Quiz: Ancient Law

All 30 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. Which legal fiction does Maine say was needed for society to take its first steps towards civilisation?

   The Bill of Middlesex Adoption The king’s conscience The corporation sole
2. 2. Which part of the book does the fifth-edition preface say needs correction, in the light of Village Communities in the East and West?

   The chapters on the modern history of the Law of Nature The First Chapter, on the origin of Customary Law The chapter on Wills The Fifth Chapter, on primitive society and the patriarchal family
3. 3. What are the three agencies, in their historical order, by which law is brought into harmony with society?

   Religion, Custom, Equity Custom, Codes, Legislation Legal Fictions, Equity, Legislation Equity, Legislation, Legal Fictions
4. 4. Under which praetor did the annual enlargement of the Edict stop?

   Salvius Julianus, under Hadrian Papinian, under Septimius Severus Q. Mucius Scaevola, under the Republic Ulpian, under Alexander Severus
5. 5. How does the Russian village differ from the Indian community, according to Maine?

   Separate rights last only for a time; then the land is redistributed It admits no strangers under any conditions Its land is never divided and is tilled in common by the labour of all the villagers Its land belongs outright to the peasants, with no noble proprietor over them
6. 6. How does Maine judge the idea that first occupancy confers ownership?

   It is an invention of Blackstone with no foundation in the Roman texts It is the earliest rule of property, from which all later titles were derived A product of mature law, presuming that everything ought to have an owner It was unknown to Roman law and first appeared among the feudal lawyers
7. 7. Why are the descendants of a woman excluded from agnatic kinship?

   Women were excluded from the family by a rite at birth Her children were automatically adopted by the state Her children fall under their father’s Potestas Women could not legally marry
8. 8. What, for Maine, was the unit of an ancient society?

   The Tribe The Individual The territorial State The Family
9. 9. What, according to Maine, is the fatal flaw shared by theories of the state of nature?

   They place the origin of the state in conquest rather than in a voluntary compact They assume men were originally peaceful, when early society was a state of war They describe individuals, while ancient law deals with families and groups They ignore the influence of religion, which governed every part of primitive life
10. 10. Where does Maine say feudal primogeniture originated?

    In the ancient customs of the German tribes before the great invasions In the old Roman law of intestate succession to land In military benefices granted by barbarian kings In the canon law imposed on all Europe by the Church
11. 11. In what year was Ancient Law first published?

    1871 1848 1884 1861
12. 12. Who, according to Maine, expounded the Roman Responsa Prudentum?

    Jurisconsults of the bar, not the bench The College of Pontiffs The popular assemblies A permanent bench of judges appointed for life
13. 13. What did the ancient Roman Nexum originally cover, in Maine’s account?

    Only the transfer of land and slaves between heads of families Both conveyances and contracts, not yet distinguished Only the contract of marriage and the transfer of the dowry Only loans of money at interest, enforced by the debtor’s bondage
14. 14. How, according to Maine, did Rousseau transform the Roman theory?

    He abandoned the idea of nature altogether, grounding the state on utility alone He applied the Law of Nature only to relations between independent states He contemplated the State of Nature rather than the Law of Nature He identified the Law of Nature with the customary law of the early Germans
15. 15. Under the Celtic rule Maine describes, who succeeds a chieftain whose eldest son has died before him?

    The eldest son’s eldest son, however young, under a guardian The chieftain’s next son, in preference to any grandson A candidate elected from any family in the clan by its elders The chieftain’s widow, as regent
16. 16. What, according to Maine, were the Homeric themistes?

    Separate judgments, thought to be divinely dictated Customs remembered and recited by a council of elders A written code of laws handed down by Zeus to the kings General rules enacted by an assembly
17. 17. What kind of law, according to Maine, fills most of ancient penal codes?

    Rules of military discipline The law of wrongs or torts, redressed by money compensation Law punishing only offences against the gods A true criminal law of offences against the state and its peace
18. 18. What, in Maine’s view, did the French codes create by restricting free bequest?

    Universal primogeniture The abolition of all inheritance A system of small perpetual entails A system of free testamentary disposition
19. 19. In the Roman Stipulation, who put the terms of the contract in the form of a question?

    The promisor A witness holding the scales The praetor The promisee
20. 20. What does Maine treat as the start of true criminal law at Rome?

    The Lex Calpurnia of 149 BC, creating the first permanent criminal court The criminal legislation of Augustus, which reorganised the courts The Twelve Tables, which first defined the crimes and fixed their penalties in writing The appointment of the Quaestores Parricidii to try every case of murder
21. 21. What does Maine give as the main cause of the ancient codes?

    The influence of Greek philosophy on legislators The demands of foreign merchants Conquest by foreign peoples The invention and spread of writing
22. 22. How does Maine explain why Western theology took up questions of sin, debt and free will?

    The Western Church relied on Arabic translations of Aristotle’s works Pascal’s attack on casuistry redirected theology Western thinkers were trained in Roman law, not Greek metaphysics The barbarian invasions destroyed the Greek learning of the Eastern schools
23. 23. In the will “with the copper and the scales”, who originally took the place of the purchaser (familiae emptor)?

    The Praetor A priest of the College of Pontiffs The Heir himself The libripens
24. 24. What did the Antonine jurists mean by “omnes homines natura aequales sunt”?

    A demand that slavery be abolished, since all men are by nature born free A political programme for giving every Roman citizen an equal vote in assemblies A juridical rule that natural law knew no Roman class distinctions A religious doctrine that all men are equal before God, borrowed from Christianity
25. 25. Why, in Maine’s account, did the Romans escape the fate of Hindu law?

    They never had a priestly caste They abolished custom in favour of written legislation Their code was compiled while usage was still healthy They borrowed their law entirely from the Greek cities
26. 26. How did the Roman Jus Gentium originally arise?

    From the laws of Solon, brought back to Rome by the commissioners of the Twelve Tables From rules common to the Italian tribes, applied in disputes with foreigners From the treaties Rome concluded with Carthage and the Greek cities to regulate their trade From the Stoic philosophy of a law of nature common to all mankind, adopted by Roman lawyers
27. 27. According to Maine, why did Romans dread dying without a will?

    The Church refused burial to those who left no will Intestate estates were confiscated by the state treasury for its public use Intestacy gave nothing to emancipated sons, often the best-loved children The Twelve Tables forbade daughters to inherit anything at all on intestacy
28. 28. Which Roman institution does Maine regard as the simplest model for feudal double ownership?

    The Literal Contract The Cessio in Jure The Emphyteusis, a perpetual lease at fixed rent Usucapion
29. 29. Which of these were not among the Res Mancipi?

    Precious jewels Italian land Slaves Oxen
30. 30. Which of these was not a Consensual Contract?

    Loan of money Partnership Sale Letting and Hiring