Tribonian condemned to oblivion the genuine and native wisdom of
Cato, the Scaevolas, and Sulpicius; while he invoked spirits more
congenial to his own, the Syrians, Greeks, and Africans, who flocked to
the imperial court to study Latin as a foreign tongue and jurisprudence
as a lucrative profession. But the ministers of Justinian were
instructed to labor, not for the curiosity of antiquarians, but for the
immediate benefit of his subjects. It was their duty to select the
useful and practical parts of the Roman law; and the writings of the old
republicans, however curious or excellent, were no longer suited to the
new system of manners, religion, and government.
Perhaps, if the preceptors and friends of Cicero were still alive, our
candor would acknowledge that, except in purity of language, their
intrinsic merit was excelled by the school of Papinian and Ulpian. The
science of the laws is the slow growth of time and experience, and the
advantage both of method and materials is naturally assumed by the most
recent authors. The civilians of the reign of the Antonines had studied
the works of their predecessors: their philosophic spirit had mitigated
the rigor of antiquity, simplified the forms of proceeding, and emerged
from the jealousy and prejudice of the rival sects.
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