Iulius Paulus

The three books decretorum and the six imperialium sententiarum in cognitionibus prolatarum of the jurist Julius Paulus (II-III century AD) have an independent importance compared to many other texts of the same author: they all revolve around the regulation of the process (cognitio extra ordinem). These fragments, a little more than 30, contain in fact a narrative "in direct" of the imperial judicial activity. They describe the resolution of judicial disputes through imperial judgments; they trace the synthesis of decisions reached or draw statements and arguments from the memory of the trials. They also offer ample testimony to the collaborative relationship between the princeps and the jurists who make up the consilium: Paulus is among them. All the passages are the object of a close exegesis, useful to reconstruct a segment of the juridical life in a difficult age like the Severan one.