ual edict inserted in the Digest, from the
time of Hadrian to the end of that epoch, except that made by Julian,
(compare Hugo, l. c.) The latter lawyers appear to follow, in their
commentaries, the same texts as their predecessors. It is natural
to suppose, that, after the labors of so many men distinguished
in jurisprudence, the framing of the edict must have attained
such perfection that it would have been difficult to have made any
innovation. We nowhere find that the jurists of the Pandects disputed
concerning the words, or the drawing up of the edict. What difference
would, in fact, result from this with regard to our codes, and our
modern legislation? Compare the learned Dissertation of M. Biener, De
Salvii Juliani meritis in Edictum Praetorium recte aestimandis. Lipsae,
1809, 4to.--W.]

From Augustus to Trajan, the modest Caesars were content to promulgate
their edicts in the various characters of a Roman magistrate; [3511]
and, in the decrees of the senate, the epistles and orations of the
prince were respectfully inserted. Adrian [36] appears to have been the
first who assumed, without disguise, the plenitude of legislative power.
And this innovation, so agreeable to his active mind, was countenanced
by the patience of the times, and his long absence from the seat of
government. The same policy was embraced by succeeding monarchs, and,
according to the harsh metaphor of Tertullian, "the gloomy and intricate
forest of ancient laws was cleared away by the axe of royal mandates and
constitutions." [37] During four centuries, from Adrian to Justinian
the public and private jurisprudence was moulded by the will of the
sovereign; and few institutions, either human or divine, were permitted
to stand on their former basis. The origin of Imperial legislation was
concealed by the darkness of ages and the terrors of armed despotism;
and a double tiction was propagated by the servility, or perhaps the
ignorance, of the civilians, who basked in the sunshine of the Roman and
Byzantine courts. 1. To the prayer of the ancient Caesars, the people
or the senate had sometimes granted a personal exemption from the
obligation and penalty of particular statutes; and each indulgence was
an act of jurisdiction exercised by the republic over the first of
her citizens. His humble privilege was at length transformed into the
prerogative of a tyrant; and the Latin expression of "released from the
laws" [38] was supposed to exalt the empe