Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/260

 254 THE CITY. BOOK UU law which establishes primogenituve, and has another by the side of it which enjoins an equal division among the brothers. The ancient law never gave any reasons. Why should it ? It was not bound to give them ; it existed because the gods had made it. It was not discussed — it was imposed ; it was a work of authority ; men obeyed it because they had faith in it. During long generations the laws were not written; they were transmitted from father to son, with the creed and the formula of prayer. They were a sacred tradition, which was perpetuated around the family health, or the hearth of the city. The day on which men began to commit them to writing, they consigned them to the sacred books, to the rituals, among prayers and ceremonies. Varro cites an ancient law of the city of Tusculum, and adds that he read it in the sacred books of that city.' Dionysius of Ilalicarnassus, who had consulted the original docu- ments, says that before the time of the Decemvirs all the written laws at Rome were to be found in the books of the liriests." Later the laws were removed from the rituals, and were written by themselves ; but the cus- tom of depositing them in a temple continued, and priests had the care of them. Written or unwritten, these laws were always formu- lated into very brief sentences, which may be com- pared in form to the verses of Leviticus, or the slocas of the book of Mnnu. It is quite probable, even, that the laws were rhythimical.^ According to Aristotle, before the laws were written, they were sung.'* Traces ' Varro, L. L., VI. IG. ^ Dionysius, X. 1. ' ZElian, V. II., II. 39. * Aristotle, Probl., XIX. 28.