L A W. 
353 
fanftioned or induced. “Such a height,” it has been well 
obferved, “ did (he attain both in good and in evil, that 
pofterity has fcarcely been able to add any thing new ei¬ 
ther to her virtues or vices.” De Pauw, § v. See alfo 
Plutarch’s Life of Solon ; Sir W. Jones’s Ifeus; and Pot¬ 
ter’s Archasologia, vol. i. 
Of the Laws of Rome. 
The primitive government of Rome was compofed with 
fome political (kill, of an elective king, a council of no¬ 
bles, and a general affembly of the people. War and re¬ 
ligion were adminiftered by the fupreme magiftrate; and 
he alone propofed the laws, which were debated in the 
fenate, and finally ratified or rejected by a majority of 
votes in the thirty curia or parities of the city. Romu¬ 
lus, Nurna, and Servius Tullius, are celebrated as the molt 
ancient legi/lators ; and each of them claims his peculiar 
partin the threefold divifion of jurisprudence, i. The laws 
of marriage, the education of children, and the authority 
of parents, which may feem to draw their origin from na¬ 
ture itfclf, are afcribed to the untutored wii'dom of Ro¬ 
mulus. 2. The law of nations and of religious worlhip, 
which Nurna introduced, was derived from his nocturnal 
converfe with the nymph Egeria. 3. The civil law is at¬ 
tributed to the experience of Servius: he balanced tbe 
rights and fortunes of the feven claffes of citizens; and 
guarded, by fifty new regulations, the obfervance of con¬ 
tracts and the punifhment of crimes. The ftate, which 
he had inclined towards a democracy, was changed by the 
laft Tarquin into lawlefs defpotifm ; and, when the kingly 
office was abolilhed, the patricians engroffed the benefits 
of freedom. The royal laws became odious and obfolete; 
the mylterious depofit was filently preferved by the prielts 
and nobles; and, at tbe end of fixty years, the citizens 
of Rome ft ill complained that they were ruled by the ar¬ 
bitrary fentence of the magiftrates. At length the fimi- 
larity of fituation between the Athenian people at the 
time of the legiflation of Solon, and that of the Romans, 
About 454 B. C. of Rome 302, was not improbably a 
principal caufe of the latter having recourfe for remedy 
to the fame fountain, among others, that had afforded re¬ 
lief to the former. 
But the original fource of the laws of the decemvirs, 
or of the Twelve Tables, is difputed. The moft pro¬ 
bable account is, that a wife Ephefian, named Hermodorus, 
was driven by envy from his native country ; before he 
could reach the (hores of Latium, he had obferved the va¬ 
rious forms of human nature and civil fociety ; be im¬ 
parted bis knowledge to the decemviri of Rome, and a 
liatue was erefted in the forum to his memory. But Livy 
and Dionyfius are willing to believe, that the deputies of 
Rome vifited Athens under the wife and lplendid admi- 
niftration of Pericles; and that the laws of Solon were 
transfufed into the Twelve Tables. If fuch an embafiy 
had indeed been received, the Roman name would have 
been familiar to the Greeks before the reign of Alexan¬ 
der; and the fainteft evidence would have been explored 
and celebrated by the curiofity of fucceeding times. But 
the Athenian monuments are filent; nor will it feem cre¬ 
dible that the patricians (hould undertake a long and pe¬ 
rilous navigation to copy the pureft model of democracy. 
In the companion of the laws of Solon with thofe of the 
decemvirs, l'ome cafual refemblance may be found ; fome 
rules which nature and reafon have revealed to every fo¬ 
ciety ; fome proofs of a common defcent from Egypt or 
Phoenicia. But, in all the great lines of public and pri¬ 
vate jurifprudence, the legiflators of Rome and Athens 
appear to be ftrangers or adverfe to each other. 
Whatever might be the origin or the merit of the Twelve 
Tables, they obtained among the Romans that blind and 
partial reverence which the lawyers of fevery country de¬ 
light to beftow on their own municipal inftitiitions. The 
itudy is recommended by Cicero as equally pleafant and 
inftruiStive: “They arnufe the mind by the remembrance 
of old words and the portrait of ancient manners; they 
inculcate the founded principles of government and mo¬ 
rals ; and I am not afraid to affirm, that the brief compo- 
fition of the decemvirs furpaffes in genuine value the li¬ 
braries of Grecian philofophy. How admirable is the 
wifdom of our anceitors! We alone are the matters of 
civil prudence; and our fuperiority is the more confpi- 
cuous, if we deign to caff our eyes on the rude and almoft 
ridiculous jurifprudence of Draco, of Solon, and of Ly- 
curgus.” De Leg. ii. 23. The Twelve Tables were com¬ 
mitted to the memory of the young and the meditation of 
the old ; they were tranferibed and illuftrated with learn¬ 
ed diligence; they had efcaped the flames of the Gauls, 
and fubfitted in the age of Juftinian, nine hundred and 
eight}' years after their enactment; but nothing except a 
few fragments have furvived the improved, though ftill 
voluminous, jurifprudence of the Code, the Pandects, and 
the Inttitutes, of that emperor. The learning and in- 
duffry of James Gothofred, or Godefroi, has rettored its 
collected relics to their proper order, founding his ar¬ 
rangement upon authorities the learned have univerfally 
admitted ; and his Quatuor Fohtes Juris Civilis is not the 
leatt valuable of the works with which literature has been 
enriched by his learned family. See Godefroi, voi. viii. 
p. 654. 
Yet thefe laws, thus highly praifed arid prized, were 
written (fays Gibbon,) like thofe of Draco, in characters 
of blood. They approve the inhuman and unequal prin¬ 
ciple of retaliation ; and the forfeit of an eye for an eye, 
a tooth for a tooth, a limb for a limb, is rigoroufly ex- 
adted, unlefs the offender can redeem his pardon by a fine 
of three hundred pounds of copper. The decemvirs dif- 
tributed with much liberality the (lighter chaftifemenrs of 
flagellation and fervitude; and nine crimes of a very dif¬ 
ferent complexion are adjudged worthy of death. i.,Any 
aft of treafon againft the ftate, or of correfpondence with 
the public enemy. The mode of execution was painful 
and ignominious ; the head of the degenerate Roman was 
fbrouded in a veil, his hands were tied behind his back, 
and, after he had been fcourged by the lidfor, he was fuf- 
pended in the midft of the forum on a crofs, or inaufpi- 
cious tree. 2. Nodturnal meetings in the city ; whatever 
might be the pretence, of pleafure, or religion, or the 
public good. 3. The murder of a citizen ; for which the 
common feelings of mankind demand the blood of the 
murderer. Poifon is ftill more odious than the fword or 
dagger ; and we are furprifed to difeover, in two flagiti¬ 
ous events, how early fuch fubtle wickednefs had infect¬ 
ed the fimplicity of the republic, and the chafte virtues 
of the Roman matrons. Livy xl. 43. viii. 18. The par¬ 
ricide, who violated the duties of nature and gratitude, 
was caft into the river or the fea, irrclofed in a fack ; and 
a cock, a viper, a dog, and a monkey, were fucceffively 
added as the moft fuitable companions. Italy however 
produces no monkeys; but the want could never be felt, 
till the middle of the fixth century firft revealed the guilt 
of a parricide. The firft parricide at Rome was L. Of- 
tius, after the fecond Punic war. Plutarch in Romulo. Dur¬ 
ing the Cimbric war, P. Malleolus was guilty of the firft 
matricide. Livy Ixviii. 4. The malice of an incendiary. 
After the previous ceremony of whipping, he hiinfelf was 
delivered to the flames; and in this example our reafon. 
is tempted to approve the juftice of retaliation, 5. Judi¬ 
cial perjury. The corrupt or malicious witnefs was 
thrown headlong from the Tarpeian rock to expiate his 
falfehood, which was rendered ftill more fatal by the fe- 
verity of the penal laws and the deficiency of written 
evidence. 6. The corruption of a judge who accepted 
bribes to pronounce an iniquitous, fentence. 7. Libels 
and fatires, whofe rude ftrains fometimes difturbed tbe 
peace of an illiterate city. The author was beaten with 
clubs, a worthy chaftifement; but it is not certain that he 
was left to expire under the blows of the executioner. 
8. The noftumal mifehief of damaging or deftroying a 
neighbour’s corn. The criminal was fufpended as a grate¬ 
ful vifrUiii to Ceres. But the fylvan deities were lels im- 
placable s 
