登陆注册
15752600000018

第18章

Something must be said of the formal instrumentality by whichthe principles and distinctions associated, first with the Lawcommon to all Nations, and afterwards with the Law of Nature,were gradually incorporated with the Roman law. At the crisis ofprimitive Roman history which is marked by the expulsion of theTarquins, a change occurred which has its parallel in the earlyannals of many ancient states, but which had little in commonwith those passages of political affairs which we now termrevolutions. It may best be described by saying that the monarchywas put into commission. The powers heretofore accumulated in thehands of a single person were parcelled out among a number ofelective functionaries, the very name of the kingly office beingretained and imposed on a personage known subsequently as the RexSacrorum or Rex Sacrificulus. As part of the change, the settledduties of the Supreme judicial office devolved on the Praetor, atthe time the first functionary in the commonwealth, and togetherwith these duties was transferred the undefined supremacy overlaw and legislation which always attached to ancient sovereignsand which is not obscurely related to the patriarchal and heroicauthority they had once enjoyed. The circumstances of Rome gavegreat importance to the more indefinite portion of the functionsthus transferred, as with the establishment of the republic beganthat series of recurrent trials which overtook the state, in thedifficulty of dealing with a multitude of persons who, not comingwithin the technical description of indigenous Romans, werenevertheless permanently located within Roman jurisdiction.

Controversies between such persons, or between such persons andnative-born citizens, would have remained without the pale of theremedies provided by Roman law, if the Praetor had not undertakento decide them, and he must soon have addressed himself to themore critical disputes which in the extension of commerce arosebetween Roman subjects and avowed foreigners. The great increaseof such cases in the Roman Courts about the period of the firstPunic War is marked by the appointment of a special Praetor,known subsequently as the Praetor Peregrinus, who gave them hisundivided attention. Meantime, one precaution of the Roman peopleagainst the revival of oppression, had consisted in obligingevery magistrate whose duties had any tendency to expand theirsphere, to publish, on commencing his year of office, an Edict orproclamation, in which he declared the manner in which heintended to administer his department. The Praetor fell under therule with other magistrates; but as it was necessarily impossibleto construct each year a separate system of principles, he seemsto have regularly republished his predecessor's Edict with suchadditions and changes as the exigency of the moment or his ownviews of the law compelled him to introduce. The Praetor'sproclamation, thus lengthened by a new portion every year,obtained the name of the Edictum Perpetuum, that is, thecontinuous or unbroken edict. The immense length to which itextended, together perhaps with some distaste for its necessarilydisorderly texture, caused the practice of increasing it to bestopped in the year of Salvius Julianus, who occupied themagistracy in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. The edict of thatPraetor embraced therefore the whole body of equityjurisprudence, which it probably disposed in new and symmetricalorder, and the perpetual edict is therefore often cited in Romanlaw merely as the Edict of Julianus.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 青春校园:浪漫青春

    青春校园:浪漫青春

    群号:317884513他,豪门子弟,进入学校只为父亲的愿望得到一样东西;她,以全市第一,考进了学校;他,冷漠无情,只手遮天;她,淳朴善良,天真浪漫久而久之,各自的心里却默默地喜欢上了对方。可她没想到他会是……他也没有想到……终究,还是有一个谎言,一个,善意的谎言他们,彼此会原谅对方吗?最终,也终于修成正果,虽然没找到东西,心里却暗暗感谢老天爷让他带回了自己所爱的人。
  • 花心美男别缠我

    花心美男别缠我

    一份玩笑般的赌约让一个想要安安静静不惹事的女生倒霉,一个花心帅气的大美男从天而降,居然大言不惭地说喜欢自己“喂,老天你够了!”这个花心的家伙激起了她身体里好不容易消停的邪恶因子,这样一个霸道却温柔,玩世不恭的美男子让她哭笑不得,不知不觉中,这位花心到不行的男生已经悄然占据了她的心……
  • 锁心娇妻

    锁心娇妻

    他说出分手,四处躲避她,只为给她一个小小的教训。可偏偏上天一个作弄人的安排,让心爱的她失去了记忆,再也不认识自己,更悲哀的是她竟爱上了别的男人……“告诉你,你想离开我绝无可能!”曾经眼底的温情被一片阴冷取代,他轻佻的勾起她优美的下颌:“既然你想不起我的好,那么就让你永远记住我的坏!”此文是《撒旦总裁的娇妻》的续集,前文得到了大家的支持,在此水水唯一的感谢方式就是尽快推出续集。请大家继续支持水水哦!
  • EXO之小猫爱偷腥

    EXO之小猫爱偷腥

    @青木花眠:偷腥小猫,那就别折腾了,在一起吧。
  • 日本皇室:百代家国

    日本皇室:百代家国

    《日本皇室·百代家国》选择欧洲和亚洲具有典型性的几个皇室家族作为主要故事,以历史文献资料为素材,并通过对相关资料的系统挖掘、整理,以家族历史为主要剧情,以皇族重要人物为主角,由历史学家担当编剧和导演,来表演几出皇族历史剧。
  • 蚊道记

    蚊道记

    一个有大背景的小人物的成长之路,背负着复国的重任,经历众多磨难最终成为了一方风雨,身藏众多隐秘杀器。想以轻松的手法给大家舒心感受作者想结合众多的环境写下这本书,期待自己有好的表现,也期待此书带给大家不一样的感受
  • 龙的第九子饕餮

    龙的第九子饕餮

    【热血少年,最强装逼】看饕餮如何找寻自己身世之谜再修无上功法,征服美女战胜妖魔鬼怪,杀上九天十地,战遍神荒无穷世界,誓要称要成为“至高无上至尊”。
  • 两生情之爱你不悔

    两生情之爱你不悔

    说来也可笑,前一秒还与我恩爱有加的男人,下一秒却将剑刺入我心……至到奄奄一息的那一刻我才知道原来,眼前的男人口口声声说爱我的原因,只不过是我与他爱的那个女人长着一张一模一样的脸……慕容轩,我与你在一起那么久,你就真的从来没有爱过我吗?
  • 异能区域

    异能区域

    拥有异能,便会成为被这个世间所例外的人,是被诅咒的人,异能者们在“地球”这个星球发生着、、、、、、是道具?!却各自为自己的理由奋斗;是工具?!却向往着同一片蓝色的天空下理想的自由;是先驱者?!打破这世界缓慢的进度,却是疯狂改变的现存的一切、、、、、、
  • 邪神笑苍天

    邪神笑苍天

    夜时生来心志坚,一身痞气不等闲。人生在世需精彩,且看邪神笑苍天。世间没有公平,我就给他个公平。世间恶人太多,我便屠他个干净。世间本没有魔,逼我太多,这个魔便由我来做!管他世人无尽白眼。管他天下无穷叫骂!我只求问心无愧!我只求笑尽苍天!欢迎加入邪神笑苍天书友群,群号码:594487761