raetor
Urbanus_, concerned himself in all litigation between Roman citizens;
the other, the _Praetor Peregrinus_, had his power limited to those
matters only in which foreigners were involved; for the growth of the
Roman _Imperium_ had meant the inclusion of many under its suzerainty
who could not boast technical citizenship. The _Praetor Urbanus_ was
guided in his decisions by the codified law of Rome; but the _Praetor
Peregrinus_ was in a very different position. He was left almost
entirely to his own resources. Hence it was customary for him, on his
assumption of office, to publish a list of the principles by which he
intended to settle all the disputes between foreigners that were brought
to his court. But on what foundation could his declaratory act be based?
He was supposed to have previously consulted the particular laws of as
many foreign nations as was possible, and to have selected from among
them those which were found to be held in common by a number of tribes.
The fact of this consensus to certain laws on the part of different
races was supposed to imply that these were fragments of some larger
whole, which came eventually to be called indifferently the Law of
Nature, or the Law of Nations. For at almost the very date when this
Law of Nations was beginning thus to be built up, the Greek notion of
one supreme law, which governed the whole race and dated from the lost
Golden Age, came to the knowledge of the lawyers of Rome. They proceeded
to identify the two really different concepts, and evolved for
themselves the final notion of a fundamental rule, essential to all
moral action. In time, therefore, this supposed Natural Law, from its
venerable antiquity and universal acceptance, acquired an added sanction
and actually began to be held in greater respect than even the declared
law of Rome. The very name of Nature seemed to bring with it greater
dignity. But at the same time it was carefully explained that this _Lex
Naturae_ was not absolutely inviolable, for its more accurate
description was _Lex_ or _Jus Gentium_. That is to say, it was not to be
considered as a primitive law which lay embedded like first principles
in human nature; but that it was what the nations had derived from
primitive principles, not by any force of logic, but by the simple
evolution of life. The human race had found by experience that the
observance of the natural law entailed as a direct consequence the
establishment of certain ins