law, on which the constitution of the country is primarily
founded. In a work given out as written by Tacitus we are told
that the Twelve Tables first fixed interest for usury at an
"uncia," or twelfth part of an as per hundred asses per month, or
one per cent per annum:--"Primo Duodecim Tabulis sanctum 'ne quis
unciario foenore amplius exerceret,' cum antea ex libidine
locupletium agitaretur" (An. VI. 16). Into this error the Author
of the Annals must surely have been seduced by some shocking
mediaeval writer of ancient Roman history or antiquities, under
whose guidance he again falls into another mistake when ascribing
to tribunitian regulations the reduction of the interest to one-half
per cent. per annum, or the sixth part of an as per hundred
asses a month:--"dein rogatione tribuncia ad semuncias redacta"
(L. c.). The truth is that, in the year of Rome 398, a hundred and
four years after the Twelve Tables were composed,--the Tribunes
Duillius and Moenius passed the original law of interest at one
per cent: twelve years after,--in the year 410,--the interest was
reduced to one half per cent. under the consulate of Lucius
Manlius Torquatus and Caius Plautius;--as may be seen by referring
to the seventh book (16, 27) of Livy,--or still better, the clear
exposition of this error by Montesquieu in the 22nd chapter of the
22nd book of his "Esprit des Loix." The author of the Annals is
then only right when stating that originally the interest was one
per cent. per annum, and afterwards reduced to half that amount.
In everything else he blunders to an extent that is inexplicable
in an ancient Roman. Were any staunch upholder of the authenticity
of the Annals to be here called upon compulsorily to give a
reason, unprepared or premeditated, plausible or probable, why,
after this exposure of such an error, he still believed it
possible that the blunder could have been made by Tacitus, who