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 484 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xliv the neck, and implored, in solemn lamentation, the aid of his fellow-citizens. The two competitors grasped each other's hand as if they stood prepared for combat before the tribunal of the praetor: he commanded them to produce the object of the dispute ; they went, they returned with measured steps, and a clod of earth was cast at his feet to represent the field for which they contended. This occult science of the words and actions of law was the inheritance of the pontiffs and patricians. Like the Chaldean astrologers, they announced to their clients the day of business and repose ; these important trifles were inter- woven with the religion of Numa ; and, after the publication of the Twelve Tables, the Boman people was still enslaved by the ignorance of judicial proceedings. The treachery of some plebeian officers at length revealed the profitable mystery ; in a more enlightened age, the legal actions were derided and observed ; and the same antiquity which sanctified the prac- tice, obliterated the use and meaning, of this primitive language. 52 succession A more liberal art was cultivated, however, by the sages of fawyers 1 ™ Borne, who, in a stricter sense, may be considered as the authors of the civil law. The alteration of the idiom and manners of the Bomans rendered the style of the Twelve Tables less familiar to each rising generation, and the doubtful passages were imperfectly explained by the study of legal antiquarians. To define the ambiguities, to circumscribe the latitude, to apply the principles, to extend the consequences, to reconcile the real or apparent contradictions, was a much nobler and more im- portant task ; and the province of legislation was silently invaded by the expounders of ancient statutes. Their subtle interpreta- tions concurred with the equity of the praetor to reform the tyranny of the darker ages : however strange or intricate the means, it was the aim of artificial jurisprudence to restore the simple dictates of nature and reason, and the skill of private citizens was usefully employed to undermine the public institu- tions of their country. The revolution of almost one thousand years, from the Twelve Tables to the reign of Justinian, may 63 In his oration for Murena (c. 9-13) Cicero turns into ridicule the forms and mysteries of the civilians, which are represented with more candour by Aulus Gellins (Noct. Attic, xx. 10), Gravina (Opp. p. 265, 266, 267), and HeinecciuB (Antiquitat. 1. iv. tit. vi.).