Appeals from the decisions of the indi ces were not uncommon. (Ulpian, Dig., xlix. 1. 1 ; Scaevola, Dig., xlix. 1. 28.) So far seems pretty well ascertained. Such being the qualifications of the judi ces, and the magistrates who had " juris dictio" being only annual functionaries, it appears that there was no class of men among the Romans, like our judges, who were the living interpreters of law for a i series of years in succession. The juris consulti seem to have kept the Roman law together as a coherent body, and it is from their writine alone that the Digest is compiled. [JUSTINIAN'S LEGISLA TION.] The Jndicia Publics were in the nature of criminal prosecutions, in which any person, not disqualified, might be the pro secutor, and in which the verdict was fol lowed by a legal punishment. Judioes were employed here also, and were a kind of assessors to the magistrate who presided. The judices were the judges of the facts laid to the charge of the ac cused. Both the accuser and the accused might challenge a certain number of the judices. Witnesses were examined before them ; slaves by torture, freemen orally. The judices, at least in the more import ant matters, voted by ballot: each judex put into the urn the tablet of Acquittal, of Condemnation, or the tablet N. L. (non liquet, "it is not clear"), according to his pleasure. The magistrate pronounced the verdict according to the tablets which made a majority. A lively picture of the intrigues and bribery which were not un usual on such trials is given by Cicero in speaking of the affair of Clodius and the Bona Dea (Ad Attic., i. 13, 16). The
various changes made at Rome as to the body from which the judices were chosen refer only to the judicia publics.
This subject is not free from difficulty. What is above stated must be taken only as correct in the main features. Further inquiry is still wanted on several matters connected with the functions of the judi ces. Enough has been said to enable the reader to compare the Roman Judices with the English jury, and to show the difference of the institutions.
(Gains, lib. iv. • Heineceius, Sy &c., by Haubold ; die Rede Cicero fiir den Schauspieler Roscins, Zeitschrif &c., i. 248 ; and his remarks on the difference between the condictio and the actio in personam, with reference to the indices ; De Judiciis,' v. 1 ; 'De Judiciis Publicis,' Dig., Instit., iv. tit. 18.) Dr. Pettingall's 'Enquiry into the Use and Practice of Juries among the Greeks and Romans,' London, 1769, may be con sulted as to the functions of the Roman judices in the Judicia Publica. The au thor's conclusions seem in the main to be correct, though his essay is an ill-arranged and unmethodical production. The ' Attische Process,' by Meier and Sell& mann, and the essay of Pettingall, may be consulted with reference to the func tions of the Attic Dicastie.