A City of Lawyers, Professors, and Students

Berytus was known pre-eminently as a center of legal studies and training in Latin language and literature from the third through the sixth century. Starting with the patronage of the Severan dynasty and continuing through successive changes of emperors and fortunes, Berytus, known as the ‘most Roman city,’ polis romaikotera, of the Greek cities of the East, ¹ attracted students who wished to master Roman law from world-renowned professors. Libanius used philosophical language, such as pankale, ‘all-good, all-noble, all-beautiful,’ and kalliste polis, ‘the beautiful city,’ ² to describe Berytus, the ‘mother of laws,’ nomon metera. ³ Gregory of Nazianzus (328–89 AD) obliquely referred to Berytus as ‘the celebrated city of pleasant Phoenicia, the seat of Roman laws.’ ⁴ Zacharias of Mytilene echoed the term ‘mother of laws,’ ⁵ which was transmuted to ‘nurse of the laws,’ legum nutrix, in the Digest. ⁶