitae JCiorum, 36; Bertrandus, de Jurisp. 2.19; Gull. Grotius, 1.10; Strauch. Vitae aliquot JCtorum, p. 62; Menagius, Amoen. Jur. 100.8; D'Arnaud, Vitae Scaevolarum, § 4, p. 14; Heineccius, Hist. Jur. Rom. §§ 190, 191; Edelmann, [Stockmann,] De Benedictis A. Caseelli, Lips. 1803; Bynkershoek, Praetermissa ad Pomponium, p. 57; Lagemans, de Aulo Cascellio JCto. Lug. Bat. 1823; Zimmern, R. R. G. i. pp. 299, 300.)

[J.T.G]