Of all the professional sciences jurisprudence alone was flourishing.

We cannot trace its internal development with chronological accuracy.

On the whole ritual law fell more and more into the shade, and at the end of this period stood nearly in the same position as the canon law at the present day.

The finer and more profound conception of law, on the other hand, which substitutes for outward criteria the motive springs of action within--such as the development of the ideas of offences arising from intention and from carelessness respectively, and of possession entitled to temporary protection--was not yet in existence at the time of the Twelve Tables, but was so in the age of Cicero, and probably owed its elaboration substantially to the present epoch.

The reaction of political relations on the development of law has been already indicated on several occasions; it was not always advantageous.