or PRISCUS JAVOLE'NUS, an eminent Roman jurist. His name occurs in both forms; Pomponius
calls him first Priscus Javolenus, and afterwards Javolenus Priscus. (Dig.
1. tit. 2. s. 2. § ult.) Pliny adopts the latter form (Ep.
6.15). Javolenus was a pupil of Caelius Sabinus, and a leader of the Sabinian school during a
period when Celsus the father, Celsus the son, and Neratius Priscus, led the opposite school,
as successors of Pegasus. He was the teacher of Aburnus Valens, Tuscianus, and Julianus. It
appears from a fragment of Julianus (Dig. 40. tit. 2. s. 5), that
Javolenus was a praetor and proconsul in Syria. According to a passage of Capitolinus (Ant. Pius, 12), he was one of the council of Antoninus Pius. Some of his
biographers think that if he were alive in the reign of Antoninus, he must have been too old
to hold such a post; hence they question the authority of Capitolinus, and, moreover, the
passage referred to is probably interpolated and corrupt. But there is no pressing
improbability in the statement, if the reading be genuine; for if, as appears to be likely,
Javolenus was born about the commencement of the reign of Vespasian (A. D. 79), he might well
be an imperial councillor between the age of sixty and seventy. Pliny relates from hearsay an
anecdote of Javolenus, which has given rise to much discussion (Ep.
6.15). Passienus Paulus, a noble eques and writer of verses, invited Javolenus to a
recitation. Paulus began by saying " Prisce jubes," but we are not told whether these were the
first words of his poem, or a polite form of asking leave to commence. Javolenus, however,
replied, " Ego vero non jubeo." This mal-àpropos expression occasioned much laughter
among the party, but was chilling to the host. Whether it was uttered by Javolenus in a fit of
mental absence, or by way of awkward joke, or as a blunt expression of impatience, under an
infliction which more than once roused the indignation of Juvenal, does not appear. Pliny sets
down Javolenus as a madman, but this imputation is probably to be construed in a loose sense.
Even if the rude saying of Javolenus was occasioned, as some think, by actual temporary mental
aberration, brought on by overwork, his madness was not of such a kind as to prevent him from
attending to the ordinary duties of his profession (Plin. l.c.) Some
writers, in order to save the credit of the jurist of the Digest, have absurdly imagined a
second mad jurist of the same name. Others, as absurdly, have imagined that the insanity of
Javolenus is to be detected in two passages of the Digest (Dig. 35.
tit. 1. s. 55, Dig. 17. tit. 1. s. 52), from the badness of their
reasoning. In the former passage, Javolenus compares the bequest of a legacy to an incapable
person to a direction of the testator that so much money should be thrown into
the sea. The two cases so compared in their legal effects have some resemblances and some
differences. The other passage contains an opinion of Javolenus, which, instead of betraying
any symptom of insanity, rests upon sound legal principles, and is correctly decided.
Works
In general, the writings of Javolenus manifest an accurate knowledge of antiquity, and of
the works of preceding jurists. He is several times cited by some of the most eminent of his
successors--Julianus, Valens, Gaius, Ulpian, and Paulus. When the name Priscus alone occurs,
as in
Ulpiani Fragmenta, tit. 11. s. 28, Javolenus, and not
Neratius Priscus, is to be understood. In an extract from Ulpian, Dig.
7. tit. 8. s. 10.2, we find the expression " Et Priscus et Neratius."
There are 206 extracts from Javolenus in the Digest, occupying twenty-three pages in
Hommel. He wrote, 1. Ex Cassio Libri XV., commentaries upon some work of
Caius Cassius Longinus, a leader of the school to which Javolenus belonged. In this work he
rarely departs from the opinion of Cassius, whom in two passages he cites by his praenomen
Gaius alone.Dig. 35. tit. 1. s. 54, Dig.
46, tit. 3.78.2. Epistolarum Libri XIV., consisting of opinions in
answer to legal cases.3. Ad Plautium, or Ex
Plautio, commentaries on Plautius, a jurist who lived under Vespasian.4. Libri ex Posterioribus, or Posteriorum Labeonis, Posteriorum Labeonis a Javoleno Epitomatorum Libri, or
Posteriorum Labeonis Epitome.
Libri ex Posterioribus
It is not certain whether these titles designate the same or different works. The
Posteriora was a posthumous work of Labeo, and took its name from
being published after the death of its author. (Gel. 13.10.) It
is probable that Javolenus not only edited the Posteriora with a commentary,
but published an abridgment. (Blume in Savigny's Zeitschrift,
vol. iv. pp. 318-324.) Javolenus has been thought to be sometimes captious in his criticisms
on Labeo, who was the founder of the opposite school. Gellius (13.10) mentions the 40th book of the Posteriora of Labeo; the 37th is cited in
Dig. 4. tit. 3. s. 9.3, and the 38th in Dig.
48. tit. 13. s. 9.2 and 6; yet the Florentine Index, under the name Labeo, speaks of
ten books only, and under the name Javolenus makes no reference to the Posteriora.
The compilers of the Digest seem not to have been acquainted with the Posteriora of Labeo
in any other form than the edition of Javolenus, and the
Epitome, as well as
the " Javoleni Libri ex Posterioribus Labeonis " (if they were
distinct), consisted each of ten books. The extract in Dig. 40.
tit. 12. s. 42, though headed " Labeo Libro quarto Posteriorum," is undoubtedly taken from
the edition of Javolenus, for at the end of the extract are these words : " Javolenus : haec
vera sunt." The 1st book, as may be collected from the extracts in the Digest, treated of
testaments, the 2nd and 3rd of legacies, the 4th and 5th of contracts, the 6th of Dos and
Nuptiae. From the 7th there is no extract. The 8th treated of tutela, the 9th of private
delicta, the 10th of procedure. (Regius in Otto. Thes. Juris,
vol. ii. p. 1473, seq.)
Further Information
The modern biographers of Javolenus have been very numerous. The best and ablest is Van
Alphen, whose
Spicilegia de Javoleno Prisco Icto et specimen
observationum ad quaedam ejus fragmenta in Pandectis obvia, first published 4to,
Ultraj. 1768, was reprinted in the excellent collection of Ger. Oelrichs, entitled " Thesaurus Novus Dissertationum Juridicarum selectissimarum in Academüs
Belgicis habitarum," vol. iii. tom. i. pp. 1-94 ; Glob. Aug. Jenichen, de Prisco Javoleno Icto incomparabili, 4to. Lips. 1734; Jo. Glieb.
Lindner, de Javoleno Prisco Icto, 4to. Arnstadtii, 1770 ;
Neuber, Die juristischen Klassiker, pp. 146-182 ; Ferd. Kämmerer,
Beiträge zur Geschichte und Theorie des Römischen Rechts,
vol. i. num. 6, pp. 245-254.)