Quintus Cervidius Scaevola. Quaestionum Libri XX

The volume is dedicated to one of the works attributed to Quintus Cervidius Scaevola: the Libri Quaestionum, one of the most significant protagonists of the legal science in of the second century. The prosopographic reconstruction of the jurist presents few certainties, since his provenance is also doubtful, although the clues that have come to us suggest a provincial origin. It must be admitted that he played an active role in the consilium principis of Marcus Aurelius, interpreting, also in the case studies, the most important legislative directions. Of the twenty books that formed the collection of Quaestiones, about sixty fragments survive in the Digesta Iustiniani; chronologically, it is placed in the last phase of the jurists life, when, having abandoned his political career, he dedicated himself to teaching. The form of the quaestio repeats the dialogic scheme, prefers an archaicizing lexicon and deals with problems of strict civil ius borrowed from the previous juridical literature (especially of Julianic origin) and developed by Cervidius Scaevola through the use of a broad casuistic exemplification.