ROMAN LAW. The historical ori gin of the Roman Law is unknown, and its fundamental principles, many of which eves survived the legislation of Justi nian, are older than the oldest records of Italian history. The fbundation of the strict rules of the Roman law as to familia, agnatio, marriage, testaments, succession to intestates, and ownership, was probably custom, which being recognised by the sovereign power, became law. As in many other states of antiquity, the con nexion of the civil with the ecclesiastical or sacred law was most intimate; or ra ther, we may consider the law of religion as originally comprehending all other law, and its interpretation as belonging to the priests and the king exclusively. There was however direct legislation even in the period of the kings. These laws, which are mentioned under the name of Leges Regiae, were proposed by the king, with the approbation of the senate, and confirmed by the popnlns in the Comitia Curiata, and, after the con stitution of Servius Tullius, in the Co mitia Ceaturiata. That there were re mains of this antient legislation existing even in the Imperial period, is certain, as appears from the notice of the Jus Civile Papirianum or Papisianum, which the Pontifex Maximus Papirius is said to have compiled from these sources, about or immediately after the expulsion of Tarqninius Superbus (Dig., i., tit. 2), and from the distinct references to these Leges made by late writers. Still there is great uncertainty as to the exact date of the compilation of Papirius, and its real character. Even his name is cot quite certain, as he is variously caned Caius, Sextus, and Pallas. (Dion. Hal., iii. 36; Dig., i.. tit. 2.) But the earliest legislation of which we have any important remains is the compilation called the Twelve Tables. The original tables indeed are said to have perished iu the conflagration of the city after its capture by the Gauls, but they were satisfactorily restored from copies and from memory, for no ancient writer who cites them ever expresses a doubt as to the genuineness of their con tents. It is the tradition that a commis sion was sent to Athens and the Greek states of Italy, for the purpose of examin ing into and collecting what was most useful in their codes ; and it is also said that Hermodorus of Ephesus, then an exile in Rome, gave his assistance in the compilation of the code. There is no
thing improbable in this story, and yet it is undeniable that the laws of the Tables were based on Roman and not on Greek or Athenian law. Their object was to confirm and define perhaps rather than to enlarge or alter the Roman law, except in some few matters; and it is probable that the laws of Solon and those of other Greek states, if they had any effect on the legis lation of the Decemviri, served rather as models of form than as sources of positive rules. The Twelve Tables were a body of constitutional law as well as other law.
Ten tables were completed and made public by the Deceniviri, in B.C. 951, and in the following year two other tables were added. This compilation is quoted by the antient writers by various titles: Lex XII. Tabularum, Leges XII., some times XII. simply (Cic., Legg., ii. 23), Lex Decemviralis, and others. The rules contained in these tables long continued to be the foundation of Roman Law, and they were never formally repealed. The laws themselves were considered as a text-book, and they were commented on by the Jurists as late as the age of the Antonines, when Gains wrote a commen tary on them in six books Ad Legcm XII. Tabularum '). The actions of the old Roman law, called Legitimae, or Le gis Actiones, were founded on the pro visions of the Twelve Tables, and the demand of the complainant could only be made in the precise terms which were used in the Tables. (Gaius, iv. 11.) The rights of action were consequently very limited, and they were only subse quently extended by the Edicts of the Praetors. The brevity and obscurity of this antient legislation rendered interpre tation necessary in order to give the laws any application ; and both the interpre tation of the laws and the framing of the proper forms of action belonged to the College of Pontifices. The civil law was thus still inseparably connected with that of religion (ins Pontificium), and its in terpretation and the knowledge of the forms of procedure were still the exclu sive possession of the patricians.