the first codification of Roman law (see the box on
p. 110), and although inappropriate for later times,
they were never officially abrogated and were still
memorized by schoolboys in the first century B.C.E.
Civil law derived from the Twelve Tables proved inad-
equate for later Roman needs, however, and gave way
to corrections and additions by the praetors. On taking
office, a praetor issued an edict listing his guidelines
for dealing with different kinds of legal cases. Although
the praetors were knowledgeable in law, they also
relied on Roman jurists—amateur law experts—for
advice in preparing their edicts. The interpretations of
the jurists, often embodied in the edicts of the prae-
tors, created a body of legal principles.
In 242B.C.E., the Romans appointed a second prae-
tor who was responsible for examining suits between a
Roman and a non-Roman as well as between two non-
Romans. The Romans found that although some of
their rules of law could be used in these cases, special
rules were often needed. These rules gave rise to a body
of law known as the law of nations, defined by theRomans as “that part of the law which we apply both
to ourselves and to foreigners.” But the influence of
Greek philosophy, primarily Stoicism, led Romans in
the late republic to develop the idea of the law of na-
ture—or universal divine law derived from right rea-
son. The Romans came to view their law of nations as
derived from or identical to this law of nature, thus
giving Roman jurists a philosophical justification for
systematizing Roman law according to basic principles.The Development of Literature
The Romans produced little literature before the third
centuryB.C.E., and the Latin literature that emerged in
that century was strongly influenced by Greek models.
The demand for plays at public festivals eventually led
to a growing number of native playwrights. One of
the best known was Plautus (PLAW-tuss) (ca. 254–184
B.C.E.), who used plots from Greek New Comedy (see
Chapter 4) for his own plays. The actors wore Greek
costumes and Greek masks and portrayed the same
basic stock characters: lecherous old men, skillful
slaves, prostitutes, and young men in love. Plautus
wrote for the masses and became a very popular play-
wright in Rome.
In the last century of the republic, the Romans
began to produce a new poetry, less dependent on epic
themes and more inclined to personal expression. Latin
poets were now able to use various Greek forms to
express their own feelings about people, social and po-
litical life, and love. The finest example of this can be
seen in the work of Catullus (kuh-TULL-uss) (ca. 87–54
B.C.E.), Rome’s “best lyric poet” and one of the greatest
in world literature.
Catullus wrote a variety of poems on, among other
things, political figures, social customs, the use of lan-
guage, the death of his brother, and the travails of love.
He became infatuated with Clodia, the wife of a provin-
cial governor, and addressed a number of poems to her
(he called her Lesbia), describing his passionate love
and hatred for her (Clodia had many other lovers
besides Catullus):You used to say that you wished to know only Catullus,
Lesbia, and wouldn’t take even Jove before me!
I didn’t regard you just as my mistress then: I cherished you
as a father does his sons or his daughters’ husbands.
Now that I know you, I burn for you even more fiercely,
though I regard you as almost utterly worthless.
How can that be, you ask? It’s because such cruelty forces
lust to assume the shrunken place of affection.^2A Roman Woman.Roman women, especially those of the
upper class, had comparatively more freedom than women in
classical Athens, despite the persistent male belief that women
required guardianship. This portrait of a Roman woman
serving food is from a Roman fresco dating from the first
centuryB.C.E.SuperStock/Getty ImagesSociety and Culture in the Roman World 109Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
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