BOOK XVIII. III. 11-13 



be the highest form of commendation. That is the 

 sourcc of the word locnples, meaning ' wealthy ', 

 ' full of room ', i.e. of hmd. Our word for money 

 itself was derived from pecns, ' cattle ', and even now 

 in the censor's accounts all the sources of national 

 revenue are termcd ' pastures ', because rent of 

 pasture-land was for a k)nur time the only source of 

 public income. Moreover fines were only specified 

 in terms of payment of sheep and oxen ; nor must 

 we omit the benevolent spirit of the law of early 

 times, in that a judge imposing a fine was prohibited 

 from specifying an ox before he had previously fined 

 the offender a sheep. There were pubUc games in 

 honour of oxen, those conducting them being called 

 the Bubetii. King Servius stamped first the bronze 

 coinage with the Hkeness of sheep and oxen. Indeed 

 the Twelve Tables made pasturing animals by stealth 

 at night on crops grown under the plough, or cutting 

 it, a capital oifence for an adult, and enacted that a 

 person found guilty of it should be executed by 

 hanging, in reparation to Ceres, a heavier punishment 

 than in a conviction for homicide ; while a minor was 

 to be flogged at the discretion of the praetor or" 

 sentenced to pay the amount of the damage or twice 

 that amount. In fact the system of class and office 

 in the state itself was derived from no other source. 

 The rural tribes were the most esteemed, consisting 

 of those who owned farms, whcreas the city tribes 

 were tribes into which it was a disgrace to be trans- 

 ferred, this stigmatizing lack of activity. Conse- 

 quently the city tribcs were only four, named from 

 the parts of the city in which their members re- 

 sided, the Suburan, Pakitine, ColHne and Esquihiie. 

 They used to resort to the city on market-days,'' and 



197 



