135 



still conquers to-day the wildest man. If those arms 

 failed, she not seldom revenged outraged humanity by 

 poison. The positioii which the woman had in the early 

 days of Rome, was still the eastern slavery ; but it was 

 reserved for Rome to raise the woman to a condition in 

 Avhich she could be an independent companion of the 

 man, if not his equal. 



The slavery to which the maims condemned the 

 Roman wives, could not last long amongst the high- 

 spirited Roman ladies ; and though the husbands were the 

 legislators, the home-inJluence upon these became soon 

 visible in the way in which that terrible power was first 

 restricted by law, and afterwards abolished by custom. 

 The Twelve Tables ordered already that, when the year 

 in which a woman had lived with a man was interrupted 

 by an absence of three nights, the prescription was inter- 

 rupted, and the man did not acquire the manus. 



An element which contributed powerfully to the intro- 

 duction of liberal pruiciples in the Roman jurisdiction in 

 general, as particidarly in the matrimonial law, was the 

 great caste and national pride of the early Romans. The 

 haughtiness of the Patricians coidd not bear to share the 

 same laws with the Plebeians ; and the Roman citizens in 

 general, wliether Patricians or Plebeians, scorned to allow 

 the foreign new comers to participate in their jus civile. 

 The spirit which the Romans shewed, thus in allowing 

 the foreign immigrants, or the subjected nations, to pre- 

 serve as much as possible their own laws and customs, is 

 less the result of liberality than ol narrow-mindedness. 

 The introduction of a jus gentium in Rome, is due to this 

 Roman haughtiness. It then so happened, that this jus 

 rjentium gained more and more ground, not only in trans- 

 actions of t\\G jteregrini, and of the percgrini with Romans, 

 l)ut amongst tlie Roman citizens themselves. This p/s 

 f/nifimn, 1>as'-fl uixmi n, l)ro;ider, more liberal, and ralional 



