History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne Volume I Part 23

530 "Pendant qu'il restait au logis, il n'etait incommode a personne; il y pa.s.sait la meilleure partie de son temps tranquillement dans sa chambre.... Il se divertissait aussi quelquefois a fumer une pipe de tabac; ou bien lorsqu'il voulait se relacher l'esprit un peu plus longtemps, il cherchait des araignees qu'il faisait battre ensemble, ou des mouches qu'il jetait dans la toile d'araignee, et regardait ensuite cette bataille avec tant de plaisir qu'il eclatait quelquefois de rire."-Colerus, _Vie de Spinoza_.

531 This is noticed by George Duval in a curious pa.s.sage of his _Souvenirs de la Terreur_, quoted by Lord Lytton in a note to his _Zanoni_.

_ 532 Essay on Goodness._

533 This contrast has been noticed by Archbishop Whately in a lecture on Egypt. See, too, Legendre, _Traite de l'Opinion_, tome ii. p. 374.

534 Tacit. _Annal._ xiv. 45.

535 Senec. _De Clemen._ i. 14.

536 Val. Max. ii. 9. This writer speaks of "the eyes of a mistress delighting in human blood" with as much horror as if the gladiatorial games were unknown. Livy gives a rather different version of this story.

537 Tacit. _Annal._ i. 76.

538 Sueton. _Calig._ xi.

539 Spartian. _Caracalla._ Tertullian mentions that his nurse was a Christian.

540 Capitolinus, _Marcus Aurelius_. Capitolinus, who wrote under Diocletian, says that in his time the custom of spreading a net under the rope-dancer still continued. I do not know when it ceased at Rome, but St. Chrysostom mentions that in his time it had been abolished in the East.-Jortin's _Remarks on Ecclesiastical History_, ii. 71 (ed. 1846).

541 Tacit. _Ann._ iii. 55.

542 Champagny, _Les Antonins_, tome ii. pp. 179-200.

543 p???te?es?a?.-Diog. Laert. _Zeno_.

544 Thus Tigellinus spoke of "Stoicorum arrogantia sectaque quae turbidos et negotiorum appetentes faciat."-Tacit. _Ann._ xiv. 57. The accusation does not appear to have been quite untrue, for Vespasian, who was a very moderate emperor, thought it necessary to banish nearly all the philosophers from Rome on account of their factiousness. Sometimes the Stoics showed their independence by a rather gratuitous insolence. Dion Ca.s.sius relates that, when Nero was thinking of writing a poem in 400 books, he asked the advice of the Stoic Cornutus, who said, that no one would read so long a work.

"But," answered Nero, "your favourite Chrysippus wrote still more numerous books." "True," rejoined Cornutus, "but then they were of use to humanity." On the other hand, Seneca is justly accused of condescending too much to the vices of Nero in his efforts to mitigate their effects.

545 The influence of Stoicism on Roman law has been often examined. See, especially, Degerando, _Hist. de la Philosophie_ (2nd ed.), tome iii. pp. 202-204; Laferriere, _De l'Influence du Stocisme sur les Jurisconsultes romains_; Denis, _Theories et Idees morales dans l'Antiquite_, tome ii. pp. 187-217; Troplong, _Influence du Christianisme sur le Droit civil des Romains_; Merivale, _Conversion of the Roman Empire_, lec. iv.; and the great work of Gravina, _De Ortu et Progressu Juris civilis_.

546 Cic. _De Legib._ ii. 4, 23.

547 There were two rival schools, that of Labeo and that of Capito. The first was remarkable for its strict adherence to the letter of the law-the second for the lat.i.tude of interpretation it admitted.

_ 548 Dig._ lib. i. t.i.t. 17-32.

549 Ibid. i. t.i.t. 1-3.

550 Ibid. i. t.i.t. 1-4.

_ 551 Dig._ lib. i. t.i.t. 4-5.

552 Laferriere, p. 32. Wallon, _Hist. de l'Esclavage dans l'Antiquite_, tome iii. pp. 71-80. M. Wallon gives many curious instances of legal decisions on this point.

553 To prove that this is the correct conception of law was the main object of Cicero's treatise _De Legibus_. Ulpian defined jurisprudence as "divinarum atque humanarum rerum not.i.tia, justi atque injusti scientia."-_Dig._ lib. i. t.i.t. 1-10. So Paul "Id quod semper aequum ad bonum est jus dicitur ut est jus naturale."-_Dig._ lib. i. t.i.t. 1-11. And Gaius, "Quod vero naturalis ratio inter omnes homines const.i.tuit ... vocatur jus gentium."-_Dig._ lib. i. t.i.t.

1-9. The Stoics had defined true wisdom as "rerum divinarum atque humanarum scientia."-Cic. _De Offic._ i. 43.

554 Cicero compares the phraseology of the Stoics with that of the Peripatetics, maintaining that the precision of the former is well adapted to legal discussions, and the redundancy of the latter to oratory. "Omnes fere Stoici prudentissimi in disserendo sint et id arte faciant, sintque architecti pene verborum; iidem traducti a disputando ad dicendum, inopes reperiantur: unum excipio Catonem....

Peripateticorum inst.i.tutis commodius fingeretur oratio ... nam ut Stoicorum astrictior est oratio, aliquantoque contractior quam aures populi requirunt: sic illorum liberior et latior quam pat.i.tur consuetudo judiciorum et fori."-_De Claris Oratoribus._ A very judicious historian of philosophy observes: "En general a Rome le pet.i.t nombre d'hommes livres a la meditation et a l'enthousiasme prefererent Pythagore et Platon; les hommes du monde et ceux qui cultivaient les sciences naturelles s'attacherent a epicure; les orateurs et les hommes d'etat a la nouvelle Academie; les juris-consultes au Portique."-Degerando, _Hist. de la Philos._ tome iii. p. 196.

555 See a very remarkable pa.s.sage in Aulus Gellius, _Noct._ ii. 15.

556 "Fere enim nulli alii sunt homines qui talem in filios suos habeant potestatem qualem nos habemus."-Gaius.

557 A full statement of these laws is given by Dion. Halicarn. ii. 4. It was provided that if a father sold his son and if the son was afterwards enfranchised by the purchaser, he became again the slave of his father, who might sell him a second, and, if manumission again ensued, a third time. It was only on the third sale that he pa.s.sed for ever out of the parental control. A more merciful law, attributed to Numa, provided that when the son married (if that marriage was with the consent of the father), the father lost the power of selling him. In no other way, however, was his authority even then abridged.

558 Velleius Paterculus, ii. 67. A great increase of parricide was noticed during the Empire (Senec. _De Clem._ i. 23). At first, it is said, there was no law against parricide, for the crime was believed to be too atrocious to be possible.

559 Numerous instances of these executions are collected by Livy, Val.

Maximus, &c.; their history is fully given by Cornelius van Bynkershoek, "De Jure occidendi, vendendi, et exponendi liberos apud veteres Romanos," in his works (Cologne, 1761).

560 This proceeding of Hadrian, which is related by the lawyer Marcian, is doubly remarkable, because the father had surprised his son in adultery with his stepmother. Now a Roman had originally not only absolute authority over the life of his son, but also the right of killing any one whom he found committing adultery with his wife. Yet Marcian praises the severity of Hadrian, "Nam patria potestas in pietate debet, non atrocitate, consistere."-_Digest._ lib. xlviii.

t.i.t. 9, -- 5.

561 Valer. Max. vii. 7.

562 See, on all this subject, Gibbon, _Decline and Fall_, ch. xliv.; Troplong, _Influence du Christianisme sur le Droit_, ch. ix.; Denis, _Hist. des Idees morales_, tome ii. pp. 107-120; Laferriere, _Influence du Stocisme sur les Jurisconsultes_, pp. 37-44.

563 aelian, _Hist. Var._ vi. 7.

564 Livy, ii. 36; Cicero, _De Divin._ ii. 26.

565 Cicero, _De Legibus_, ii. 8-12. Cato, however, maintained that slaves might on those days be employed on work which did not require oxen.-Wallon, _Hist. de l'Esclavage_, tome ii. p. 215.

566 See the _Saturnalia_ of Macrobius.

567 See his _Life_ by Plutarch, and his book on agriculture.

568 The number of the Roman slaves has been a matter of much controversy. M. Dureau de la Malle (_Econ. politique des Romains_) has restricted it more than any other writer. Gibbon (_Decline and Fall_, chap. ii.) has collected many statistics on the subject, but the fullest examination is in M. Wallon's admirable _Hist. de l'Esclavage_. On the contrast between the character of the slaves of the Republic and those of the Empire, see _Tac. Ann._ xiv. 44.

569 Tacit. _Annal._ xiii. 32; xiv. 42-45. Wallon, _Hist. de l'Esclav._ ii. 293. I have already noticed the indignant rising of the people caused by the proposal to execute the 400 slaves of the murdered Pedanius. Their interposition was, however (as Tacitus informs us), unavailing, and the slaves, guarded against rescue by a strong band of soldiers, were executed. It was proposed to banish the freedmen who were in the house, but Nero interposed and prevented it. Pliny notices (_Ep._ viii. 14) the banishment of the freedmen of a murdered man.

570 See all this fully ill.u.s.trated in Wallon. The plays of Plautus and the Roman writers on agriculture contain numerous allusions to the condition of slaves.

571 Wallon, tome ii. pp. 209-210, 357. There were no laws till the time of the Christian emperors against separating the families of slaves, but it was a maxim of the jurisconsults that in forced sales they should not be separated. (Wallon, tome iii. pp. 55-56.)

572 Ibid. tome ii. pp. 211-213.

573 Plin. _Epist._ viii. 16. It was customary to allow the public or State slaves to dispose of half their goods by will. (Wallon, tome iii. p. 59.)

574 Wallon, tome ii. p. 419. This appears from an allusion of Cicero, _Philip._ viii. 11.

575 Senec. _De Clem._ i. 18.

576 Ibid. _Ep._ xlvii.

577 Pliny, _Ep._ viii. 16.