Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/424

 418 THE BEVOLUTIONS. BOOK IV, Little by little, and in almost every generation, some new change took place. As the lower classes pro- gressed in political order, new modifications were introduced into the rules of law. First, marriage was permitted between patrician and plebeian. Next, it was the Papirian law which forbade the debtor to pledge his person to the creditor. The procedure be- came simjjlified, greatly to the advantage of the plebe- ian, by the abolition of the actions of the law. Finally, the pretor, continuing to advance in the road which the Twelve Tables had opened, traced out, by the side of the ancient law, an entirely new system, which re- ligion did not dictate, and which approached contin- ually nearer to the law of nature. An analogous revolution appears in Athenian law» We know that two codes were prepared at Athens, with an interval of thirty years between them ; the first by Draco, the second by Solon. The code of Draco was written when the struggle of the two classes was at its height, and before the Eupatrids were vanquished. Solon prepared his at the moment when the inferior class gained the upper hand. The difference between these codes, therefore, is- great. Draco was a Eupatrid ; he had all the sentiments of Lis caste, and was " learned in the religious law." He appears to have done no more than to reduce the old customs to writing without in any way changing, them. His first l:iw is this : " Men should honor the gods and heroes of the country', and offer them annual sacrifices^ ■without deviating from the rites followed by our ances- tors." Memorials of his laws concerning murder have been preserved. They prescribe that the guilty one shall be kept out of the temple, and forbid him to