The law school of Berytus (also known as the law school of Beirut) was a center for the study of Roman law in classical antiquity located in Berytus (modern-day Beirut, Lebanon). It flourished under the patronage of the Roman emperors and functioned as the Roman Empire's preeminent center of jurisprudence until its destruction in AD 551.
The law schools of the Roman Empire established organized repositories of imperial constitutions and institutionalized the study and practice of jurisprudence to relieve the busy imperial courts. The archiving of imperial constitutions facilitated the task of jurists in referring to legal precedents. The origins of the law school of Beirut are obscure, but probably it was under Augustus in the first century. The earliest written mention of the school dates to 238–239 AD, when its reputation had already been established. The school attracted young, affluent Roman citizens, and its professors made major contributions to the Codex of Justinian. The school achieved such wide recognition throughout the Empire that Beirut was known as the "Mother of Laws". Beirut was one of the few schools allowed to continue teaching jurisprudence when Byzantine emperor Justinian I shut down other provincial law schools.
The course of study at Beirut lasted for five years and consisted in the revision and analysis of classical legal texts and imperial constitutions, in addition to case discussions. Justinian took a personal interest in the teaching process, charging the bishop of Beirut, the governor of Phoenicia Maritima and the teachers with discipline maintenance in the school.
The school's facilities were destroyed in the aftermath of a massive earthquake that hit the Phoenician coastline. It was moved to Sidon but did not survive the Arab conquest of 635 AD. Ancient texts attest that the school was next to the ancient Anastasis church, vestiges of which lie beneath the Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Beirut's historic center.
Background As the guarantor of justice, the Roman emperor was expected to devote substantial amounts of time to judicial matters. He was the chief magistrate whose major prerogative (jus) was the ordering of all public affairs, for which he could demand assistance from anyone at any time.
With legal appeals, petitions from subjects and judicial queries of magistrates and governors, the emperors were careful to consult with the jurists (iuris consulti), who were usually secretaries drafted from the equestrian order. From the reign of Augustus (27 BC–AD 14), jurists began compiling organized repositories of imperial edicts (constitutiones), and legal scholarship became an imperially sponsored function of administration. Every new judicial decision was founded on archived legal precedents and earlier deliberations. The edict repositories and the imperially sponsored legal scholarship gave rise to the earliest law school system of the Western world, aimed specifically at training professional jurists.
History During the reign of Augustus, Beirut was established under the name Colonia Iulia Augusta Felix BerytusNamed after Augustus' daughter Julia the Elder.(and granted the status of Ius Italicum) as a colony for Battle of Actium veterans from the fifth Macedonian and the third Gallic legions. It was chosen as a regional center instead of the more prominent Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon, which had a history of belligerence against Rome.
Beirut was first mentioned in writing as a major center for the study of law in the 239 works of Gregory Thaumaturgus, the bishop of Neo-Caesarea. Other early written sources do not mention when the law school was established, and the date is much debated among modern historians and scholars. Edward Gibbon suggested its founding may have been directed by locally born Emperor Alexander Severus, who reigned during AD 222–235; this hypothesis had been supported by Gilles Ménage, a late 17th-century French scholar. Italian jurist Scipione Gentili, however, attributed the school's foundation to Augustus, while 19th-century German theologian Karl Hase advocated its establishment shortly after the victory at Actium (31 BC). Adolf Friedrich Rudorff dated it to the reign of Hadrian, while Franz Peter Bremer suggested that it opened around 200, based on Thaumaturgus.
Theodor Mommsen linked the establishment of the law school in Beirut with the need for jurists, since the city was chosen to serve as a repository for Roman imperial edicts concerning the eastern provinces. After arriving in Beirut, these were translated into Greek, published and archived. This function was first recorded in 196 AD, the date of the earliest constitutions contained in the Gregorian Codex, but the city is thought to have served as a repository since earlier times. The proximity of the repository to the law school allowed the Beiruti jurists to consult archived documents and for students to learn of the most recent imperial decrees—an advantage that the law schools of Caesarea Maritima and Alexandria lacked.
The 3rd-century emperors Diocletian and Maximian issued constitutions exempting the students of the law school of Beirut from compulsory service in their hometowns. In the 4th century, the Greek rhetorician Libanius reported that the school attracted young students from affluent families and deplored the school's instructional use of Latin, which was gradually abandoned in favor of Greek in the course of the century. By the 5th century, Beirut had established its leading position and repute among the Empire's law schools; its teachers were highly regarded and played a chief role in the development of legal learning in the East to the point that they were dubbed “ecumenical masters”. From 425, the law school of Constantinople became a rival center of law study and was the only school, along with Beirut's and Rome's, to be maintained after Justinian I closed those of Alexandria, Caesarea Maritima and Athens in 529 because their teachers were allegedly "unskilled" and taught doctrine that contradicted the orthodox Christian faith.
On July 9, 551, the coastal cities of Phoenicia Maritima were devastated by a high-magnitude earthquake. In Beirut the earthquake was followed by a tsunami and a fire that obliterated the city. In the aftermath, 30,000 people lost their lives, including many students from abroad. Justinian allocated funds to rebuild Beirut, and the law school was temporarily moved to the southern Phoenician city of Sidon, pending reconstruction; the best teachers, however, moved to Constantinople. Misfortune hit Beirut again in 560 AD when a massive fire ravaged the recovering city. The law school was not reopened, and all prospect for its return was abandoned with the Arab conquest in 635 AD.
Academia The study course at the law school of Beirut was restricted to Roman law; it did not cover the local laws of the province of Phoenice. Ancient texts provide an idea of the curriculum, the teaching method, the course languages and its duration.
Preparatory studies Potential students were expected to have undergone grammar, rhetoric and encyclopedic sciences studies. Another prerequisite was the mastery of Greek and Latin, given that the classical legal references and imperial constitutions used in the teaching program were written in Latin. The aspirants could pursue their preparatory studies in public schools or have private tutors.
Curriculum
Little is known about the Beirut law school's curriculum before the 5th century. The Scholia Sinaitica and the Scholia to the Basilika provide glimpses of the school's teaching method, comparable to the method of rhetoric schools at the time. The lecturer would discuss and analyse legal texts by adding his own comments, which included references to analogous passages from imperial constitutions or from the works of prominent classical Roman jurists such as Ulpian. He would then formulate the general legal principles and use these to resolve legal problems inspired from actual, practical cases. This method differed from the scheme of classical times in which the student had to master the law basics before engaging in case studies.
Jurisprudence was taught in Latin, even in the law schools of the East, but toward the end of the fourth and the beginning of the 5th century, Latin was supplanted by Greek at Beirut, which was the long-established lingua franca of the eastern territories of the Roman Empire. A similar shift probably occurred at the school of Constantinople at about the same time.
The Omnem constitution at the beginning of the Digest is the only source of information about the existing study system in the 5th century until the Justinian reforms of 533. The old program was a four-year course to be completed before the age of 25. The courses were based on the works of Gaius, Ulpian, Papinian and Paulus. Students attended lectures for three years and spent the fourth year in private study of Paulus' Responsa; they had the option to stay for a fifth year to study imperial constitutions. The students of each year were distinguished by special nicknames: first year, Dupondii; second, Edictales; third, Papinianistae; fourth, Lytae.
Justinian's Omnem constitution fixed the duration of the legal course in the schools of Beirut and Constantinople at five years. The courses consisted of lectures and self-study using materials advanced in his Corpus Juris Civilis, namely the Institutiones (Institutes), Digesta (Digest) and Codex (Code). First-year students were lectured on the Institutes and on the first part of the Digest;Books 1–4 of the Digest are called the Prota. second-year students were taught the greater part of the Digest,The de iudiciis (books 5–11), the de rebus (books 12–19) and the libri singularis (books 23, 26, 28 and 30). and third-year students had to learn various texts from Papinian and the leges singulares.Books 20–22. There were no lectures during the course's fourth year but the pupils studied the remainder of the Digest.Books 24, 25, 27, 29 and 31–36. Nicknames were still given according to the year of study, but Justinian changed the name of first-year students from the frivolous Dupondii (which means "two pennies") to Iustiniani novi and dubbed fifth-year students Prolytae.At the end of the course, graduands were given certificates allowing them to work as court advocates or in the imperial civil service.
Professorial body
Ancient texts reveal the names and deeds of some of the most notable law professors at the Beirut school. The scarce sources include historical accounts, works of legal scholarship, anthologies, ancient correspondences and funerary inscriptions. Antioch-based rhetoric teacher Libanius wrote many letters of correspondence to Domninus the Elder, a 4th-century law school professor. In 360, Libanius invited Domninus to leave Beirut and teach with him at the rhetoric school of Antioch. Domninus apparently declined the offer, since later correspondence to him from Libanius, between 361 and 364, served as recommendations for law school candidates. The most brilliant era of Beirut's law school, spanning the century between 400 and 500, was known as the era of the "Ecumenical Masters" (Greek: τῆς οἰκουμένης διδάσκαλοι). During this period, a succession of seven highly esteemed law masters was largely responsible for the revival of legal education in the Eastern Roman Empire. The seven revered masters, cited with praise by 6th-century scholars, were Cyrillus, Patricius, Domninus, Demosthenes, Eudoxius, Leontius and Amblichus.