Publius Juventius Celsus Titus Aufidius Hoenius Severianus (AD 67– AD 130) — the son of a little-known jurist of the same name, hence also Celsus filius — was, together with Julian, the most influential

ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

jurist of the High Classical era.

Public life

Celsus was presumably born in upper Italy, where the ''

gentilicium The (or simply ) was a hereditary name borne by the peoples of Roman Italy and later by the citizens of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. It was originally the name of one's (family or clan) by patrilineal descent. However, as Rome expande ...

'' of '' Juventius'' was common and where senatorial Juventii can also be found. In either 106 or 107, Celsus was

praetor Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vario ...

. In 114/115 he was governor of

Thracia Thracia or Thrace ( ''Thrakē'') is the ancient name given to the southeastern Balkan region, the land inhabited by the Thracians. Thrace was ruled by the Odrysian kingdom during the Classical and Hellenistic eras, and briefly by the Greek ...

, and afterwards he became

suffect consul A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politic ...

for the ''

nundinium Nundinium was a Latin word derived from the word '' nundinum'', which referred to the cycle of days observed by the Romans. During the Roman Empire, ''nundinium'' came to mean the duration of a single consulship among several in a calendar year. S ...

'' of May to August 115 as the colleague of Lucius Julius Frugi. Celsus held the office of consul the second time as ''consul ordinarius'' for the year 129 with

Lucius Neratius Marcellus Lucius Neratius Marcellus (''fl''. 1st century – 2nd century AD) was an imperial Roman military officer and senator who held a number of posts in the Emperor's service. Marcellus was elected consul twice, first under Domitian in 95AD and ag ...

as his colleague. He achieved the apex of a successful senatorial career when he became

proconsul A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority. In the Roman Republic, military command, or ' ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

in 129/130.Werner Eck, "Jahres- und Provinzialfasten der senatorischen Statthalter von 69/70 bis 138/139", ''

Chiron In Greek mythology, Chiron ( ; also Cheiron or Kheiron; ) was held to be the superlative centaur amongst his brethren since he was called the "wisest and justest of all the centaurs". Biography Chiron was notable throughout Greek mythology ...

'', 13 (1983), pp. 167f

As a jurist

Celsus succeeded his father Juventius Celsus in the

Proculian school The Proculeian or Pegasian school was one of the two most important schools of law in ancient Rome during the 1st and 2nd centuries. Origin The Proculeians originally took their name from the prominent jurist Proculus, but later came to often be ca ...

of lawyers. He was part of the Consilium of

Hadrian Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...

and helped bring about the ''

Senatus consultum A ''senatus consultum'' (Latin: decree of the senate, plural: ''senatus consulta'') is a text emanating from the senate in Ancient Rome. It is used in the modern phrase ''senatus consultum ultimum''. Translated into French as ''sénatus-consulte' ...

Iuventianum'', which held that a good-faith possessor of an inheritance only had to yield it back inasmuch as he was enriched by it. Another

dictum In general usage, a dictum ( in Latin; plural dicta) is an authoritative or dogmatic statement. In some contexts, such as legal writing and church cantata librettos, ''dictum'' can have a specific meaning. Legal writing In United States legal ter ...

of his, ''impossibilium nulla obligatio est'' – impossible obligations are void – has become a core tenet of civil law. Celsus' legal style was bold and biting.

Pliny the Younger Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo (61 – c. 113), better known as Pliny the Younger (), was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate ...

did, however, criticise his

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...

al weaknesses. Celsus' principal work was his '' libri digestorum 39'', of which books 1-27 discussed Hadrian's edicts -- books 1-12 and 24–27 on the order of the edicts, and books 13-23 concerned legacies and wills -- while books 28-39 discussed the laws the Senate promulgated and numerous ''senatus consulta''.

Notable

* – Law is the art of the good and the equitable (Dig. 1, 1, 1) * – Knowing the laws does not mean knowing their words, but their intent and purpose(Dig. 1, 3, 17) * – It is not artful to judge or to counsel based on a snippet of the law, without taking into consideration the law in its entirety (Dig. 1, 3, 24) * - There is no obligation to do the impossible(Dig''.'' 50, 17, 185) * - An action is nothing else but the right to recover by judicial process on the merits that which is owing to one (Dig''.'' 44, 7, 51)

References

Other secondary sources

Ernst Diehl Ernst Diehl (born 28 March 1949 in Etschberg) is a retired Germany, German Association football, football player and coach. As a player, he spent 11 seasons in the Bundesliga with 1. FC Kaiserslautern. Honors * DFB-Pokal finalist: 1971–72 DFB ...

"Iuventius 13"
'' Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft'' Bande X,2 Sp. 1362–1363. * PIR ² I 882 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Juventius Celsus, Publius 67 births 130 deaths 1st-century Romans 2nd-century Romans 2nd-century writers Ancient Roman jurists Aufidii Imperial Roman consuls Roman governors of Thracia