Aemilius Papinianus, simply rendered as Papinian in English, was a celebrated Roman jurist, magister libellorum, attorney general and, after the death of Gaius Fulvius Plautianus in 205 CE, praetorian prefect.
Papinian was one of the most revered jurists in ancient Rome, as third year law students were given the title "Papinianistae". In his time, he had been called "the Asylum of Right and Treasurer of the Laws". Along with Gaius, Paulus, Modestinus and Ulpian, he was made one of the five jurists whose recorded views were considered decisive by the Law of Citations of 426 CE; their views would later be considered the only suitable ones to be cited as primary sources for the Codex Theodosianus and the Corpus Juris Civilis, provided that Papinian's views prevailed whenever those of the four other jurists were not congruent. French jurist Jacques Cujas later wrote that "there was never such a great lawyer before, nor ever will be after him".