Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/418

 412 THE REVOLUTIONS. BOOK IV ordainecl in the last instance is the law." ' Of aW the passages of this code that remain to us, there is not one more important than this, or one which belter marks the character of the revolution that had then taken place in the law. The law was no longer a sa- cred tradition — mos; it was simply a text — lex; and as the will of men had made it, the same will could change it. The other consequence is this: The law, which be- fore had been a part of religion, and was consequently the patrimony of the sacred families, was now the com- mon property of all the citizens. The plebeian could plead in the courts. At most, the Roman patrician, more tenacious or more cunning than the Eupatrid of Athens, attempted to conceal the legal procedure from the multitude; but even these forms were not long in being revealed. Thus the law was changed in its nature. From that time it could no longer contain the same provisions as in the preceding period. So long as religion had controlled it, it had regulated the relations of men to each other according to the principles of this religion. But the inferior class, who brought other principles into the city, understood nothing either of the old rules of the right of property, or of the ancient right of succession, or of the absolute authority of the father, or of the relationship of agnation, and wished to do awpy with all that. This transformation of the law, it is true, could not be accomplished at once. If it is sometimes possible for man quickly to change his political institutions, he cannot change'his legislation and his private law ex- ' Livy, VII. 17; IX. 33,34.