ou give a general description of a triumph?

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This is virtually the same account as that given by Niebuhr, but
he excludes the accensi and cavalry from his computation, which brings
down the amount to 3600 soldiers.

[2] From _ovis_, a sheep, the animal on this occasion offered in
sacrifice; in the greater triumph the victim was a milk-white bull
hung over with garlands, and having his horns tipped with gold.

* * * * *

CHAPTER VIII.

ROMAN LAW--FINANCE.

Then equal laws were planted in the state,
To shield alike the humble and the great.--_Cooke_.

1. In the early stages of society, little difficulty is felt in
providing for the administration of justice, because the subjects of
controversy are plain and simple, such as any man of common sense may
determine; but as civilization advances, the relations between men
become more complicated, property assumes innumerable forms, and the
determination of questions resulting from these changes, becomes a
matter of no ordinary difficulty. In the first ages of the republic,
the consuls were the judges in civil and criminal matters, as the
kings had previously been;[1] but as the state increased, a new class
of magistrates, called praetors, was appointed to preside in the courts
of law. Until the age of the decemvirs, there was no written code to
regulate their decisions; and even after the laws of the twelve tables
had been established, there was no perfect system of law, for the
enactments in that code were brief, and only asserted a few leading
principles. 2. The Roman judges did not, however, decide altogether
according to their own caprice; they were bound to regard the
principles that had been established by the decisions of former
judges; and consequently, a system of law was formed similar to the
common law of England, founded on precedent and analogy. In the later
ages of the empire, the number of law-books and records became so
enormous, that it was no longer possible to determine the law with
accuracy, and the contradictory decisions made at different periods,
greatly increased the uncertainty. To remedy this evil, the emperor
Justinian caused the entire to be digested into a uniform system, and
his code still forms the basis of the civil law in Europe.

3. The trials in courts refer either to the affairs of the
state, or to the persons or properties of individuals, and are called
state, criminal, or