Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Legal Education

“political boot camp”). During this period, the younger man would follow the elder as the latter carried out his daily busi ness, both public and private. There was no formal instruction, but presumably explanations would be offered as necessary and as time allowed. This gave the “apprentice” close contact with business, political, and legal affairs. Different people went through various combinations of these academic, military, and political options in their late teens and early twenties. It is in the context of this tirocinium that law was generally taught during the late Republic. That is, you learned the law by being attached to someone who himself practiced a lot of legal business. We are told by Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 bc), eventually a statesman, trial advocate, and skilled amateur in the law, that he had had to memorize Rome’s first law code, the Twelve Tables, in his school days. There is no indication, however, that this was treated as anything but a patriotic relic, and at any rate he suggests that the practice had been discon tinued. When Cicero spoke of learning real-world legal skills, he described his teenage experiences following two men named Quintus Mucius Scaevola (who were perhaps cousins to each other), the preeminent jurists of their time. It is perhaps worth noting that neither Cicero nor any of his immediate “class mates” went on to juristic careers; even with the Scaevolas, legal training was merely part of a broader preparation for a career in what we would call politics. Becoming a jurist oneself was a matter of individual study and writing and face-to-face interaction with those already in place. In addition to offering purely practical experience, the mentor was presumably also

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