Papinian (born 140 ce, probably Emesa, Syria—died 212) was a Roman jurist who posthumously became the definitive authority on Roman law, possibly because his moral high-mindedness was congenial to the worldview of the Christian rulers of the post-Classical empire.
Papinian held high public office under the emperor Septimius Severus (reigned 193–211 ce) and became vice president of the Consilium Principis, a body of advisers that helped the emperor decide important legal and political questions. He was killed at the order of Severus’s son and successor, Caracalla, perhaps for refusing to supply a legal excuse for the new emperor’s murder of his brother and political rival, Geta.
The most important of Papinian’s works are two collections of cases: Quaestiones (37 books) and Responsa (19 books). In post-Classical law schools, third-year students, who were called Papinianistae, used the Responsa as the basis of their curriculum. The Law of Citations (426 ce) of Theodosius II, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, made Papinian predominant among five Classical jurists (the others were Gaius, Ulpian, Modestinus, and Paulus) whose works were to be authoritative in legal proceedings. His books were written in precise and elegant Latin.