Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/224

200 The first step they gained in this direction was by securing what the Greeks called, or equality in the incidence of the law on all classes of society. The law, as we have seen, meant simply the rules of practice, in public and private life alike, which had grown up as the State grew, and formed the outward expression of the imperium. Up to this time the knowledge of these rules had been a secret science, of which the patrician families were the only craftsmen. All others were still ignorant of the art of government, and unfit to propitiate the gods, which was not the least important part of that art. To borrow another metaphor from the modern world, the multitude was a multitude of hands, suited to fight and to till the ground, but wholly ignorant of the science which could turn their labour to account. But in 451 B.C. they began to be initiated in the craft. In that year the rules of practice were at last embodied in a written code of ten tables, to which two others were shortly added. This is the fons aequi juris of Roman law; it is also the first unquestionable fact in the history of the Republic, for many genuine fragments of it still survive.

It is interesting to note that this great result was brought about by the same agency as in the parallel revolution at Athens. The details of the story are indeed quite worthless, but the fact is beyond doubt that the new code was drawn up by