 | 10. That when People are virtuous few Punishments are necessary. The Spirit of the Laws |  |
6.10. 10. That when People are virtuous few Punishments are necessary.
The people of Rome had some share of probity. Such was the force of this probity that the legislator had frequently no further occasion than to point out the right road, and they were sure to follow it; one would imagine that instead of precepts it was sufficient to give them counsels.
The punishments of the regal laws, and those of the Twelve Tables, were almost all abolished in the time of the republic, in consequence either of the Valerian [27] or of the Porcian law. [28] It was never observed that this step did any manner of prejudice to the civil administration.
This Valerian law, which restrained the magistrates from using violent methods against a citizen that had appealed to the people, inflicted no other punishment on the person who infringed it than that of being reputed a dishonest man. [29]
Footnotes
It was made by Valerius Publicola soon after the expulsion of the kings, and was twice renewed, both times by magistrates of the same family. As Livy observes, x, 9, the question was not to give it a greater force, but to render its injunctions more perfect. "Diligentius sanctum," says Livy, ibid.
| 10. That when People are virtuous few Punishments are necessary. The Spirit of the Laws | |