the law of Bailment,
(London, 1781, p. 127, in 8vo.) He is perhaps the only lawyer equally
conversant with the year-books of Westminster, the Commentaries of
Ulpian, the Attic pleadings of Isaeus, and the sentences of Arabian and
Persian cadhis.]

[Footnote 169: Noodt (Opp. tom. i. p. 137--172) has composed a separate
treatise, ad Legem Aquilian, (Pandect. l. ix. tit. ii.)]

[Footnote 170: Aulus Gellius (Noct. Attic. xx. i.) borrowed this story
from the Commentaries of Q. Labeo on the xii. tables.]

The execution of the Alban dictator, who was dismembered by eight
horses, is represented by Livy as the first and the fast instance of
Roman cruelty in the punishment of the most atrocious crimes. [171] But
this act of justice, or revenge, was inflicted on a foreign enemy in the
heat of victory, and at the command of a single man. The twelve tables
afford a more decisive proof of the national spirit, since they were
framed by the wisest of the senate, and accepted by the free voices
of the people; yet these laws, like the statutes of Draco, [172] are
written in characters of blood. [173] They approve the inhuman and
unequal principle of retaliation; and the forfeit of an eye for an eye,
a tooth for a tooth, a limb for a limb, is rigorously exacted, unless
the offender can redeem his pardon by a fine of three hundred pounds
of copper. The decemvirs distributed with much liberality the slighter
chastisements of flagellation and servitude; and nine crimes of a very
different complexion are adjudged worthy of death.

1. Any act of treason against the state, or of correspondence with the
public enemy. The mode of execution was painful and ignominious: the
head of the degenerate Roman was shrouded in a veil, his hands were tied
behind his back, and after he had been scourged by the lictor, he was
suspended in the midst of the forum on a cross, or inauspicious tree.

2. Nocturnal meetings in the city; whatever might be the pretence, of
pleasure, or religion, or the public good.

3. The murder of a citizen; for which the common feelings of mankind
demand the blood of the murderer. Poison is still more odious than the
sword or dagger; and we are surprised to discover, in two flagitious
events, how early such subtle wickedness had infected the simplicity
of the republic, and the chaste virtues of the Roman matrons. [174] The
parricide, who violated the duties of nature and gratitude, was cast
into the river or the sea, enclosed