Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/97

 "CHAP. VI. THE EIGHT OF PROPEKTY. 91 living who has established his right over this soil, it is the domestic god. The individual lias it in trust only; it belongs to those who are deafl, and to those who are yet to be born. It is a part of the boJy of this family, and cannot be separated from it. To detach one from the other is to alter a worship, and to offend a religion. Among the Hindus, property, also founded upon re- ligion, was also inalienable.' We know nothing of Roman law previous to the laws of the Twelve Tables. It is certain that at that time the sale of property was permitted ; but there are reasons for thinking that, in the earlier days of Rome, and in Italy before the existence of Rome, land was inalienable, as in Greece. Though there remains no evidence of this old law, there remain to us at least the modifications which were made in it by degrees. The law of the Twelve Tables, though attaching to the tomb the character of inalienability, has freed the soil from it. Afteiwards it was permitted to divide prop- erty, if there were several brothers, but on condition that a new religious ceremony should be performed, and that the new partition should be made by a priest ; ^ religion only could divide what had before been pro- claimed indivisible. Finally, it was permitted to sell the domain ; but for that formalities of a religious char- acter were also necessary. This sale could take place only in the presence of a priest, whom they called iilK'ipens, and with the sacred formality which they •called mancipation. Something analogous is seen in Greece ; the sale of a house or of land was always ac- ' 3Jita7echara, Orianne's trans., p. 50. This rule disappeared by degrees after Brahminism became dominant. " This priest was called agrimensor. See Scriptores Rei ^giartce.