The Golden Themis

Afterwards, the Athenians received the laws written and fixed by Draco and Solon in the Prytaneum the council hall of the city, as well as their rights and judgments. From these, the Romans—who for three hundred years since the founding of the city had lived according to their own customs—received the laws of the 12 tables through the ten men sent for that purpose. These laws, augmented over the passage of time by Roman magistrates and Caesars, gave us the Civil Law that we still use today.

Let us not delay on the legislators of other nations, such as the priests of the Egyptians, or Isis, who prescribed laws to the people which she had received from Mercury, just as he had received them from Vulcan (for they were golden and born in the fire). Consider the Chaldeans of the Babylonians, the Magi of the Persians, the Brahmins of the Indians, the Gymnosophists of the Ethiopians, Zoroaster of the Bactrians, Zamolxis of the Scythians, Phidon of the Corinthians, Hippodamus of the Milesians, Charondas of the Carthaginians, and the Druids of the Gauls.

From what has already been said, it is easily apparent that anyone who possesses the authority, whether for himself or for others who request or pledge their faith to him, to prescribe laws or statutes, particularly if they support all equity and reason, is legitimate. For original: "inter bonos bene agier oportet" "it is fitting that good actions be performed among the good," as the Comic poet says. Yet, just as the treaties of the wicked are illicit and harmful, so too are the laws and conditions contracted between them: for these, the preserved faith is deception, constancy is perversion, oaths are curses, rules are enormous abuses, and laws are incitements to crimes.

The private man was indeed the author of these, not a public magistrate, but in his own directory he obtained suf

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