Chapter 1: On law-givers

1. Moses first of all set forth the divine laws in the sacred writings for the Hebrew people. King Phoroneus was the first to establish laws and courts for the Greeks.

2. Mercurius Trismegistus first gave laws to the Egyptians. Solon first legislated for the Athenians. Lycurgus first made rules of law for the Lacedaemonians and pretended Apollo’s authority for them.

3. Numa Pompilius, who succeeded Romulus in the kingdom, was the first to give laws to the Romans. Later, when the people could not endure their quarrelsome magistrates they appointed decemvirs to write the laws, and they translated the laws from the books of Solon into the Latin language, and set them up on twelve tables.

4. These men were A. Claudius, T. Genutius, P. Sextius, Spur. Viturius, C. Julius, A. Manlius, Ser. Sulpitius, P. Curiatius, T. Romilius, Sp. Postumius. These were the decemvirs chosen to write the laws.

5. The consul Pompeius was the first who wished to arrange the laws systematically, but he did not persevere, through fear of detractors. Then Caesar began to do it, but he was slain.

6. By degrees the old laws became obsolete through time and neglect; but a mention of them seems necessary although they are not in use now.

7. The new laws began with the emperor Constantine and the rest who followed him, but they were confused and in disorder. Later, in imitation of Gregorianus and Hermogenianus, the younger Theodosius arranged a code of constitutions from the time of Constantine, under the title of each emperor, which he called Theodosian from his own name.

Chapter 2. On laws human and divine.

1. All laws are either divine or human. Divine laws depend on nature, human laws on customs; and so the latter differ, since different laws please different peoples. Divine law is _fas_; human law is _jus_. To pass through another’s property is of divine but not of human law.

Chapter 3. On the difference between _jus_, _leges_, _mores_.

1. _Jus_ is the general term and _lex_ is a kind of _jus_. _Jus_ is so-called because it is just (_justum_). All _jus_ is made up of laws and customs.

2. _Lex_ is the written ordinance. _Mos_ is custom approved by its antiquity, or unwritten _lex_. For _lex_ is derived from _legere_ (to read), because it is written.

3. _Mos_ is old custom and is drawn merely from _mores_. _Consuetudo_ (custom) is a sort of _jus_ established by _mores_, which is taken instead of _lex_ when _lex_ fails. And it makes no difference whether it depends on writing or reason, since reason commends written law also.

4. Moreover if _lex_ is in accordance with reason, all that is in accordance with reason will be _lex_, as far as it agrees with religion, is in harmony with knowledge, and is beneficial for salvation. And _consuetudo_ is so-called because it is in common use.

Chapter 4. On _jus naturale_.

1. _Jus_ is either natural, or civil, or universal (_jus gentium_). _Jus naturale_ is what is common to all peoples, and what is observed everywhere by the instinct of nature rather than by any ordinance, as the marriage of man and woman, the begetting and rearing of children, the common possession of all,[295] the one freedom of all, the acquisition of those things that are taken in the air or sea or on the land.

[295] _Communis omnium possessio._

2. Likewise the restoring of property entrusted or lent, the repelling of violence by force. For this, or whatever is like this, is nowhere considered unjust, but natural and fair.

Chapter 5. On _jus civile_.

1. _Jus civile_ is what each people or state has enacted as its own law, for human and divine reasons.

Chapter 6. On _jus gentium_.

1. _Jus gentium_ is the seizing, building, and fortifying of settlements, wars, captivities, servitudes, postliminies, treaties, peaces, truces, the obligation not to violate an ambassador, the prohibition of intermarriage with aliens. And [it is called] _jus gentium_ because nearly all nations observe it.

Chapter 7. On _jus militare_.

1. _Jus militare_ is the ceremony of beginning war, the obligation in making a treaty, the going out against the enemy when the signal is given, and the joining of battle; likewise the retreat when the signal is given; likewise the punishment of a soldier’s fault if a post should be deserted. Likewise the amount of pay, the grades of office, and the honor of rewards, as when a crown or a necklace is given.

2. Likewise the determination of the booty, and the just division according to rank of persons and labors undergone, likewise the share of the commander.

Chapter 8. On _jus publicum_.

1. _Jus publicum_ has to do with sacred things, and priests and magistrates.

Chapter 9. On _jus quiritium_.

1. _Jus quiritium_ is the law proper to the Romans, by which none is bound but the _Quirites_, that is, the Romans, as in regard to inheritances, declarations of entry upon inheritances, guardianships, acquiring by prescription; which laws are found among no other people, but they are proper to the Romans and made for them alone.

2. The _jus quiritium_ is made up of laws, plebiscites, decrees of the senate, constitutions and edicts of emperors and opinions of jurists.

Chapter 10. On _lex_.

1. _Lex_ is the enactment of the people, by which the elders, together with the plebeians, passed some law.

Chapter 11. On plebiscites.

1. Plebiscites (_scita_) are what the common people alone enact....

Chapter 12. On the _senatus consultum_.

1. A _senatus consultum_ is that which the senators alone determine in council for the people.

Chapter 13. On the constitution or edict.

1. A constitution or edict is what the king or emperor enacts or proclaims.

Chapter 14. On the responses of the jurists (_responsa prudentum_).

1. They are the responses which the jurisconsults are said to make to men who consult them. From this the responses of Paulus were so named. For there were certain wise men and judges of equity who composed and published institutions of civil law, by which they settled the suits and contentions of disputants.

Chapter 15. On consular and tribunitian laws.

1. Certain laws are named from those who secured their enactment, as consular, tribunitian, Julian, Cornelian. Papius and Poppaeus, _consules suffecti_[296] under Caesar Octavianus, carried a law which was called from their names _Papia Poppaea_, offering rewards to fathers for rearing children.

[296] Holding the consulate for part of the year only.

2. Under the same emperor, Falcidius, a tribune of the people, carried a law that no one should bequeath property in such a way that a fourth, at least, should not remain for the heirs. And it was named the _lex Falcidia_ from him. Aquilius also secured the passage of a law which is called _Aquilia_ to the present time.

Chapter 16. On the _lex satyra_.

1. A _lex satyra_ is one which speaks at the same time of many things, being so called from the abundance of things, as it were from _saturitas_ (fullness); whence to write satire is to compose poems with varied contents, as those of Horace, Juvenal, and Persius.

Chapter 17. On the Rhodian laws.

1. The Rhodian laws are the laws of commerce on the sea, being so called from the island of Rhodes where was a great trade in ancient times.