Roman Jurisprudence in the early 1st cent. J.-C. in the Light of De inuentione

Abstract

Inv. provides an early testimony on the work and role of Roman jurists during a period for which other sources of information are almost entirely lacking. The significance of this testimony is enhanced by the fact that, as a rhetorical treatise, it examines jurists through the lens of another technique and within a dialectical framework that converges in court cases. The article thus analyzes inv. from two perspectives: on the one hand, as a source of information; on the other hand, as a text presenting a perspective on the relationship between rhetoric and jurisprudence. In this regard, it appears that orators subjected the jurists’ responses to rhetorical argumentation. This argumentation could concern both the content and the authority of jurists in general. Furthermore, inv. reveals the prelude to the project of organizing ius civile ad artem, reducing it to a limited number of easily assimilable principles, as had already occurred for many other disciplines: a project Cicero would elaborate upon in de orat. and partially bring to fruition.