Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/239

Rh GALLUS. legal novelties, to which his authority was suffi- cient to give currency, because, while they cured evils, they disturbed no settled notions. To ex- plain all his improvements in the law would exceed our limits, but there are three which deserve spe- cial mention — his formulae, 1st, for the institution of heirs; 2d, for releasing legal claims; and, 3d, for procedure in case of fraud. As to the first head, a testament might have been broken, if it nominated a stranger as heir, passing over a suus Jieres, though such heres should be born after the testator's death. This latter event was provided for by a formula invented by Aquillius Gallus. He also provided a form, which was adopted on his authority, for the insti- tution, as heres, of a posimmis, who was not a suus heres. (Dig. 28. tit. 2. s. 29, Dig. 28. tit. 6. B. 33. § 7, Dig. 28. tit. 5. s. 74.) As to the second head, he devised a summary mode of giving a general release of all obligationes. An obligatio could only be dissolved altogether by some mode appropriate to the mode in which it had been contracted ; but the nature of an obli- gatio might be altered by its renewal in another form (novatio), after which the legal incidents of the old obligatio were extinguished. In order, therefore, to prevent the necessity of various modes of release, where there might be obligationes of various kinds, Aquillius Gallus devised the plan of first turning by a novatio every existing obligatio into a single verhorum obliyatio, which might be dissolved by acceptilulio, or a fictitious acknow- ledgment that the obligatio had been discharged. A. undertakes by sponsio to pay to B. the value of every obligatio of every kind by which A. is bound to B. The fonner obligationes being thus merged in the sponsio, all claims are released at once by a fictitious acknowledgment by B. that he has re- ceived from A. the stipulated payment. Such are the principles upon which is founded the celebrated Stipuintio Aqidlliana, the form of which is given in Dig. 46. tit. 4. s. 18. § 1, and in Inst. 3. tit. 29. As to the third and most important head, the formulae in case of fraud — that improvement which swept every species of wickedness out of its last lurking-place ( everriculum maliciarum om- nium) — from what is said by Cicero, in De Nat. Deor. iii. 30, and De Off. iii. 14, Ave have strong reason for concluding, that if the clause in the praetor's edict, which is preserved in Dig. 4. tit. 3. ^ I, was introduced before the time when Gallus was praetor, the mode of proceeding in ihe Judiciu7n de dolo malo, and the legal remedies against fraud, at least received important improvements from his hands. Hugo, however, thought that iQ formulae de dolo malo were nothing more than new clauses in contracts. {R. It. G. p. 861, ed. 1832.) The definition of dolus mains was a vexata quaestio. According to Gallus, there was dolus malus, "quum esset aliud simulatum, aliud actum." He was noted for definitions in other cases. His definition of litus as the place " qua fluctus al- ludit, has been often cited as happy though meta- phorical. (Cic. Topic, 7 ; Quint. Inst. Or. iii. c. ult.) The jurist Aquillius Gallus (who is not recorded ever to have been tribune of the plebs) was not the proposer of the Lex Aquillia, which is a plebis- citum of earlier date (Inst. 4. tit. 3. § 15), having been mentioned by Brutus (Dig. 9. tit. 2. s. 27. VOL. II. GALLUS. 225 § 22) and Q. Mucins (iOid. s. 39. pr.). Fiirth»ir. more, we must not (as the compiler of the Floren- tine Index to the Digest appears to have done) confound Aquillius Gallus with the later jurist Aquila. The inscription in Grnter (p. 652. No. 6), in which mention is made of L. Aquillius Gemellus, the freedman of the jurist, is probably spurious. (Bertrandus, De Jurisp. ii. 9 ; Guil. Grotius, De VitisICtor. i.8. §5—8; M.-Aiaxi^m^,ad XXX ICtor. Frag. Comment, vol. ii. p. 57 — 126 ; Heineccius, De C. Aquillio Gallo, ICio celeberrimo in Opusc. vol. ii. pp. 777—9; Zimmern, R. R. G. vol. i. § 77.) [J. T. G.] GALLUS, L. AQUI'LLIUS, was praetor in B.C. 170, and obtained Sicily for his province. (Liv. xli. 18, 19.) [L. S.] GALLUS, ASI'NIUS. 1. L. Asinius, C. f. Gallus, is mentioned in the Fasti as having cele- brated a triumph in B. c. 26. 2. C. Asinius, C. v. Gallus, a son of C. Asi- nius PoUio, bore the agnomen of Saloninus. He was consul in B. c. 8 with C. Marcius Censorinus. He was not free from the servile flattery which at the time prevailed in the senate and among the people, but he would now and then speak in the senate with more freedom than was agreeable to the sovereign. Augustus said of him, that he had indeed the desire to be the first man in the senate, but that he had not the talent for it. Tiberius hated him, partly on account of his freedom in ex- pressing his opinion, but more especially because Asinius Gallus had married Vipsania, the fonner wife of Tiberius. At last the emperor resolved upon getting rid of him. In a. d. 30 he invited him to his table at Capreae, and at the same time got the senate to sentence him to death. But Tiberius saved his life, only for the purpose of in- flicting upon him severer cruelties than death alone. He kept him imprisoned for three years, and on the most scanty supply of food. After the lapse of three years, he died in his dungeon of starvation, but whether it was compulsory or voluntary is un- known. C. Asinius Gallus also distinguished himself in the history of Roman literature, in regard to which he followed in the footsteps of his father. He wrote a work in several books, entitled De Com- paratione patris ac Ciceroiiis, which was unfavour- able to the latter, and against which the emperor Claudius wrote his defence of Cicero. The writings of Asinius Gallus, however, have perished ; and all that has come doVn of his productions is a short epigram preserved in Suetonius. (Tac. Ann. i. 8, 12, 13, 76, &c., ii. 32, 33, 35, iii. 11, 36, 75, iv. 1, 20, 30, 71, vi. 23, 25 ; Dion Cass. Iv. 5, Ivii. 2, Iviii. 3 ; Schol. Acron. ad Horat. Carm. ii. 1, 16 ; Suet. Claud. 41 ; De Illust. Gram. 22 ; Vit^ Herat, in fin. ; Plin. Epist. vii. 4 ; Gell. xvii. 1 ; Quintil. xii. 1, 22.) 3. Asinius Gallus, a son of No. 2, was a man proud of his family connection, being a step-brother of Drusus, the son of Tiberius. In the reign of Claudius, he and Statilius, and a number of freed- men and slaves, formed a conspiracy against Clau- dius. The object of Asinius Gallus was merely to satisfy his foolish vanity ; but the plot was dis- covered, and Claudius was generous enough not to inflict any severer punishment on the offender than exile. (Suet.(?/aMoJ. 13. ; Dion Cass. Ix. 27.) 4. L. Asinius Gallus was consul in a. d. 62,