Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/416

 410 THE EEVOLUTIONS. BOOK IV. CHAPTER VIII. Changes in Private Law. The Code of the Twelve Tat bles. The Code of Solon. It is not in the nature of law to be absolute and un- changeable; it is modified and transformed, like every human work. Every society has its laws, which are formulated and developed with it, which change with it, and which, in fine, always follow the movements of its institutions, its manners, and. its religious beliefs. Men of the early ages had been governed by a re- ligion which influenced their minds in proportion to its rudeness. This religion had made their law, and had given them their political institutions. But finally so- ciety was transformed. The patriarchal rule which this hereditary religion had produced was dissolved, with the lapse of time, in the rule of the city. In- sensibly the gens -was dismembered. The younger members separated irom the older, the servant from the chief. The inferior class increased ; it took arms, and finished by vanquishing the aristocracy, and con- quering equal rights. This change in the social state ne- cessarily brought another in law; for as strongly as the Eupatrids and patricians were attached to the old fam- ily religion, and consequently to ancient law, just so strongly were the lower classes opposed to this religion, which had long caused their inferiority, and to this an- cient law, which had oppressed them. Not only did they detest it, but they did not even understand it. As they had not the belief on which it was founded, this law appeared to them to be without foundation.