Florentinus Institutiones libri XII

[Autom. eng. transl.] Under the name of Florentinus 41 fragments from a work by Institutiones divided into 12 books appear in the Justinian Digest. The only fixed point about the dating of A. is the terminus post quem at 161 AD, the date of death of Antoninus Pius, which can be obtained from the citation of a constitution of this emperor in one of the fragments of the sixth book (D.41.1.16 Pal. Flor. 9) with the appellative of ' divus'. However, a series of clues obtainable from single fragments as well as some ethical-philosophical contents of the manual close to those of Stoic philosophy and widespread among the Severian jurists (e.g. the idea of natural equality among all men) suggest Severian age. The breadth of the work, the complexity of some issues dealt with, the originality of many solutions, the technicality of the language, the conceptual depth of various arguments make it probable that the Florentini Institutiones, although intended for an audience of students, were in the at the same time much more thorough than the Gaian ones and have been developed for a more specialized audience. It was therefore necessary to deal with an extensive manual with a technical-legal content which, although starting from the basics, reached a high level of study.