Lawyers, Judges, etc of Rome

[Lucius Galerius Falconius]

Who were the lawyers, judges, detectives, private investigators of Rome and what were their titles?

Were they senators, equestrians, etc, etc.

[Aetius Helvius Merula]

I'm not sure about judges or detectives, but I do know that the practice of law was the other respectable career for patricians, the first the army. At least in Republican times. The likes of Cicero, for one, typically engaged in it, and if you were sucessful at it, it could kick start your political career.

[Theodosius the Great]

I'm not sure about judges

Emperors Augustus and Claudius are said to have been diligent judges, hearing cases throughout the day and sometimes into the night, according to Suetonius.


~Theo

[Jona Lendering]

Who were the lawyers, judges, detectives, private investigators of Rome and what were their titles?

Were they senators, equestrians, etc, etc.

In the earliest times, the consuls acted as judges; their original title was iudex. Later, perhaps after the reforms of 367 VC, the praetor became the main official in charge of dispensing law. Every year, he announced an Edict in which the punishments etc. were announced. These people were usually patricians and were, by senators by definition, because one had to occupy a senatorial offices (e.g. quaestorship) before becoming praetor or consul. This matter is discussed in most handbooks on Roman Law.

By the mid-second century, juries were introduced to investigate/judge cases of extorrtion. They were composed of senators; after Gaius Gracchus, equestrians were also allowed - and this led to a serious discussion about what the difference between equestrians and senators actually was. This was settled first by Sulla, later by Augustus. The book to read on this subject is Walter Eder, Das vorsullanische Repetundenverfahren (1969) - a title that encapsulates, somehow, the essence of the German language.

The system of the imperial age knew to types of process: the old ones, as described above; and cognition processes. For the first one, it is relevant to know that the emperor Hadrian ordered the "Edictum Perpetuum", a permanent code of penal law. The cognition processes originated in the provinces, where people of various legal status (Roman and non-Roman) could meet. The governor would hear the complaints, do away with all legal subtleties, and judge as he saw fit. (Case in point: the Jesus trial.) Later, imperial directives came to play a role during the cognition trials. The judges being governors, they were usually senators, or equestrians in very small provinces (e.g., Judaea).

Legal advise was given to the magistrates by the iurisprudentes, specialists who had worked as lawyers, and were usually senators. The Digests are the culmination of their labor.

You can read more about the details in Mommsen's Staatsrecht and Strafsrecht, from which all later (English, French) publications are derived.

I have never heard about ancient Roman detectives and private eyes, except in those novels about Falco the Finder.