In Rome carried
on a took in Greek banish from the popular city of Ephesus in Asia Minor, a man
of thoughtful turn of psyche by the name of Hermodorus. He exhorted the Romans,
by whom it shows up he was held in high regard, to sort out a commission of
competent men and to send them to Greece to ponder the laws of Sparta, Crete
and Athens, and particularly the enactment of Solon; and immediately to set up
a code for Rome based upon the current law and the experience which the magistrates
may get from the operation of the frameworks of the few Hellenic states. The
recommendation was promptly acknowledged. It was a quirk of the Roman character
that the individuals never accepted that they had every one of the ideals and
that nothing was to be gained from the experience of different countries.
Actually, the Romans were constantly prepared and willing to acknowledge
anything from different countries, and particularly from Greece, which was
esteemed to be worthwhile and better than what they had themselves. Indeed,
even in the times of their most noteworthy enormity they were by and large
arranged to regard the uses and traditions of the people groups whom they
consolidated into their incomprehensible realm, and to permit them the best conceivable
level of neighborhood self-government reliable with the amazingness of the
Roman power. What's more, this was in no way, shape or form the slightest of
the reasons which actuated the changelessness of their wide spread domain.
The commission
was sorted out, and went to Greece. This was fifty-five years after the
ejection of the Tarquins; and it was the period of Cimon and Pericles in
Athens. As it were, it was the climaxing time of Hellenic quality and human
advancement. What the magistrates carried back with them is maybe not exactly
obvious; but rather the outcome positively demonstrated the impact of the
enactment of Solon. A code of law was proclaimed in the year B.C. 451, which
was assigned by the name of the Law of the Ten Tables, supposed on the grounds
that it was engraved upon ten tablets of metal set up for general society
investigation on the dividers of the Temple of Jupiter. Two different tables
were soon a short time later included; and the Code was then known by the name
of the Law of the Twelve Tables, thus kept on being known not eras. It was the
establishment whereupon all resulting Roman law was fabricated; and it was the
work to an exceptionally impressive degree of Hermodorus, the took in Greek
from Ephesus. It was not, then again, a Greek code exchanged to Rome, but
rather in the principle a codification of existing Roman law with such
expansion and adjustment as the experience of the Hellenic states particularly
that of Athens, had indicated to be advantageous.
Just fragmentary
parts of the Laws of the Twelve Tables have been transmitted to us; and they
are not of themselves adequate to empower us to frame any attractive appraisal
of the assemblage at this very moment. In any case, it is much that they got
the savvy acclamation of so genuine a pundit thus legitimate a man at this very
moment his work De Republica, that of the Greek history specialist of Rome,
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and that of the other incredible Greek antiquarian
of just about the same period, Diodorus Siculus. From these authors, and from
the Roman law journalists who composed editorials upon them, for example,
Gaius, Antistius Labeo, and others, we discover that the Laws of the Twelve
Tables did not constitute a complete code of law, for example, we would now see
by that expression, but instead articulated an accumulation of lawful adages of
all inclusive application adequate to bolster and manage the fabric of the law
that was based upon it by the later improvement.
The pundit
Gaius, to whom reference has as of now been made, one of the best and most
finished Roman essayists on the subject of law, and who lived in the season of
the Emperor Antonius, in the second century of our time, specifies two of the
laws of the Twelve Tables, one of them concerning enterprises or collegial,
right now called, and the other concerning limits, which he states were gotten
from the laws of Solon; and we may construe that there were others of
comparable birthplace. However, the code, whether of local development in the
fundamental, or in awesome piece of Hellenic starting point, clearly ended up
being a commendable premise for the heavenly superstructure that was raised
upon it. How this superstructure was raised, and what organizations added to
the considerable work, we might now consider. Like all other human
organizations deserving of thought, it was an improvement, an advancement from
essential standards by the most skillful race of lawgivers that has ever
existed.
For it was, in
truth, a race that raised the structure, and not any one individual or number
of persons. The leaders of Rome were a race of attorneys. We have alluded to
the different Comitia or General Assemblies of the Roman individuals, by which
the sovereign force of the state was applied. It was the Roman hypothesis that
all force was rested in the sovereign individuals. Presently a city, and along
these lines a state in which every one of the individuals could promptly be
congregated nearby meeting, the Romans considered that the hypothesis could be
decreased to genuine practice so far at this very moment administration of the
city itself was concerned, while the legislature of the regions was left to the
Senate, whose littler number made it a more capable authoritative get together.
Hence the General
Assembly, known right now Centuriata, where the individuals voted by hundreds
of years, was not just a definitive wellspring of force in Rome, however in
like manner practiced the force in solid cases; ordered laws, chose officers,
coordinated general society approach, and sat at this very moment court of
final resort in various instances of a legal nature, particularly those
including the death penalty. For the life of no Roman national could legally be
taken aside from by the vote of his kindred residents assembled in Comitia
Centuriata; and notwithstanding when the benefit of Roman citizenship was
generally broadened and was appreciated by a large portion of the common urban
areas, those possessing such right may engage the Comitia Centuriata at Rome,
or therefore to the Imperator or Emperor, when the Caesarian Revolution had
exchanged the legal power of the individuals to the all-powerful Emperor.
No comments:
Post a Comment