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.
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