Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/348

 334 //. FROM THE llOO'S TO THE 1800'S life, and the relations of men and classes to one another, never remain quite the same from generation to generation. Every mechanical discovery, every foreign war or domestic insurrection, every accession or loss of territory, every relig- ious or intellectual movement leaves things somewhat different from what it found them. Nevertheless, though the process of change is, except in savage or barbarous peoples, practi- cally constant and uninterrupted, it becomes at certain partic- ular moments much more swift and palpable, rushing, so to speak, through rapids and over cataracts instead of gliding on in a smooth and equable flow. These are the moments when a nation, or its ruler, perceives that the economic or social transformations which have been taking place require to be recognized and dealt with by corresponding changes in law and institutions, or when some political disturbance, or shifting of power from one class or group to another, sup- plies the occasion for giving effect to views or sentiments hitherto repressed. Accordingly it is profitable to give spe- cial attention to these transitional epochs, because it is in them that the relation between causes and consequences can be studied most easily and on the largest scale. Let us see what are the epochs in Roman and in English history which may be selected as those marked by conspicuous legal or institu- tional changes before we examine the relations of these changes to the forces which brought them about. /. Five Chief Epochs of Legal Change at Rome In the thousand years of Roman history that lie between the first authentic records of the constitution and laws of the city, say 451 b. c, when the Decemviral Commission, which produced the laws of the Twelve Tables, was appointed, and 565 A. D., when Justinian died, having completed his work of codification and new legislation,^ we may single out five such epochs. 1. The epoch of the Decemviral Legislation, when many of shape in which it has influenced modern Europe, and because our his- torical data became much more scanty after his time. But of course the
 * It is convenient to stop with Justinian, because he gave the law the