Publius Juventius Celsus
Publius Juventius Celsus Titus Aufidius Hoenius Severianus (AD 67– AD 130) — the son of a little-known jurist of the same name, hence also Celsus filius — was, together with Julian, the most influential ancient Roman jurist of the High Classical era. Public life. Celsus was presumably born in upper Italy, where the "gentilicium" of "Juventius" was common and where senatorial Juventii can also be found. In either 106 or 107, Celsus was praetor. In 114/115 he was governor of Thracia, and afterwards he became suffect consul for the "nundinium" of May to August 115 as the colleague  of Lucius Julius Frugi. Celsus held the office of consul the second time as "consul ordinarius" for the year 129 with Lucius Neratius Marcellus as his colleague. He achieved the apex of a successful senatorial career when he became proconsul of Asia in 129/130. As a jurist. Celsus succeeded his father Juventius Celsus in the Proculian school of lawyers. He was part of the Consilium of Hadrian and helped bring about the "Senatus consultum Iuventianum", which held that a good-faith possessor of an inheritance only had to yield it back inasmuch as he was enriched by it. Another dictum  of his, "impossibilium nulla obligatio est" – impossible obligations are void – has become a core tenet of civil law. Celsus' legal style was bold and biting. Pliny the Younger did, however, criticise his rhetorical weaknesses. Celsus' principal work was his "libri digestorum 39", of which books 1-27 discussed Hadrian's edicts -- books 1-12 and 24–27 on the order of the edicts, and books 13-23 concerned legacies and wills -- while books 28-39 discussed the laws the Senate promulgated and numerous "senatus consulta".