[14] Livy, xxx, 14; 11 Appian Pun. 28, quoted in W. E. Heitland, The Roman Republic, 3 Vols., Cambridge, England, 1909, sec. 385. [15] Heitland, op. cit. secs. 246, 436; Phillipson, op. cit. ii, 369. [16] Heitland, op. cit. sec. 161. [17] Heitland, op. cit. sec. 245. [18] Heitland, op. cit. secs. 949, 960. [19] Cicero, Verres, i, 56, 57, quoted in Heitland, op. cit. sec. 965. [20] Heitland, op. cit. sec. 993. [21] Kent, Commentaries, Holmes, Editor, 12th Edition, 4 Vols., Boston, 1893, i, 95. [22] de Coulanges, op. cit. 293. [23] Wheaton, History of the Law of Nations, p. 25. _CHAPTER II. DURING THE MIDDLE AGES._ PART 1. MARITIME CODES. "In the dark ages, between 476 and 800 A.D. International law reached its nadir in the West".[1] Private war, on land and piracy at sea were unrestrained. There were of course no laws providing for the division of prize money. By the eleventh and twelfth centuries many cities of the Mediterranean and North seas had become powerful commercially and issued laws for determining maritime affairs. Such were the Amalfitan Tables, the Judgments or Roles of Oleron, the Laws of Wisby, and the Consolato del Mare originating in Barcelona.[2] As these laws simply stated the universal customs of the sea it came about that all maritime towns would adopt one of these codes.[3] Thus by the fifteenth century the Consolato del Mare was recognized maritime law in most of the commercial cities of the Mediterranean[4] while the Judgments of Oleron were in a similar way recognized by the towns of the North Sea.[5] These laws were intended primarily to regulate the private relations of mariners, owners and merchants, but on account of the necessity of protection from pirates many of them also included laws of maritime war and prize. State organization had not developed sufficiently to afford protection to merchants on the sea, consequently the merchants themselves formed protective organizations, furnished armed cruisers for making prizes and established consulates for judging maritime cases and for enforcing the definite codes of maritime law.[6] The Consolato Del Mare may be taken as an example of the maritime codes. It probably originated in the thirteenth century. The earliest known manuscripts are in the Catalonian language and apparently were engrossed in the middle of the fourteenth century. The earliest printed copy is dated 1494 and is also in the Catalonian language.[7] The chapters on prize law, state the principles on which enemy property may be captured. In general the principle is established that enemy vessels and neutral goods are exempt. Originally the armed merchantmen were in no way bound to any state so no commission delegating state authority to make captures is mentioned. Apparently the prizes had to be adjudicated at the consulates established by the merchant leagues.[8]