advocate, (most probably James Capellus.) Their various
treatises are collected by Duker, (Opuscula de Latinitate veterum
Jurisconsultorum, Lugd. Bat. 1721, in 12mo.) Note: Gibbon is mistaken
with regard to Valla, who, though he inveighs against the barbarous
style of the civilians of his own day, lavishes the highest praise on
the admirable purity of the language of the ancient writers on civil
law. (M. Warnkonig quotes a long passage of Valla in justification of
this observation.) Since his time, this truth has been recognized by
men of the highest eminence, such as Erasmus, David Hume and
Runkhenius.--W.]

[Footnote 80: Nomina quidem veteribus servavimus, legum autem veritatem
nostram fecimus. Itaque siquid erat in illis seditiosum, multa autem
talia erant ibi reposita, hoc decisum est et definitum, et in perspicuum
finem deducta est quaeque lex, (Cod. Justinian. l. i. tit. xvii. leg.
3, No 10.) A frank confession! * Note: Seditiosum, in the language of
Justinian, means not seditious, but discounted.--W.]

[Footnote 81: The number of these emblemata (a polite name for
forgeries) is much reduced by Bynkershoek, (in the four last books of
his Observations,) who poorly maintains the right of Justinian and the
duty of Tribonian.]

[Footnote 82: The antinomies, or opposite laws of the Code and
Pandects, are sometimes the cause, and often the excuse, of the glorious
uncertainty of the civil law, which so often affords what Montaigne
calls "Questions pour l'Ami." See a fine passage of Franciscus Balduinus
in Justinian, (l. ii. p. 259, &c., apud Ludewig, p. 305, 306.)]

A rumor devoid of evidence has been propagated by the enemies of
Justinian; that the jurisprudence of ancient Rome was reduced to ashes
by the author of the Pandects, from the vain persuasion, that it was now
either false or superfluous. Without usurping an office so
invidious, the emperor might safely commit to ignorance and time the
accomplishments of this destructive wish. Before the invention of
printing and paper, the labor and the materials of writing could be
purchased only by the rich; and it may reasonably be computed, that the
price of books was a hundred fold their present value. [83] Copies were
slowly multiplied and cautiously renewed: the hopes of profit tempted
the sacrilegious scribes to erase the characters of antiquity, [8311]
and Sophocles or Tacitus were obliged to resign the parchment to
missals, homilies, and the golden legend. [84]