Book 14
2
AT the time when I was first chosen by the praetors to be one of the judges in charge of the suits which are called private, See note on xii. 13. 1. I hunted up books written in both languages on the duty of a judge, in order that, being a young man, called from poets' tales and orators' perorations to preside in court, I might from lack of the living voice, as they say, gain legal lore from so-called mute counsellors. And with regard to postponements and delays and some other legal principles I was advised and helped by the Julian Law itself A law of Julius Caesar and Augustus regulating criminal processes. and by the commentaries of Masurius Sabinus Jur. Civ. iii. 3, Bremer. and some other jurists. ii. 2, p. 567, Bremer. But in those complicated cases which often come up, and in the perplexity arising from conflicting opinions, such books gave me no aid at all. For although the opinions of judges ought to be formed from the conditions of the cases before them, yet there are certain general principles and precepts by which, before hearing a case, the judge ought to guard and prepare himself against the uncertain event of future difficulties; as, for example, an inexplicable perplexity in coming to an opinion once befell me.
