Page:Early Roman Law, The Regal Period (Clark, 1872, earlyromanlawreg00claruoft).djvu/6

iv viral legislation to a time of greater leisure. There must, however, occur here, as a matter of course, many detached references to a code which was in a great part merely a collection of previous laws or customs.

The method which I have adopted has been to furnish, as far as possible, in the text of each section, a toleraby continuous account of the subject in hand, relegating quotations and referenes to the notes. For those readers who may wish to acquire any substantial knowledge of the subject I need not mention that here, as

the fish being my own, the sauce that of Varro and Festus.

In the matter of orthography I must apologize for certain inconsistencies. In all continuous Latin I have adopted the principle of making symbolic distinction between the palatal vowel (I) and palatal spirant (sometimes written J), or between the labial vowel (U) and labial spirant (often written V). Such a distinction I believe to be not only destitute of good authority, but misleading. I should have preferred to employ the same symbol for the capital as for the small writing, both of labial and palatal: but V capital and u small seem too firmly established in good modern editions for me to disturb them.

Where detached Latin words occur, particularly in the text as distinguished from the notes, I have felt a great difficulty and ultimately moved in a strange diagonal which may possibly please no one.

With words docked of their terminations, which therefore may fairly be regarded as naturalized English, I came