Gaius

GAIUS. - Roman jurist, who lived in the age of the Antonines. Nothing is known of his life; but, on the basis of certain peculiarities of his works, some hold that he was an Easterner.

He is the author of Libri ex Quinto Mucio (a work relating to the ius civile), of a commentary on the edict of the urban praetor and on the provincial edict, and of six books on the XII Tables (v.). The Libri aureorum or rerum cottidianarum have also been attributed to him, but these, very probably, are a free post-classical paraphrase of G.'s principal work. This is represented by the Institutiones, whose almost complete text, discovered in 1816 in the Capitular Library of Verona and supplemented by fortunate later discoveries, provides an elementary exposition of classical Roman law. The Institutiones are divided into four books, which set out the material relating to personae (I), to res (things, acquisition of property, successions, obligations: II and III) and to actiones (procedure: IV). The most recent critical edition of the Institutiones is that edited by B. Kübler (Leipzig 1935); among recent Italian editions mention should be made of that edited by G. Baviera, in Fontes iuris antelustiniani (II, Florence 1940, pp. 5-102) and that edited by V. Arangio-Ruiz and A. Guarino, in Breviarum iuris Romani, Milan 1943, pp. 3-194.

Rodolfo Danieli