Dalzell Chalmers

Student's Guide to Roman Law (Justinian and Gaius) Dalzell Chalmers

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1907. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... APPENDIX. APPENDIX A. Lex Valeria Horatia--Lex Publilia--Lex Hortensia.--What the real effect of these laws was is a matter of great uncertainty. Mr. Moyle says of the Lex Valeria Horatia that it might have been the means of reinstating the Comitia Tributa after the famous event known as the Second Secession of the PJebs. He also appears to be of opinion that this law contained a provision rendering unnecessary the sanction of the Centuries to a Plebiscite, which related to private rights as opposed to constitutional rights. Livy appears to be of opinion that the effect of the Publilian Law was to render Plebiscites binding on the entire nation, the sanction of the Senate being unnecessary (iii. 55. 3), but no other author confirms this view, and Gaius decidedly infers that this reform was not brought about until the Lex Hortensia. APPENDIX B. 1. The Twelve Tables.--According to Monsieur Girard, whose recent researches into Roman Legal History are most valuable, all information we possess as to the contents of the Twelve Tables is at best second hand, because they were either destroyed, or carried away by the Gauls when they besieged Rome. He is very emphatic as to the non-existence (or rather nonpreservation) of written statutory enactments prior to the Twelve Tables. 2. The Comitia and the Concilium Plebis.--Monsieur Girard appears to think that some three or four centuries before the Christian Era, the Comitia Curiata, as the Patrician assembly was called, ceased to take any but a mere formal part in legislation. The Comitia Centuriata, the Comitia Tributa, and the Concilium Plebis were, whatever their functions might have been in very ancient times, at any rate for some time previous to the passing of the Lex Hortensia, co-ordinate assemblies with regard to ...