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 chap, xliv] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 471 semble or deny his failings ; and fiercely chastise the guilt or folly of the rebels who presume to sully the majesty of the purple. The idolatry of love has provoked, as it usually happens, the ran- cour of opposition ; the character of Justinian has been exposed to the blind vehemence of flattery and invective ; and the in- justice of a sect (the Anti-Tribonians) has refused all praise and merit to the prince, his ministers, and his laws. 3 Attached to no party, interested only for the truth and candour of history, and directed by the most temperate and skilful guides, 4 I enter with just diffidence on the subject of civil law, which has ex- hausted so many learned lives and clothed the walls of such spacious libraries. In a single, if possible in a short, chapter, I shall trace the Eoman jurisprudence from Komulus to Jus- tinian, 5 appreciate the labours of that emperor, and pause to contemplate the principles of a science so important to the peace and happiness of society. The laws of a nation form the most instructive portion of its history ; and, although I have devoted myself to write the annals of a declining monarchy, I shall em- brace the occasion to breathe the pure and invigorating air of the republic. The primitive government of Rome 6 was composed, withnawsofthe some political skill, of an elective king, a council of nobles, and Rome a general assembly of the people. War and religion were ad- ministered by the supreme magistrate ; and he alone proposed 3 Francis Hottoman, a learned and aoute lawyer of the xvith oentury, wished to mortify Cujacius and to please the Chancellor de l'Hopital. His Anti-Tribonianns (which I have never been able to procure) was published in French in 1609 ; and his sect was propagated in Germany (Heineccius, Opp. torn. iii. sylloge iii. p. 171- 183). 4 At the head of these guides I shall respeotfully place the learned and per- spicuous Heinecoius, a German professor, who died at Halle in the year 1741 (see his Eloge in the Nouvelle Bibliotheque Germanique, torn. ii. p. 51-64). His ample works have been collected in eight volumes in 4to, Geneva, 1743-1748. The treatises which I have separately used are, 1. Historia Juris Romani et Germanici, Lugd. Batav. 1740, in 8°. 2. Syntagma Antiquitatum Komanam Jurisprudentiam Illustrantium, 2 vols, in 8°, Traject. ad Rhenum. 3. Elementa Juris Civilis secun- dum Ordinem Institutionum, Lugd. Bat. 1751, in 8°. 4. Elementa J. C. secundum Ordinem Pandectarum, Traject. 1772, in 8°, 2 vols. [For modern worts on the sources, history, and principles of Roman law, see Appendix 1, ad fin.] 5 Our original text is a fragment de Origine Juris (Pandect. 1. i. tit. ii.) of Pom- ponius, a Roman lawyer, who lived under the Antonines (Heinecc. torn. iii. syll. iii. p. 66-126). It has been abridged, and probably corrupted, by Tribonian, and since restored by Bynkershoek (Opp. torn. i. p. 279-304). 6 The constitutional history of the kings of Rome may be studied in the first book of Livy, and more copiously in Dionysius Hahcarnassensis (1. ii. p. 80-96, 119-130 [c. isqq., 57 sqq.], 1. iv. p. 198-220 [c. 15 sqq.]), who sometimes betrays the character of a rhetorician and a Greek.