A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

a jurist, one of the disciples of Servius Sulpicius, the eminent friend of Cicero. Pomponius (Dig. 1. tit. 2. s. un. § 44) enumerates ten disciples of Servius, among whom T. Caesius is mentioned, in a passage not free from the inaccuracy of expression which pervades the whole title De Origine Juris. His words are these :

Ab hoc (Servio) plurimi profecerunt : fere tamen hi libros conscripserunt : ALFENUS VARUS, A. OFILIUS, T. CAESIUS, AUFIDIUSTUCCA, AUFIDIUS NAMUSA, FLAVIUS PRISCUS, ATEIUS PACUVIUS, LABEO ANTISTIUS, Labeonis Antistii pater, CINNA, PUBLICIUS GELLIUS. Ex his decem libros octoconscripserunt, quorum omnes qui fuerunt libri digesti sunt ab Aufidio Namusa in centum quadraginta libros.
It is not clear from this account whether (according to the usual interpretation of the passage) only eight of the ten were authors, or whether (as appears to be the more correct interpretation) all the ten wrote books, but not more than eight wrote books which were digested by Aufidius Namusa. In the computation of the eight, it is probable that the compiler himself was not included. T. Caesius is nowhere else expressly mentioned in the Digest, but
Ofilius, Cascellius, et Servii auditores,
are cited Dig. 33. tit. 4. s. 6.1, and the phrase Servii auditores occurs also Dig. 33. tit. 7. s. 12, pr., and Dig. 33. tit. 7. s. 12.6. In Dig. 39. tit. 3. s. 1. § 6, where Servii auctores is the reading of the Florentine manuscript of the Digest, Servii auditores has been proposed as a conjectural emendation. Under these names it has been supposed that the eight disciples
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of Servius, or rather Namusa's Digest of their works, is referred to. If so, it is likely that the eight included T. Caesius, and did not include A. Ofilius. Dirksen (Beitraege zur Kunde des Roem. Rechts, p. 23, n. 52, et p. 329), who thinks this supposition unnecessary, does not, in our opinion, shake its probability. Gellius (6.5) quotes the words of a treaty between the Romans and Carthaginians from Alfenus, " in libro Digestorum trigesimo et quarto, Conjectaneorum [al. Conlectaneorum] autem secundo." As it is known from the Florentine Index, that Alfenus wrote forty books Digestorum, and as no other work of his is elsewhere mentioned, it has been supposed that the Conjectanea or Conlectanea cited by Gellius is identical with the compilation of Namusa in which were digested the works of Servii auditores. It must be observed, however, that the Florentine Index ordinarily enumerates those works only from which the compiler of the Digest made extracts, and that the Roman jurists frequently inserted the same passages verbatim in different treatises. That the latter practice was common may be proved by glancing at the inscriptions of the fragments and the formulae of citation, as collected in the valuable treatise of Ant. Augustinus, de Nominibus Propriis Pandectarum. For example, in Dig. 4. tit. 4. s. 3.1, Ulpian cites Celsus, " Epistolarum libro undecimo et Digestorum secundo." (Bertrandi, Βίοι Νομικῶν, 2.13 ; Guil. Grotii, Vitae Jurisconsultorum, 1.11.9; Zimmern, R. R. G. 1.79.)

[J.T.G]