620 CIVIL LAW to Roman citizens only. The system of gen- eral law principles acknowledged by the civil- ized nations of that time was called the jus gentium (law of other nations), -and this law was applied to the non-Romans. It may be called a universal natural law, based on reason only. The use was soon extended to the Ro- mans also, and the strict Roman civil law was modified by it. This change was effected chief- ly by the edicts of the praters. From the ear- liest periods the consuls, and later the praetors, the curule aediles, the censors, and even the plebeian tribunes, had the right of publishing orders and notices connected with their re- spective functions ; this right was styled the right to publish or declare (edicere). The use of this expression, however, more particularly belonged to those magistrates who had a cer- tain jurisdiction ; e. g., the praetors and the two ffldiles, and in the provinces the governor. Their jurisdiction consisted in the general ca- pacity to declare the law. The praetors, when entering on their office, published an edict whereby they made known those legal princi- ples on which they would administer law and justice, and the mode of proceeding which they would observe during the year of their office. By these edicts they seldom introduced new principles of law, but generally confirmed those which were established by usage and public opinion. Where they found deficiencies in the existing law, or deemed it no longer ap- plicable to the times, they established the rules which they would follow in their decisions. They softened the rigor of the strict civil law, so that it might harmonize with equity. This edict which the praetor published on entering upon his office was called the perpetual edict, because it was not made for a particular case, but, although annual, was for the perpetual jurisdiction in all cases that might come be- fore him during his year of office. Those de- cisions which had been established by custom, and transmitted from edict to edict, formed what was called the honorary law (jus honora- rium). This is the origin of that praetorian law which advanced parallel with the Roman civil law ; it was grounded on equity and natu- ral justice. It was a work of science, of phi- losophy, and of progress, and supplanted the primitive Quiritarian law. The care of the police was intrusted to the magistrates called cediles, as before stated. They, like the prae- tors, published their edict on entering upon their office. The law introduced by them, together with that of the praetors, belonged to the honorary law above alluded to. The law- yers assisted in developing the law by interpre- tation and legal opinions, called responsa. The law thus introduced by jurists was called auc- toritas prudentum or jus receptum. There are few traces of legal works of a scientific char- acter to be found in this period. At first only the patricians and pontifices had an intimate acquaintance with the existing law, and es- pecially with the system of actions, the forms of proceeding, and the tunes at which the courts were held (dies fasti et nefasti). On. Flavius, a clerk of the lawyer Appius Claudius (A. U. C. 450), published a book in which Clau- dius had composed and arranged the law ac- tions; this book was called Jut Flavianum. The elder Cato wrote commentaries on the civil law and legal opinions. Among other distinguished lawyers were his son Cato Licini- anus, Marcus Jnnius Brutus, and Manilius. Third Period, A. U. C. 650-1000. After the battle of Actium (31 B. C.) Octavius Caesar became, as princeps reipublicce, under the sur- name of Augustus, the sovereign of the state, by uniting in his person the most important of the old republican offices. He still observed the old forms ; but under his successors even these forms gradually disappeared ; the power of the principes or emperors grew more and more absolute, and finally became despotism. The right of legislation was transferred by de- grees from the people to the emperor, whose constitutiones soon began to supply the public as well as private law. The sources of law du- ring this period were : 1, the decrees of the peo- ple ; 2, those of the senate ; 3, the constitutions of the emperors ; 4, the praetorian edict ; 6, the legal opinions of jurists ; 6, the writings of the law commentators. 1. The decrees of the peo- ple, which still continued to be either leges or plebiscita, were never made in greater numbers than in the beginning, during .the civil wars. Many among them were and continued to be im- portant to the private law, e. g., the lex Julia et Papia Poppcea, made under Augustus. But they became fewer as the supreme power of the emperors increased ; and toward the end of this period they cease to be mentioned. 2. The decrees of the senate increased in number as those of the people decreased, and acquired a much greater importance than ever before. They now began to be named after either the consul who had proposed them, or the empe- ror himself, who made the motion in writing or orally, and sometimes after the person who had occasioned them ; for instance, senatus consultum Silanianum, under Augustus ; sena- tus consultum Trebellianum, under Nero. 3. When the Roman state had ceased to be a re- public in fact, and several of the highest office* were united in the person of the emperor for his lifetime, he began, in imitation of the an- cient republican magistrates, to issue ordinan- ces and regulations by virtue of the power con- ferred on him. Such ordinances were called placita or constitutions of the emperor. When appeals from the ordinary courts came to be made to the emperors directly, they were soon induced to appoint a body composed of the higher state officers and jurists, to which they transferred the cases and questions presented to them for decision or opinion. This was call- ed auditorium principis, and it soon became the supreme court for the whole empire. Its sen- tences and decisions, issued in the name of the emperor, were called decreta ; and its legal
