Chapter 4
In: The Regula as a Rhetorical Device in Roman Law
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Abstract
The argument in maiore minus inest Scaevola used in D. 32.29.1 also appears in title D. 50.17 De diversis regulis iuris antiqui, several times in fact. This suggests that D. 50.17 contains regulae that are topical arguments worded as theseis. Putting this idea to the test meant that we had to identify regulae in the Digest whose original context, the leges geminatae, has been preserved elsewhere in the Digest. Using Lenel’s Palingenesia iuris civilis, we identified the leges geminatae of twenty regulae and using these ‘seeds’ we were able to reconstruct the legal problem, the opinion of the jurist(s), and the argument to substantiate it. We found that these cases turned on four different rhetorical status: coniectura, definitio, qualitas, and ambiguitas, and that five topoi were used.