A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

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.

[J.T.G]