Cicero and the Small World of Roman Jurists

Author: Benferhat, Yasmina
Title: Cicero and the Small World of Roman Jurists
Review/Collection: in : Cicero's Law: Rethinking Roman Law of the Late Republic, Edited by Paul J. du Plessis
Place edition: Edinburgh
Editor: Edinburgh University Press
Year edition: 2016
Pages: 71-87
Keywords: Droit - Diritto - Law, Prosopographie - Prosopografia - Prosopography
Description: Benferhat cautions that Cicero’s utterances about the jurists of his time need to be viewed in the larger context of his political ambitions. While he admired the jurists, he was also critical of them. For Cicero, juristic expertise was not enough. In order to make an impact on the Republic and to secure its survival, more was needed. Never a shrinking violet, Cicero believed that only a blend of skilful eloquence and juristic knowledge, visible in himself, could effect real and meaningful change. [editor].This chapter is about Mucius Scaevola, Sulpicius Rufus and Trebatius. “It will not focus on their careers. Instead, we will demonstrate how Cicero considered them, and what it tells us about the evolution of the social position of jurists in Rome in the late Republic”. [Author]
Author initials: Benferhat 2016