In lure Phase: Determining the Legal Issue. Broadly speaking, a private law trial took place in two parts. In the first phase, the parties appeared before the urban praetor. The praetor had nearly complete discretion to allow the case to proceed or not. If it did go forward, the praetor had to assign a judge (index, plural indices) to hear the case and give a formula that summarized the issue(s) to be decided at trial. This process seems to have involved considerable negotiation among the parties and the praetor. The indices were not state officials or even, generally, legal professionals. Instead, they were drawn from a roster of prominent citizens. In some important cases, more than one index was assigned to hear a given case.

Apud Iudicem Phase: Deciding the Facts. The trial proper was then held...