XLIV. Thetwelve tables of the Decemvirs. CHAP. I fhall not repeat the well-known story of the Decemvirs", who fullied by their actions the honour of infcribing on brafs, or wood, or ivory, the TWELVE TABLES of the Roman laws". They were dictated by the rigid and jealous spirit of an aristocracy, which had yielded with reluctance to the just demands of the people. But the fubftance of the twelve tables was adapted to the ftate of the city; and the Romans had emerged from barbarism, fince they were capable of studying and embracing the institutions of their more enlightened neighbours. A wife Ephefian was driven by envy from his native country: before he could reach the shores of Latium, he had obferved the various forms of human nature and civil fociety; he imparted his knowledge to the legislators of Rome, and a statue was erected in the forum to the perpetual memory of Hermodorus "3. The names 13 and fame age and character as the Saliare Carmen, which, in the time of Horace, none could understand. The Roman idiom, by an infusion of Doric and Æolic Greek, was gradually ripened into the style of the xii tables, of the Duillian column, of Ennius, of Terence, and of Cicero (Gruter, Inscript. tom. i. p. cxlii. Scipion Maffei, Iftoria Diplomatica, p. 241-258. Biblothéque Italique, tom. iii. p. 3041. 174–205. tom. xiv. p. 1–52.). 11 Compare Livy (1. iii. c. 31-59) with Dionyfius Halicarnaffenfis (1. x. p. 644-xi. p. 691.). How concife and animated is the Roman -how prolix and lifeless the Greek? Yet he has admirably judged the masters, and defined the rules of historical composition. 12 From the hiftorians, Heineccius (Hift. J R. 1. i. No 26.) maintains that the twelve tables were of brafs-areas: in the text of Pomponius we read eboreas; for which Scaliger has substituted roboreas (Bynkershoek, p. 286 ). Wood, brass, and ivory, might be fucceffively employed. 13 His exile is mentioned by Cicero (Tufculan. Quæftion. v. 36.); his ftatue by Pliny (Hift. Nat. xxxiv. 11.). The letter, dream, and prophecy XLIV. and divisions of the copper-money, the fole coin CHA P. of the infant state, were of Dorian origin": the harvests of Campania and Sicily relieved the wants of a people whofe agriculture was often interrupted. by war and faction; and fince the trade was efta, blished ", the deputies who failed from the Tyber, might return from the fame harbours with a more precious cargo of political wisdom. The colonies of Great Greece had tranfported and improved the arts of their mother country. Cuma and Rhegium, Crotona and Tarentum, Agrigentum and Syracufe, were in the rank of the most flourishing cities. The difciples of Pythagoras applied philo. sophy to the use of government; the unwritten laws of Charondas accepted the aid of poetry and mufic ", and Zaleucus framed the republic of the Locrians, which stood without alteration above two hundred years". From a fimilar motive of national 16 prophecy of Heraclitus are alike spurious (Epiftolæ Græc. Diverf. P. 337.). 14 This intricate fubject of the Sicilian and Roman money, is ably difcuffed by Dr. Bentley (Differtation on the Epiftles of Phalaris, P. 427–479.), whofe powers in this controversy were called forth by honour and refentment. Is The Romans or their allies, failed as far as the fair promontory of Africa (Polyb. 1. iii. p. 177. edit. Cafaubon, in folio). Their voyages to Cumæ, &c. are noticed by Livy and Dionyfius. 16 This circumstance would alone prove the antiquity of Charondas, the legislator of Rhegium and Catana, who, by a strange error of Diodorus Siculus (tom. i. 1. xii. p. 485-492.), is celebrated long afterwards as the author of the policy of Thurium. 17 Zaleucus, whose existence has been rafhly attacked, had the merit and glory of converting a band of outlaws (the Locrians) into the most virtuous and orderly of the Greek republics (fee two Me moires of the Baron de St. Croix, fur la Legislation de la Grande Gréce; Mem. de l'Academie, tom. xlii. p. 276-333-). But the B 4 laws XLIV. CHAP. national pride, both Livy and Dionyfius are willing to believe, that the deputies of Rome vifited Athens under the wife and fplendid adminiftration of Pericles; and the laws of Solon were transfufed into the twelve tables. If fuch an embaffy had indeed been received from the Barbarians of Hefperia, the Roman name would have been familiar to the Greeks before the reign of Alexander 18; 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 seem credible that the patricians fhould undertake a long and perilous navigation to copy the pureft model of a democracy. In the comparison of the tables of Solon with those of the Decemvirs, laws of Zaleucus and Charondas, which imposed on Diodorus and Stobæus, are the fpurious compofition of a Pythagorean fophift, whofe fraud has been detected by the critical fagacity of Bentley (P. 335-377.). 18 I seize the opportunity of tracing the progress of this national intercourfe : 1. Herodotus and Thucydides (4. U. C. 330-350.) appear ignorant of the name and existence of Rome (Jofeph. contra Apion. tom. ii. l. i. c. 12. p. 444. edit. Havercamp). 2. Theopom: pus (A. U. C. 400. Plin. iii. 9.) mentions the invafion of the Gauls, which is noticed in loofer terms by Heraclides Ponticus (Plutarch in Camillo, p. 292. edit. H. Stephan). 3 The real or fabulous em' baffy of the Romans to Alexander (A. U. C. 430 ), is attefted by Clitarchus (Plin. iii. 9.), by Ariftus and Afclepiades (Arrian, 1. vii, P. 294, 295.), and by Memnon of Heraclea (apud Photium, cod. ccxxiv. p. 725.); though tacitly denied by Livy. 4. Theophraftus (A. U. C. 440) primus externorum aliqua de Romanis diligentius fcripfit (Plin. iii. 9.). 5. Lycophron (A. U. C. 480-500) fcattered the first feed of a Trojan colony and the fable of the Æneid (Caffandra, 1226—1280.): Γης και θαλασσης σκήτρα και μοναρχίαν A bold prediction before the end of the first Punic war! fome XLIV. fome cafual resemblance may be found: fome CHAP. rules which nature and reafon have revealed to every fociety; fome proofs of a common descent from Egypt or Phoenicia ". But in all the great lines of public and private jurisprudence, the legiflators of Rome and Athens appear to be strangers or adverfe to each other. Whatever might be the origin or the merit of the twelve tables 20, they obtained among the Romans that blind and partial reverence which the lawyers of every country delight to bestow on their municipal inftitutions, The ftudy is recommended by Cicero as equally pleafant and inftructive. "They amufe the mind by the remembrance of "old words and the portrait of ancient manners; they inculcate the foundest principles of govern❝ment and morals; and I am not afraid to affirm, " that the brief compofition of the Decemvirs furpaffes in genuine value the libraries of Grecian "philofophy. How admirable," fays Tully, with honeft or affected prejudice, "is the wifdom of (c our ancestors. We alone are the masters of civil 19 The tenth table, de modo fepulturæ, was borrowed from Solon (Cicero de Legibus, ii. 23—26): the fertum per lancem et licium conceptum, is derived by Heineccius from the manners of Athens (Antiquitat. Rom. tom. ii. p. 167–175 ). The right of killing a nocturnal thief, was declared by Mofes, Solon, and the Decemvirs (Exodus, xxii. 3. Demofthenes contra Timocratem, tom. i. p. 736. edit. Reifke. Macrob. Saturnalia, 1. 1. c. 4. Collatio Legum Mofaicarum et Romanarum, tit. vii. No 1. p. 218. edit. Cannegieter). 20 Braxewa nai as is the praise of Diodorus (tom. i. 1. xii. p. 494.), which may be fairly translatedby the eleganti atque absohutâbre vitate verborum of Aulus Gellius (Noct. Attic. xxi. 1.). 21 Liften to Cicero (de Legibus, ii. 23.) and his representative Craffus (de Oratore, i. 43, 44.). "prudence, Their chainfluence. racter and CHAP." prudence, and our fuperiority is the more con XLIV. fpicuous, if we deign to caft our eyes on the rude "and almost ridiculous jurifprudence of Dracon, "of Solon, and of Lycurgus." The twelve tables were committed to the memory of the young and the meditation of the old; they were transcribed and illustrated with learned diligence: they had escaped the flames of the Gauls, they fubfifted in the age of Juftinian, and their fubfequent lofs has been imperfectly restored by the labours of modern critics". But although these venerable monuments were confidered as the rule of right, and the fountain of justice 23, they were overwhelmed by the weight and variety of new laws, which, at the end of five centuries, became a grievance more intolerable than the vices of the city. Three thoufand brass plates, the acts of the fenate and people, were depofited in the Capitol " and fome of the acts, as the Julian law against extortion, furpaffed the number of an hundred chapters 26. The Decemvirs had neglected to import the fanction of Zaleucus, which fo long maintained the integrity 22 See Heineccius (Hift. J. R. No 29—33.). I have followed the reftoration of the xii tables by Gravina (Origines J.C. p.280-307.) and Teraffon (Hift. de la Jurifprudence Romaine, p. 94—205.), 23 Finis æqui juris (Tacit. Annal. iii. 27.). Fons omnis publici et privati juris (T. Liv. iii. 34.). 24 De principiis juris, et quibus modis ad hanc multitudinem infi nitam ac varietatem legum perventum fitaltius differam (Tacit. Annal. iii. 25.). This deep difquifition fills only two pages, but they are the pages of Tacitus. With equal fenfe, but with lefs energy, Livy (iii. 34.) had complained, in hac immenso aliarum fuper alias acervatarum legum cumulo, &c. 25 Suetonius in Vefpafiano, c. 8. of |