Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/238

Rh 224 GALLUS. fied by tlie judicial sovereignty which he exer- cised. Moreover, he dreaded the additional toils of an office to which he felt his declining healtli unequal. {Ad Alt. i. 1.) Of the details of his private life little is known. Pliny {H. N. vii. 1) says, epigraramatically, that he was even more dis- tinguished for the magnificent mansion which he possessed upon the Viminal Hill than for his know- ledge of the Civil Law. It was in this mansion, the most superb in all Rome (P. Victor, De Urb. Rom. Regio7i. v.), that his intimate friend, Q. Scapula, suddenly expired while at supper with Gallus. (Plin. //. iV". vii. 53.) In a letter ad- dressed to Servius Sulpicius, in B. c. 46 {ad Fam. iv. 6), Cicero speaks of a Gallus, a friend and re- lative of Servius {veder Galhis), who lost a pro- raising son, and bore his loss with equanimity ; but though Gallus Aquillius, the jurist, was the friend and legal preceptor of Servius, it is doubtful . from the context whether he is the person referred to. In the Topica, a treatise which was published in B. c. 44, Gallus is spoken of in the past tense, as no longer living. {Top. 12.) We can only briefly review the professional career of Gallus. Taught, himself, by the great Mucins Scaevola, he could boast of being in turn the principal instructor of Servius Sulpicius, who had previously learned the elements of law from Lucilius Balbus, and combined the excellencies of both his masters ; for if Balbus were more esteemed for solid arid profound acquirement, Gallus had the advantage in penetration, dexterity, and readiness. (Cic. Brut. 42.) " Institutus fuit " (Servius), says Poraponius, in the Hi-written fragment De Origiiie Juris (Dig. i. tit. 2. s, 2. § 43), "' a Balbo Lucilio, instructus autem maxime a Gallo Aquillio, qui fuit Cercinae. Itaque libri ejus complures extant, Cer- cinae confectae." Cujas, in his comment on this passage, speaks of Cercina as an island on the coast of Sicily, but no such island is mentioned by the ancient geographers, according to whom Cercina was an island (now Gamalera) in the Mare Syrti- cum, where Marius lay hid. (Mela, ii. 7 ; Plin. II. N. V. 7.) There is some improbability in the sup- position that Servius, although he visited Athens and Rhodes (Cic. ad Fam. iv. 12, Brut. 41), should have passed his time with his preceptor in an island on the coast of Africa — a singular choice of a vacation residence for a busy jurist and his pupils ! Hence some critics conjecture that Cae- cina, in Etruria (Mela, ii. 4), is meant, and otliers have thought of Sicyon or Corcyra. It is equally doubtful whether the author of the works said to liave been written at Cercina were Servius or Grallus. (Otto, in Serv. Sulpic Thes. Jur. Civ. vol. V. p. 1585-6.) If Servius is meant, there is a needless repetition, for Pomponius, referring to Servius, shortly afterwards says, " Hujus volumina complura extant." In the time of Poraponius, some works of Aquillius Gallus were extant, but copies of them were scarce, and their contents were not such as to conduce to their popularity. Ser- vius Sulpicius incorporated the works of Gallus, and of other disciples of Mucins, in his own writings, completed what they had left imperfect, and, while he acknowledged his obligations to their productions, he at once secured them from oblivion, and deprived them of the chance of inde- pendent fame, by the superior attraction of his own style. By Ulpian, Gallus is cited at second- hand from Mela, in Dig. 19. tit. 1. s. 17. § 6. It GALLUS. is remarkable, that we are not acquainted with the title of any one of his works, though he is often quoted in the Digest. Thus, he is loosely quoted by Labeo (Dig. 33. s. 29. § 1), bv Africanus (Dig. 28. tit. 6. s. 33. § 7), by Cervidius Scaevola (Dig. 28. tit. 2. s. 29), by Licinius Rufinus (Dig. 28. tit. 5. s. 74 by Javolenus (Dig. 40. tit. 7. s. 39, pr.), by Florentinus (Dig. 46, tit. 4. s. 18. [ § 1), by Paulus (Dig. 30. s. 127 ; Dig. 34. tit. 2. s. 32. § 1 ), by Ulpian ( Dig. 8. tit. 5. s. 6. § 2 ; Dig. 30. s. 30. § 7, Dig. 43. tit. 24. s. 7. § 4). This unspecific mode of quotation shows that his original works were not in men's hands, and the same inference may be deduced from the silence of the old grammarians, who never illustrate the usage of words by citations from Aquillius Gallus. His authority, however, is invoked by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (lib. iii. p. 200, ed. Sylburg.), for the statement that, on one occasion, when the sewers were out of repair, the censors agreed to pay 100 talents for their cleansing. Aquillius Gallus early acquired high reputation as a judex, and Cicero frequently appeared as an advocate when his friend sat upon the bench. Al- ready, in B. c. 81, the youthful orator pleaded the cause of Quintius before Gallus (Gell. xv. 28), and, a few years afterwards, Gallus was one of the judices on the trial of Caecina. In the latter case {pro Caec. 27 ), Cicero lavishes very high enco- miums on his knowledge, ability, and industry, as well as his just and merciful disposition. The speech Pro Cluentio was also addressed to Gallus as a judex. Cicero himself resorted for legal advice to his friend, although, in a question relating to a right of water, he says that he preferred consulting M. Tugio, who had devoted exclusive attention to that branch of the law {pro Bulb. 20). Gallus, on the other hand, when he was consulted on quesr tions which involved controverted facts rather than legal doubts, used to refer his clients for advice and assistance to Cicero, as the great orator and skilful advocate {Topic. 12.). It is probable that Gallus was deficient in oratorical power, for on no occasion do we find him complimented by Cicero on any such gift. Among the important causes which he heard was that of Otacilia, who had carried on an adulterous intrigue with C. Visellius Varro. Varro, being seriously ill, and wishing to make her a present, which, if he died, she might recover from his lieirs under colour of a debt, permitted her to charge against him in a settled account the sum of 300,000 sesterces, but, as he did not die so soon as she expected, she brought an action against /«'/«- self to recover the amount with interest. This im- pudent demand was upset by the legal authority and learning of Aquillius Gallus, who was appointed judex in the case. (Val. Max. viii. 2.) Such was Gallus in practice, as counsel and judex, skilful in his art, with armour always bright, and weapon always keen. But he possessed higher qualifications, which were perhaps not sufficiently- appreciated by his contemporaries. He had a strong love of equity, and a strong dislike to chi- canery and fraud, and a clear perception of the points in which justice was defeated by technicali- ties. It would have been too daring an attempt to disturb the artificial system of Roman jurispru- dence by a legislation which, though it remedied some of its defects, was not in harmony with its established rules. Accordingly, Gallus applied his ingenious and inventive mind to the contrivance of