ROMANI 



6675 



ROMAN LAW 



wall. Every variety of colonnette 

 was used, with or without con- 

 structional value ; capitals and 

 string courses were richly carved, 

 the carving being more natural- 

 istic in the N. than in the S., 

 where the classic forms still pre- 

 vailed. Domed roofs were covered 

 with mosaics, pavements, richly 

 inlaid, especially in buildings 

 erected under Byzantine influence. 

 In England, Romanesque appeared 

 in the llth century in the form of 

 Norman architecture (q.v. ). It 

 flourished also with local peculiar- 

 ities in Provence, where, hi the llth 

 and 12th centuries, it is spoken of 

 as the Roman style. See Apse ; 

 Arcade ; Architecture ; Basilica ; 

 Byzantine Architecture ; Capital ; 

 Mosaic ; Rome : Art ; consult 

 also Byzantine and Romanesque 

 Architecture, T. G. Jackson, 1913. 



Romani. Town of Egypt, in the 

 N. of the Sinai peninsula. It is 20 

 m. E. of the Suez Canal, on the rly. 

 from El Kantara along the Medi- 

 terranean coast. It gives its name 

 to the battle fought there in 1916. 



Romani, BATTLE OF. Fought in 

 Aug., 1916, between the British 

 and the Turks, and sometimes 

 called the second battle of Katia. 

 After the retirement of the Turks 

 from Katia (q.v.) in April, 1916, 

 Sir Archibald Murray pushed on 

 with the building of the rly. from 

 El Kantara, on the Suez Canal, to 

 Romani, where he constructed per- 

 manent defensive works. During 

 July the Turks concentrated 

 20,000 men at el Arish under 

 Kress von Kressenstein, who ad- 

 vanced to Bir el Abd on July 19, 

 and disposed his troops so as to en- 

 velop Katia, which was patrolled 

 by the British. The British then 

 withdrew to Romani. 



Next day the Turks occupied 

 Oghratina, and entrenched. On 

 the night of July 27-28 Kressen- 

 stein swung his whole line forward, 

 chiefly on his left, his right being 

 held up by Anzac Mounted Rifles. 

 After a strong reconnaissance on 

 Aug. 2 he attacked, at midnight 

 on Aug. 3, the British positions from 

 Romani to Mahemdia on the sea, 

 and at the same time attempted 

 from the S. to cut in rear the 

 British commuSications by an ad- 

 vance across the high sand dunes. 



At the outset the Turks carried 

 the dunes, and got within a mile 

 and a half of the rly. at Pelusium, 

 but the Australians and New Zea- 

 landers were reinforced, the dunes 

 being recaptured, and the enemy 

 was thrown back. Kressenstein 

 was beaten, but fighting continued 

 during Aug. 5-7, the British steadily 

 driving on the Turks, who evacu- 

 ated Oghratina on Aug. 8, and 

 did not stop their retreat till they 



reached el Arish three days later. 

 The Turkish losses were estimated 

 at 10.000, of whom 5,000 were 

 prisoners. See Palestine : the 

 British Conquest. * 



Romania. Name given some- 

 times to the Latin kingdom of 

 Constantinople, which was founded 

 by the Crusaders in 1204, and 

 lasted until 1261. In 1203 the 

 members of the fourth crusade 

 reached Constantinople, and re- 

 stored Isaac Angelus and his son, 

 Alexius IV, to the throne of By- 

 zantium. Certain troubles then 

 arose between the allies, the result 

 being that the Crusaders assaulted, 

 captured, and plundered the city. 

 Then the new empire was founded, 

 its first ruler being Baldwin, count 

 of Flanders. It was organized on 

 feudal principles, but the em- 

 peror's authority was practically 

 confined to the neighbourhood of 

 Constantinople and some islands 

 in the Aegean. 



Baldwin was taken prisoner 

 in Greece, and his successors 

 could do nothing to maintain,, 

 much less to extend, their author- 

 ity. Their vassals were occupied 

 with their own affairs, and the 

 Byzantine emperors, who had re- 

 tired to Asia Minor, won back 

 their lost territory piecemeal until 

 in 1261 Michael Palaeologus retook 

 Constantinople. The Latin empire 

 thus came to an end, although the 

 last emperor, Baldwin II, was oc- 

 cupied until his death in 1273 in 

 planning for its recovery. See 

 Byzantine Empire ; Crusades. 



Roman Law. System of civil 

 law evolved in the Roman state 

 from the time of the kings until its 

 codification by Justinian. Its im- 

 portance lies in the fact that it is 

 still the basis of a large part of Eu- 

 ropean jurisprudence, as well as of 

 the systems in other parts of the 

 world, such as S. America and S. 

 Africa, which were built up origin- 

 ally on the same basis. Further, it 

 lays down many principles which 

 are common to the English law, 

 and under the latter system are 

 actually expressed in the original 

 Latin, e.g. Volenti non fit injuria, 

 a person cannot be injured by what 

 he willingly consents to ; ignorantia 

 juris neminem excusat, ignorance 

 of the law excuses no one ; res ipsa 

 loquitur, the thing speaks for itself. 

 Moreover, it is unique in history as 

 a steady developing system of law 

 whose course can be traced for 

 some thirteen hundred years, and 

 which early freed itself from the 

 somewhat superstitious and reli- 

 gious rites and rules. 



Taking the Twelve Tables (460 

 B.C.) as the starting point, the 

 sources of Roman law may be sum- 

 marised as follows : (1) Imperial 



decisions, whether made in the 

 form of commands to officers 

 (Mandata), replies to appeals from 

 public bodies (Epi.sto!ae), or from 

 magistrates (Rescripta), or of 

 judgements (Decreta), or of general 

 laws (Edicta). (2) Equity of the 

 Praetors and Curule Aediles. (3) 

 Opinions of the jurisconsults 

 (Responsa prudentium), of whom 

 the greatest were Paulus, Ulpian, 

 Papinian, Gaius, and Modestinus. 

 The best part of Roman law may 

 be ascribed to the jurisconsults, 

 though the Praetors also built up a 

 sort of case-law, very useful and 

 effective till codified by theEdictum 

 Perpetuum of Salvius Julianus in 

 the reign of Hadrian (A.D. 1 1 7-138). 

 In A.D. 533-34 came the Institutes 

 and Pandects of Justinian. 



In early Roman society slavery 

 was the general state of the masses, 

 but slaves could be, and often were, 

 freed in various formal ways, such 

 as manumissio. In all classes the 

 patria potesta-s was the rule; the 

 father, speaking generally, had ab- 

 solute power over his wife and 

 children, and was legal owner of all 

 property in their possession. But, 

 by a fictitious process of pawning 

 his son,, mancipatio, a father could 

 free him from the parental power. 

 A man could not sell any real pro- 

 perty which" formed part of his 

 wife's dowry. 



Owing to the strict laws of suc- 

 cession, depending upon the an- 

 cient idea of ancestral piety, it was 

 essential in early Roman law to 

 have an heir who was bound to un- 

 dertake all the funeral rites and 

 pay the deceased's debts, even if 

 the latter left no estate. So if 

 there were no son one was adopted 

 to carry on the succession. Finally, 

 in Justinian's time, something like 

 the modern methods of distribu- 

 tion of a dead person's assets was 

 adopted, and due regard was paid 

 to the claims of the blood. Even 

 then the dominant idea of a will or 

 testamentum was the naming of an 

 heir, but this was superseded 

 eventually by codicilli and fidei- 

 commissa, whereby the testator's 

 wishes for the disposal of his pro- 

 perty could be executed with less 

 formality. Children of a deceased 

 person were entitled to one-fourth 

 of his property, and he could not 

 will it away. If there were four 

 children or less, their share was $, 

 if five children or more, A. A poor 

 widow was allowed J if without a 

 dowry, and if she had three chil- 

 dren she took a virilis pars. This 

 bar against complete disinherit- 

 ance still holds in legal systems 

 based on the Roman law. See 

 Jurisprudence ; Justinian ; Law ; 

 Scots Law ; Slavery ; Twelve 

 Tables; WilL William tatey 



