the son of a freedman, who is called by Livy Cneius, by Gellius and Pliny Annius, was born
in humble circumstances, but became secretary to App. Claudius Caecus [CLAUDIUS, No. 10], and, in consequence of this connection, together with his own
shrewdness and eloquence, attained distinguished honours in the commonwealth. He is celebrated
in the annals of Roman law for having been the first to divulge certain technicalities of
procedure, which previously had been kept secret as the exclusive patrimony of the pontiffs
and the patricians. The relative share which the pontiffs, as such, and the patricians, who
were not pontiffs, possessed in the administration and interpretation of early Roman law,
cannot now be accurately determined. Among the portions of law which were kept in the
knowledge of a few, were the greater part of the actus legitimi and the
actiones legis. These appear to have included the whole of legal
practice, the actus legitimi ordinarily designating the technicalities of
private legal transactions, and the actiones legis the ceremonies of
judicial procedure, although this distinction is not always observed. To the hidden law of
practice belonged the rules of the Kalendar (Fasti), and the greater part
of the
The collection of legal rules thus published by Flavius was called the Jus
Flavianum ; and, next to the Jus Civile Papirianum, it was the
earliest private work in Roman law. The patrician jurists were grieved and indignant when
they saw that their advice and intervention were rendered unnecessary by this publication. In
order to regain their lost powers, they framed new rules relating to the legis actiones, and, in order to keep the new rules secret, invented a cypher (notae) to preserve them in. (Cic. pro Mur. 11, where
by notae some commentators understand, not a secret notation or cypher,
but the new formulae invented by the jurists). These new rules in another century underwent
the same fate with their predecessors, for in the year Jas Aelianum.
Flavius was not content with divulging the legal mysteries through the medium of a book,
but, according to Livy, he exposed the Fasti to view on a whited tablet in the Forum. (Fastos circa Forum in albo proposuit, 9.46.) It is not unlikely, from a
comparison of the narrative of Livy with the accounts of other writers, that the latter
exposure took place after he had been promoted to the office of curule aedile, in consequence
of the popularity he had acquired by the previous publication of his book.
The first fruits of his popularity were his appointments to the offices of triumvir
nocturnus and triumvir coloniae deducendae ; and, in order to qualify himself for the
acceptance of such honours, he ceased to practise his former business of scribe. He was
afterwards made a senator by App. Claudius, in spite of his ignominious birth, and was
elected curule aedile in the year forensis factio, which had been created and had gained
strength during the censorship of App. Claudius, and now became a distinct party in the
state, in opposition to those who called themselves the fautores
bonorum. From Licinius Macer, quoted by Livy, it would appear that he had been
phalerae). Flavius met the contemptuous treatment of the nobles with equal hauteur. He
consecrated the Temple of Concordia, on which occasion the Pontifex Maximus, Cornelius
Barbatus, was obliged by the populace to take a leading part in the ceremony, notwithstanding
his previous declaration that none but a consul or an imperator ought, according to ancient
custom, to dedicate a temple. When Flavius went to visit his colleague, who was unwell, a
party of young nobles, who were present, refused to rise on his entrance, whereupon he sent
for his curule chair, and, from his seat of rank, looked down with triumph upon his jealous
enemies. (
Puchta, Cursus der Institutionen, vol. i. p. 677.