Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Nonetheless, elite males preferred to blame the victims. None of these kinds of person – workers, women, ex-slaves – would automatically lose a case, but their position would need more support (advocacy, physical evidence, etc.) than had they been elite males. It has been suggested that the moral values just discussed were not necessarily widely held. In particular, we do not have much evidence for the views of the various disfavored groups, and we might think it unlikely that they really believed in their own moral inferiority. This is a reasonable view, but not really relevant here. Criminal juries were drawn from the ranks of the well-to-do – free-born men – and members of the elite could ensure this would also happen in their civil cases. Their “common sense” would have led them to be more trusting of persons like themselves. We may get some insight here from two individuals telling us how they would face the moral problems involved. Cicero, in a letter of instruction to his son in the mid first century bc, outlines the responsibilities of a judge presiding over a case in which a friend is a party. Aulus Gellius (mid second century ad) tells a story of an actual case in which he was a judge; this did not involve a personal friend but a person whom he thought had superior “character.” Cicero ended up suggesting that the judge could help the friend with matters like scheduling, but Corruption

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