GREECE AXD ROME. 329 



the immediate vicinity of their own courts. The libraries of Alex- 

 andria and Pergamus might be enriched with the treasures of Grecian 

 learning j their schools and porticos might echo the instructions of 

 Grecian professors ; but there the effect stopped, the Ptolemies and 

 Scleucidse were mere Eastern despots, the affairs of individuals were 

 still regulated by eastern customs and eastern jurisprudence, and the 

 maxims of eastern policy still prevailed in the councils of the state. 



Thus far, then, Rome may surely challenge, if not a superior, at 

 least an equal share in the improvement of the human race ; but 

 the principal basis on which her claims must rest is yet to be con- 

 sidered. After a long decay, during which civilization gradually de- 

 gene'rated into frivolous lux'ury, the empire was dismembered by the 

 Teutonic and Tartar nations ; the rudeness of the savage conquerors 

 obliterated every trace of refinement, and mankind relapsed into a 

 state of almost primitive barbarism. The effects of Oriental des- 

 potism, and the narrow spirit of Mahometanism checked the progress 

 of improvement in the east, which in the west was almost as effec- 

 tually retarded by the feudal system and the Papal supremacy. Now 

 it was, when, to all appearance, Rome could no longer either pro- 

 mote or obstruct civilization, that her influence was most effectually 

 arid beneficially felt ; it will hardly be denied that the effects of the 

 feudal system were checked and modified by the introduction of the 

 Roman jurisprudence. The barbarians who established themselves 

 in the dismembered provinces of the empire, seem to have adopted 

 one or other of two systems ; either they retained their own customs, 

 at the same time permitting the former inhabitants to regulate their 

 affairs by the Roman code, or they endeavoured to digest from both 

 such a body of laws as might be best suited to the wants and preju- 

 dices of the combined nations. In either case, the rude practice of 

 the Teutons would be refined by the more subtle and more politic 

 legislation of the Romans in the latter by the immediate admixture, 

 in the former by the slower, though not less certain process of gradual 

 amalgamation. That the influence of the civil law, and the progress of 

 improvement among the European nations must have been considera- 

 ble, may be inferred from the fact, that though Italy was torn by do- 

 mestic wars, and harassed by foreign invaders, yet it was there, where 

 that law was most studied and respected, that the first dawn of re- 

 turning civilization appeared. But it may be replied that the Ro- 

 mans themselves originally borrowed their legal institutions from 

 Greece, and, as this argument^ if grounded in truth, is decisive on the 

 question, it will not be foreign to the purpose to examine its founda- 

 tion. The twelve tables of the Decemvirs must be considered as the 

 root and origin of the Roman law j and it must be admitted that the 

 whole of the tenth table, together with several detached laws, were 

 borrowed from the code of Solon j and that the legislators were as- 

 sisted by the advice of the Ephesian Hermodorus. Down to the time 

 of Hadrian these continued to be the text, though overwhelmed by 

 the multitude of popular decrees and imperial rescripts ; but the strict 

 simplicity of the ancient code was insufficient or inconvenient in the 

 more complicated transactions which arose out of the growing pros- 

 perity of the state, and the system of the Roman law must, in fact, 



