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THE GREEN BAG

the historian calls "fons omnis publici privatique juris." Besides, the strong probability of the Hellenic origin of these laws were more de cisive proof wanting, it is seen in the marked peculiarities characteristic of the two sys tems. The early Roman law, for example, does not appear to have possessed what we call a search-warrant for stolen property. The owner himself, as stated in the "XII Tables," could go into the house of another and make search for his own, provided he went clad only in a loin-cloth with a plate in his hands — probably as a preventive of dishonest secretion or accusation. The same legal custom is referred to by Aristophanes in the "Clouds," where Socrates directs the novitiate Strepsiades to remove his clothing and the candidate replies: "but I am not going in to search for stolen property" (Clouds, 499). Another marked correspond ence to the laws in vogue in Greece is seen in the provision in the Roman Law that the conveyance following on a sale should not carry the property until the price had been paid or security given for it to the vendor — an enactment bearing a close resemblance to a statement of Greek law by Theophrastus. But there is no au thority for saying that these particular laws were directly borrowed. Examples like the above might, however, be further multiplied if necessary to our present purpose, but stronger proof is not wanting. The fixed belief of the great Roman jurists in the reality of the mission to the Greek states and the Hellenic origin of these basal precepts of Roman jurispru dence, is an undeniable matter of fact and this continuous tradition, if we so name it, must have had a foundation in reality to have survived the criticism of the many centuries it possessed or was possessed by the intelligent Roman. In no uncertain terms we learn from the orator Cicero, in late Republican times, that there were laws in the Tables that were "translata de Solonis fere legibus " — almost literal trans

lations from the laws of Solon — and this is so stated with reference to particular enactments (De Lege, II, 23 p. 59 on Table X). The noted advocate and learned jurist of imperial days, Pliny the Younger, in his charge to Maximus, the recently appointed governor of the province of Achaia, remind ing him of the fact that this nation, captive though she was, gave laws to the Romans and at their request, says, "Habe ante oculos hanc esse terram quae nobis miserit jura, quae leges non victis sed petentibus dederit" (Pliny's Letters, Book VIII, Let. 24, p. 174, 1. 12). And finally, Gaius, the great Antoninian student and teacher of law, the discovery of whose " Commentaries" is said to have made the study of Roman law possible, in the quotations found in the Pandects, speaks of a certain law given. by Solon to the Athenians, concerning bound aries of land (Gaius, Book 4 on XII Tables in Dig. X, 1. 13; also XLVII, 22, 4). Such testimony can leave little doubt as to where Greece stands in the history of law, and we may be justified, in any event, in thinking there is good foundation for the story of the embassy to Greece. It is also interesting to notice in this connection that few of the great teachers of Roman law itself were Roman by birth. Even in the time of the great imperial ex pansion of law, few great native Roman names are noted. The most prominent Antoninians were not natives of Rome but curi ously enough were natives of those border lands of the Greek seas where Alexander's conquests carried Greek civilization and Greek law kept the firm foothold previously won. The great Julian was an African; Papinian, a Syrian; Ulpian from Tyre; and Gaius, the great commentator, to whom Roman legal history owes so much, was a Greek. The genius for jurisprudence of those lands in closest contact with Greek law is most significant. In concluding our consideration of the Greek origin of the basal code of Rome and the debt of the Latin to the Hellenic