The subject of this thesis is the Roman civil trial before a single judge. This study was prompted by a recent archaeological discovery of great importance. The discovery of a municipal charter in Spain from the first century A.D. has revealed an enormous amount of detailed information on how a lawsuit during the classical period passed through its various stages, a subject on which previously we were very poorly informed. This thesis examines the new material in an effort to learn how a trial commenced and how a judge brought it to a close. The first half of the thesis discusses intertium, an institution previously unknown. It is suggested that intertium was a device by which a person selected to serve as judge was examined for suitability. The examination was undertaken immediately before the trial, to ensure that the lawsuit would not be suspended or fail for want of a judge. The second half of the thesis discusses adjournment and judgement. The new evidence suggests that the pertinent rules took great care to distinguish a judge's failure to serve from the proper suspension of the trial by adjournment. A judge might therefore negotiate the rules with little difficulty, and bring the trial to judgement without incurring liability himself for failure to serve.