Lucius Seneca - Yale Required Reading - Collected Works (Vol. 2)

6The custom Respondendi de Iure , and the interpretations and decisions of the learned, were so universally approved, that, although they were unwritten, they became a new species of law, and were called Auctoritas, or Responsa Prudentum. This custom continued to the time of Augustus without interruption, who selected particular lawyers, and gave them the sanction of a patent; but then grew into desuetude, till Hadrian renewed this office or grant, which made so considerable a branch of the Roman law. B.

7 Iura publica . Dr. Taylor, in his History of the Roman Law, p. 62, has given us the heads of the Roman Ius publicum, which were: religion and divine worship; peace and war legislation; exchequer and res fisci; escheats; the prerogative; law of treasons; taxes and imposts; coinage; jurisdiction; magistracies; regalia; embassies; honours and titles; colleges, schools, corporations; castles and fortifications; fairs, mercats, staple; forests; naturalization. B.

8 Tanquam aliqua materies . Ernesti's text, says Orellius, has alia, by mistake. Aliqua is not very satisfactory. Nobbe, the editor of Tauchnitz's text, retains Ernesti's alia.

9The herald's caduceus, or wand, renders his person inviolable. Pearce.

10 Ut fieri solet . Ernesti conjectures ut dici solet. Ellendt thinks the common reading right, requiring only that we should understand a commonstrantibus.

11Not recorded with any elegance, but in the plain style in which I am now going to express myself. Ernesti.

12 Principem illum . Nempe senatus. He was consul with Gnaeus Domitius, 162 B.C. Ellendt.

13The unwritten law.

14 Aliquam scientiam . For aliquam Manutius conjectured illam, which Lambinus, Ernesti, and Mueller approve. Wyttenbach suggested alienam, which has been adopted by Schutz and Orellius. I have followed Manutius.

15 Sciet--excellet . The commentators say nothing against these futures.

16 Duodecim scriptis . This was a game played with counters on a board, moved according to throws of the dice, but different from our backgammon. The reader may find all that is known of it in Adam's Roman Antiquities, p. 423, and Smith's Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Ant. art. Latrunculi.

17 Istis tragoediis tuis . Persons are said tragoedias in nugis agere, who make a small matter great by clamouring over it, as is done by actors in tragedies. Proust. See b. ii. c. 51; Quint. vi. 1. 36.

18See Aristotle, Rhetor. ii. 2; Cic. Tusc.. Quaest. iv.

19Most copies have aget; Pearce, with the minority, prefers agit.

20These words are taken from a speech which Crassus had a short time before delivered in an assembly of the people, and in which he had made severe complaints of the Roman knights, who exercised their judicial powers with severity and injustice, and gave great trouble to the senate. Crassus took the part of the senate, and addressed the exhortation in the text to the people. Proust. Crassus was supporting the Servilian law. Manutius.

21 Ut illi aiunt . The philosophers, especially the Stoics, who affirmed that the wise man alone is happy. Ellendt.

22See the Paradox of Cicero on the words Omnes sapientes liberi, omnes stulti servi.

23Mentioned by Cic. Brut. c. 30. Proust. He was a perfect Stoic. Ellendt.

24A work on the origin of the people and cities of Italy, and other matters, now lost. Cic. Brut. c. 85; Corn. Nep. Life of Cato, c. 3.

25When a soldier, in the hearing of three or more of his comrades, named some one his heir in case he should fall in the engagement.

26When a person, in the presence of five witnesses and a libripens, assigned his property to somebody as his heir. Gaius, ii. 101; Aul. Gell. xv. 27.

27He was falsely accused of extortion in his province of Asia, and, being condemned, was sent into exile. Cic. Brut. c. 30. Proust.

28Shoes made at Sicyon, and worn only by the effeminate and luxurious. Lucret. iv. 1121.

29 Tum, quum dicebas, non videbam . Many copies omit the negative, an omission approved by Ernesti, Henrichsen, and Ellendt.

30Either Scaevola, the father-in-law of Crassus, or Lucius Coelius Antipater, whom Cicero mentions in his Brutus. Proust.

31 Praeco actionum . One who informs those who are ignorant of law when the courts will be open; by what kind of suit any person must prosecute his claims on any other person; and acts in law proceedings as another sort of praeco acts at auctions. Strobaeus.

32 Herctum cieri--herciscundae familiae . Co-heirs, when an estate descended amongst them, were, by the Roman law, bound to each other by the action familiae herciscundae; that is, to divide the whole family inheritance, and settle all the accounts which related to it. Just. Inst. iii. 28. 4. The word herctum, says Festus, signifies whole or undivided, and cio, to divide; so, familiam herctam ciere was to divide the inheritance of the family, which two words, herctum ciere, were afterwards contracted into herciscere: hence this law-term used here, familiam herciscere. Servius has, therefore, from Donatus, thus illustrated a passage in Virgil, at the end of the VIIth Aeneid, Citae Metium in diversa quadrigae Distulerant. Citae, says he, is a law-term, and signifies divided, as hercto non cito, the inheritance being undivided. Citae quadrigae, therefore, in that passage, does not mean quick or swift, as is generally imagined, but drawing different ways. B.

33See c. 39.

34C. 40.

35C. 40

36The Crassus here mentioned was Publius Crassus Dives, brother of Publius Mucius, Pontifex Maximus. See c. 37. Ellendt.

37Cicero pro Caecina, c. 25; Gaius, ii. 138.

38 Omnem hanc partem iuris in controversiis . For in controversiis Lanibinus and Ernesti would read, from a correction in an old copy, incontroversi; but as there is no authority for this word, Ellendt, with Bakius, prefers non controversi. With this alteration, the sense will be 'all this uncontroverted part of the law.'

39Certain legal formulae, of which some lawyer named Hostilius was the author. Ernesti.

40 Manilianos--leges . They were formulae which those who wished not to be deceived might use in buying and selling; they are called actiones by Varro, R. R. ii. 5, 11. . . . The author was Manius Manilius, an eminent lawyer, who was consul 151 B.C. Ernesti.

41There is no proper grammatical construction in this sentence. Ernesti observes that it is, perhaps, in some way unsound.

42 In Iure . 'Apud tribunal praetoris.' Ernesti.

43I translate the conclusion of this sentence in conformity with the text of Orellius, who puts tamen at the end of it, instead of letting it stand at the beginning of the next sentence, as is the case in other editions. His interpretation is, invisere saltem. 'Though we be much occupied, yet we can visit our farms.'

44He wrote eight-and-twenty books on country affairs in the Punic language, which were translated into Latin, by order of the senate, by Cassius Dionysius of Utica. See Varro, R. R. i. 1; and Columella. who calls him the father of farming. Proust.

45 Quum in rem praesentem non venimus . We do not go ad locum, unde praesentes rem et fines inspicere possimus. Ellendt.

46 Perscriptionibus . Perscriptio is considered by Ellendt to signify a draft or cheque to be presented to a banker.

47 Graecorum more et tragoedorum . Lambinus would strike out et, on the authority of three manuscripts; and Pearce thinks that the conjunction ought to be absent. Ernesti thinks that some substantive belonging to Graecorum has dropped out of the text. A Leipsic edition, he observes, has Graecorum more sophistarum et tragoedorum, but on what authority he does not know.

48 Paeanem aut munionem . The word munionem is corrupt. Many editions have nomium, which is left equally unexplained. The best conjectural emendation, as Orellius observes, is nomum, proposed by a critic of Jena.