Civil law's very name indicates where it started. Called is was the civil law during the Roman Republic and the later Roman Empire. It started in the 2nd century BC. By the end of the Republic, about 27 BC, a number of experts in the law called "jurists" (not to be confused with judges) became prominent. They were mostly members of the upper classes. Jurists provided their services to counsel people and advise judges who presided over trials. An important feature of Roman law was it did not depend on legal precedent by earlier cases but on the facts and merits of the current case.