was a pupil of Q. Cervidius Scaevola. An inscription records his parents to be Papinianus
Hostilis and Eugenia Gracilis, and that they survived their son Aemilius Paullus Papinianus,
who died in his thirty-seventh year. Aemilins Papinianus succeeded Septimius Severus,
afterwards emperor, as Advocatus Fisci (Spartian. Carucall. 8). Now
Severus held this oftice under Marcus Antoninus, and he was employed in various high
capacities by Marcus during his lifetime. Papinianus therefore was Advocatus Fisci during the
reign of Marcus, who died
Papinian is said to have been related to Julia Domna, the second wife of Severus. (Spart.
Caracall. 8.) He was highly esteemed by Severus, nnder whom he was
Libellorum magister (Pescen. Niger, 7). Lampridius (Alex. Severus, 68) enumerates the "juris professores," as he terms those who were
pupils of Papinian: in the list are the names of Ulpian, Paulus, Pomponius, Africanus,
Florentinus and Modestinus, the most distinguished among the great Roman jurists.
Severus came to Britain A. D. 208, in which year his sons M.
Antoninus Caracalla and P. Septimius Geta were consuls, and he died at York
On the death of his father, Caracalla, according to Dion, dismissed Papinian from his
office, and in the second year of his reign he murdered his brother Geta, while he was
clinging to his another for protection. Papinian also was soon after put to death by the
emperor's orders. The reasons given for his death were various, but it is easy to conceive
that a tyrant like Caracalla would be satisfied with any excuse for getting rid of so stern a
monitor and so honest a man. The pretext may have been that he was a partisan of Geta, or that
he re fused to comply with the emperor's order to make a defence before the senate and the
people of his brother's assassination (Spart. Caracalla, 8); but
Papinian's real crime was his abilities and his integrity. His biographer states (Spart. Caracall. 4) that Papinian was beheaded in the emperor's presence, and that
his son, who was then quaestor, perished about the same time. The dying words of Papinian
warned his successor in the office of what his own fate might be, and they were prophetic ;
for Macrinus, who did succeed him, rid the empire of its tyrannical master by assassination.
(Spart. Caracall. 8, 6.) Spartianus apparently supposed that Papinian was
praefectus praetorio at the time of his death. (
There are 595 excerpts from Papinian's works in the Digest. These excerpts are from the
thirtyseven books of Quaestiones, a work arranged according to the order
of the Edict, the nineteen books of Responsa, the two books of Definitiones, the two books De Adultteriis, a single
book De Adulteriis, and a Greek work or fragment, intitled
No Roman jurist had a higher reputation than Papinian. Spartitnus (Severus, 21) calls him "juris asylum et doctrine legalis thesaurus." The epithets of
"prudentissimus," "consultissimus," "disertissimus," and others to the like effect, are
bestowed upon him by various emperors. (Cod. 5. tit. 71. s. 14; 7. tit. 32. s. 3; 6. tit. 25.
s. 9.)
As a practical jurist and a writer, few of his countrymen can be compared with him. Indeed
the great commentator, who has devoted a whole folio to his remarks upon Papinian, declares
that he was the first of all lawyers who have been or are to be, that no one ever surpassed
him in legal knowledge, and no one ever will equal him. (Cujacius, Opera,
vol. iv., In Prooem. ad Quaest. Papinian.) Nor is the reputation of
Papinian unmerited. It was not solely because of the high station that he filled, his
penetration and his knowledge, that he left an imperishable name; his excellent understanding,
guided by integrity of purpose, has made him the model of a true lawyer. The fragments of
Papinian are sometimes obscure, and require the aid of a commentator; but they will amply
repay the labour that is necessary to seize the fullness of the meaning of this great master
of jurisprudence.
A constitution of Theodosius and Valentinian (Cod. Theeod. 1. tit. 4,
De Resposis Prmlentum) declared all the writings of Papinian, Paulus,
Caius, Ulpian and Modestinus to be authority for the judge; the opinions of those jurists also
were to have authority, whose discussions and opinions (tractattus et opinliones) all the five
mentioned jurists had inserted in their writings, as Scaevola, Sabinus Julian and Marcellus:
if the opinions of these jurists, as expressed in their writings, were not unanlimous, the
opinion of the majority was to prevail; if there was an equal number on each side,
In the four years' course of study, as it existed before the time of Justinian, Papinian's
Responsa formed part of the third year's course, but only eight books
out of the nineteen were explained to the students; and even this was done very imperfectly.
In Justinian's course of studies, among other parts of the Digest, there were read in the
third year, the twentieth, twenty-first and twenty-second books, which were intended to take
the place of the exposition of Papinian formerly given in the third year's course; and it is
stated that the students will in this manner become much better acquainted with Papinian. To
make this intelligible, it should be observed, that all the titles of the twentieth book begin
with an excerpt from Papinian, as Blume observes (Zeitschrift, vol. iv.
p. 294, Ueber die ordnung der fragmente in den Pandecten); but he appears
not to have observed that one of the titles of this book neither begins with nor contains any
excerpt from Papinian. The students were also to retain the old designation of Papinianistae,
which denoted students of the third year; and the festival which they used to celebrate on
commencing their third year's course was still to be observed. (Const. Omnem
Reipublicae, s. 4, &c.; Grotins, Vitae Jurisconsultorum;
Zimmern, Geschichte des Roömischen Prinatrechts, vol. i. p. 361;
Puchta, Cursus, &c. vol. i. p. 454; Cujacius, Op. tom. iv. ed. Neapol. 1758.)