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 Chap, xliv] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 485 be divided into three periods almost equal in duration, 53 and distinguished from each other by the mode of instruction and the character of the civilians. 54 Pride and ignorance contributed, during the first period, to confine within narrow limits the The first science of the Boman law. On the public days of market orA.u.c. 303- assembly, the masters of the art were seen walking in the forum, ready to impart the needful advice to the meanest of their fellow-citizens, from whose votes, on a future occasion, they might solicit a grateful return. As their years and honours increased, they seated themselves at home on a chair or throne, to expect with patient gravity the visits of their clients, who at the dawn of day, from the town and country, began to thunder at their door. The duties of social life and the incidents of judicial proceeding were the ordinary subject of these consul- tations, and the verbal or written opinion of the jurisconsults was framed according to the rules of prudence and law. The youths of their own order and family were permitted to listen ; their children enjoyed the benefit of more private lessons; and the Mucian race was long renowned for the hereditary knowledge of the civil law. The second period, the learned and splendid second age of jurisprudence, may be extended from the birth of Cicero a.d.o. 648- to the reign of Severus Alexander. A system was formed, schools were instituted, books were composed, and both the living and the dead became subservient to the instruction of the student. The tripartite of .ZElius Paetus, surnamed Catus, or [Consul ..bo 198] the Cunning, was preserved as the oldest work of jurisprudence. Cato the censor derived some additional fame from his legal studies, and those of his son ; the kindred appellation of Mucius 53 [Another triple division is adopted by Accarias (Precis de Droit romain, 4th ed., 2 vols., 1886) : (1) to Augustus, a.u.c. 724 ; (2) to Constantine, a.d. 306 ; (3) to Justinian. But this is from a more general point of view than the " succession of the lawyers ".] 54 The Beries of the civil lawyers is deduced by Pomponius (de Origine Juris Pandect. 1. i. tit. ii.). The moderns have discussed, with learning and criticism, this branch of literary history ; and among these I have chiefly been guided by Gravina (p. 41-79) and Heineccius (Hist. J. R. No. 113-351). Cicero, more especially in his books de Oratore, de Claris Oratoribus, de Legibus, and the Clavis Ciceroniana of Ernesti (under the names of Mucms, &a.) afford much genuine and pleasing information. Horace often alludes to the morning labours of the civilians (Serm. I. i. 10. Epist. II. i. 103, &c). Agricolam laudat juriB legumque peritus Sub galli cantum, consultor ubi ostia pulsat. Romas dulce diu fuit et solemne reclusa Mane domo vigilare, clienti promere jura.