Callistratus, a Roman jurist

Roman law

Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the 7th century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the language of government. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence — from the Twelve...

, who, as appears from passages in Justinian's Digest

Pandects

The Digest, also known as the Pandects , is a name given to a compendium or digest of Roman law compiled by order of the emperor Justinian I in the 6th century .The Digest was one part of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the body of civil law issued under Justinian I...

, wrote at least as late as the reign (AD 198

198

Year 198 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sergius and Gallus...

-211

211

Year 211 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Terentius and Bassus...

) of Septimius Severus

Septimius Severus

Septimius Severus , also known as Severus, was Roman Emperor from 193 to 211. Severus was born in Leptis Magna in the province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succession of offices under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus seized power after the death of...

 and Caracalla

Caracalla

Caracalla , was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. The eldest son of Septimius Severus, he ruled jointly with his younger brother Geta until he murdered the latter in 211...

.

Associations

In a passage of the Augustan History

Augustan History

The Augustan History is a late Roman collection of biographies, in Latin, of the Roman Emperors, their junior colleagues and usurpers of the period 117 to 284...

 (Alex. Sev. 68) which, either from interpolation or from the inaccuracy of the author, abounds with anachronisms, Callistratus is stated to have been a disciple of Papinian

Aemilius Papinianus

Aemilius Papinianus , also known as Papinian, was a celebrated Roman jurist, magister libellorum and, after the death of Gaius Fulvius Plautianus in 205, praetorian prefect.-Life:...

, and to have been one of the council of Alexander Severus

Alexander Severus

Severus Alexander was Roman Emperor from 222 to 235. Alexander was the last emperor of the Severan dynasty. He succeeded his cousin Elagabalus upon the latter's assassination in 222, and was ultimately assassinated himself, marking the epoch event for the Crisis of the Third Century — nearly fifty...

. This statement may be correct, notwithstanding the suspicious character of the source whence it is derived.

Works

The numerous extracts from Callistratus in the Digest occupy eighteen pages in Hommel's Palingenesia Pandectarum; and the fact that he is cited by no other jurist in the Digest may be accounted for by observing that this work contains extracts from few jurists of importance subsequent to Callistratus. The extracts from Callistratus are taken from works bearing the following titles:

• Libri VI de Cognitionibus
• Libri VI Edicti Monitorii
• Libri IV de Jure Fisci, or de Jure Fisci et Populi
• Libri III Institutionum
• Libri II Quaestionum

The titles of the first three of these works require some explanation.

de Cognitionibus

This treatise relates to those causes which were heard, investigated, and decided by the emperor, the governor of a province, or other magistrate, without the intervention of judices. This departure from the ordinary course of the civil law took place, even before Diocletian

Diocletian

Diocletian |latinized]] upon his accession to Diocletian . c. 22 December 244  – 3 December 311), was a Roman Emperor from 284 to 305....

's general abolition of the ordo judiciorum, sometimes by virtue of the imperial prerogative, and in some cases was regularly practiced for the purpose of affording equitable relief where the strict civil law gave no remedy, instead of resorting to the more tortuous system of legal fictions and equitable actions.

Edictum Monitorium

What is meant by the title of this work is by no means clear. Haubold (de Edictis Monitoriis ac Brevibus, Leipzig, 1804) thinks that monitory edicts are not special writs of notice or summons directed to the parties in the course of a cause, but those general clauses of the edictum perpetuum

Edictum perpetuum

The Praetor's Edict in Roman law was an annual declaration of principles made by the new Praetor urbanus. During the early Empire the Praetor's Edict was revised to become the Edictum perpetuum.-Legality:...

 which relate to the law of procedure, giving actions and other remedies on certain conditions, and therefore, tacitly at least, containing warnings as to the consequences of irregularity or nonfulfilment of the prescribed conditions. The fragments of Callistratus certainly afford much support to this view. Haubold distinguishes the edictum monitorium from the edictum breve, upon which Paulus

Paul (jurist)

Julius Paulus Prudentissimus was one of the most influential and distinguished Roman jurists. He was also a praetorian prefect under the Roman Emperor Alexander Severus.-Life:...

wrote a treatise. The latter he supposes to consist of those new clauses, which, in process of time, were added as an appendage to the edictum perpetuum, after the main body of it had acquired a constant form.

de Jure Fisci (et Populi)

The phrase de Jure Fisci et Populi appears anomalous, but it occurs elsewhere. (See Paulus, Recept. Sent. 5.12.) The Augustan History also (Alex. Sev. 15) says that Alexander Severus "leges de jure populi et fisci moderatas et infinitas (?) sanxit." Probably under the phrase "jus populi" must here be understood the law relating to the aerarium, or to the arca publica (which latter, practically as well as theoretically, was at the disposal of the senate) as distinguished from the fiscus, which was the emperor's own, not as res privata, but as property attached to the imperial dignity. (Augustan History, Aurelian 20.)