A History of Roman Law; With a Commentary on the Institutes of Gaius and Justinian (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: came the Sabines from their old home farther up the river. They seem to have seized and fortified some of the hills in close proximity to the Ramnians, and engaged for a time in a struggle with these people for mastery and possession. In this struggle neither one proved supreme and, as a consequence, a national alliance was entered into for mutual safety and protection. This alliance subsequently developed into a federal State, a closer political union, a consolidation of interests, social, political, and religious. To this the Sabines contributed the religious marriage ceremony known as con- farreatio and the recognition of the wife and her part in the administration of household affairs. This influence is also seen in the council of kinsmen who advised the pater familias with respect to the administration of family affairs and the adoption of children in order that the gens might not die out and they thus be deprived of the prayers of their descendants. The Etruscans differed very widely from the two peoples mentioned above that went to form the Roman State. They spoke a different language and were far in advance of the Ramnians and Sabines in civilization, in architecture, and other arts, in trade, and in commerce. Before coming into conflict with the confederation of Ramnians and Sabines the Etruscans had established settlements from the Alps to Campania. They were thus much more powerful than their rivals, and the struggle seems to have resulted in an Etruscan conquest and absorption of the growing confederacy. But this Etruscan supremacy only resulted in adding a third party to the dual confederation. They came too late to bring about much change in institutions now hardening into fixed form. They are perhaps responsible for the strict regard that came to be required and enf...