Some writers are of opinion that there was only one jurist of this name : some think that there were two. (See the references in Zimmern, Geschichte des Römischen Privatrechts, vol. i. p. 338, n. 6.)
Pomponius is often cited by Julianus (Dig. 3. tit. 5. s. 6.6-8; Dig. 17. tit. 2. s. 63.9), and also under the name of Sextus.
Puchta (Cursus der Institutionen, vol. i. p. 444), says there is no reason for assuming that there were two Pomponii. As to the passage (Dig. 28. tit. 5. s. 41), at the head of which stands the name of Pomponius, he observes that the words "ut refert Sextus Pomponius," at the end of the extract, merely show that the compilers did not take the extract immediately from the work of Pomponius, but from some other work in which it was cited. He adds, that this kind of repetition is not unusual in the Digest; and he refers to another passage (Dig. 22. tit. 1. s. 26; Julianus, lib. vi. ex Minucio), in which the repetition is avoided, but in other respects it is exactly like Dig. 28. tit. 5. s. 41. As to the passage (Dig. 30. s. 32), "tam Sextus quam Pomponius," he observes that the expression would be highly inapt, if the name Pomponius belonged to both jurists. The weakest ground of all, as he considers it, for supposing that there were two Pomponii is that Julianus often cites Pomponius ; and it is supposed that as Pomponius was a younger man than Julianus, and of less note, that Julianus would not have cited him.
Pomponius is the author of a long extract in the Digest (Dig. 1. tit. 1. s. 2), which is taken from a work of his in one book, entitled Enchiridion. His period may be approximately determined from the fact that Julianus is the last of the jurists whom he mentions, and the period of the activity of Julianus belongs to the reign of Hadrianus.
The number of extracts from Pomponius in the Digest is 585. He was a Cassianus (Gaius 2.218), "sed Juliano et Sexto placuit :" where Sextus means Sextus Pomponius. In another passage he alludes to C. Cassius under the name of Caius noster (Dig. 45. tit. 3. s. 39); for in this passage, and in a passage of Julianus (Dig. 24. tit. 3. s. 59), Caius or Gaius means C. Cassius, and not the later jurist, now known by the name of Gains. The same remark applies to Dig. 46. tit. 3. s. 78, which is an extract front C. Cassius made by Javolenus.
The works of Pomponius are the Enchiridion, which is not mentioned in the Florentine Index ; Variae Lectiones, of which the Index mentions only fifteen books, though the twenty-fifth, the thirty-fourth, and even the fortieth and forty-first books are cited in the Digest (Dig. 8. tit. 5. s. 8.6); twenty books of Epistolae; five books of Fideicommissa; libri lectionum ad Q. Mucium ; libri ad Plautium; liber singularis regularum ; libri ad Sabinum; libri V. SCtorum; and the two books of an Enchiridion, which is mentioned in the Index. Some other writings of Pomponius are cited. The extract from the single book of the Enchiridion, De Origine Juris, is our chief authority for the Roman jurists, to the time of Julianus, and for our knowledge of the two sectae or scholae. [CAPITO.]
The question of the two Pomponii is discussed by W. Grotius, Vitae Jurisconsultorum, with which may be compared the works of Zimmern and Puchta, which have been already referred to.
[G.L]