But jurisprudence was that department of science in which the Romans thought with most originality, and have exerted the greatest benefit. In that they were most at home, and from necessity as well as temperament, they cultivated their legal system with great care. It had its foundation in their elder jurisprudence, in which ultra-democratic principles prevailed; afterward the written code of the primitive period was a good deal modified, and greatly enlarged. Cæsar had formed the project of a general digest of Roman laws; but this great design, like many other kindred ones, fell in his violent death. Under Augustus, however, great lawyers of opposite schools, arose to mature a system of scientific jurisprudence which has exerted the mightiest influence on after ages. The people who outraged every principle of private rights, social justice, and public law, were the very nation who most accurately defined the laws they had themselves violated. The frequency and extent of colossal wrongs in that age necessitated a corresponding distinctness and majesty in the proclamation of rights. The Romans were distinguished for a sound judgment, and strong practical sense, qualities which eminently fitted them to mold the forms, and establish the titles connected with that equity which should every where preside over the relations of civil life. In this department of science alone, the help which they derived from Greece was very slight. The mere framework, so far as the laws of the twelve tables are concerned, came to them from Athens; but the grand edifice was completed by their own hands, a source and model which has affected the legal systems of the whole civilized world. The Scævolæ, M. Manilius, and M. Junius Brutus, were eminent legalists of the earlier period. Ælius Gallus, prefect of Egypt under Augustus, and the friend of Strabo the geographer, also his namesake, C. Aquilius Gallus, were distinguished at a later date. The latter was the most erudite lawyer, previous to the brilliant days of Cicero, and was the greatest reformer of his profession. Nor does it appear that he was lacking in fees, since we are told by Pliny that he owned and occupied a splendid palace on the Viminal hill. He served the office of prætor in company with Cicero, B.C. 67, and both before and after that he often sat as judge. It was before him that Cicero defended both Cæcina and Cluentius.