A jealous solicitude for the rights of the average citizen is a marked trait of the Roman character. A clear understanding of what the rights of the common man were and an ingrained purpose to protect him in the exercise of them determine the development of judicial procedure in Rome, of law, and of political organizations. Perhaps the Romans have bequeathed to us no greater heritage than their conception of citizenship. With them it was not a mere dogma of political philosophy, set forth in the writings of idealists or incorporated in general terms in declarations of rights. It was made a reality in everyday life by law, by tradition, and by political reforms. It finds expression in the first written law which the Romans had, that of the Twelve Tables, and five centuries later we hear an echo of it in the historic claim of St. Paul. This ideal has been before us through the ages, and has been an inspiration and a guide to every true leader of democracy. The laws of the Twelve Tables, of which mention has just been made, set down in written form and in great detail an orderly procedure, which must be followed in a judicial action, and thus informed a citizen of his rights, and laid an obligation on the state to see that they were observed. The Valerio-Horatian law a little later gave a citizen the privilege of appealing in a capital case to the popular assembly. The establishment of the tribunate provided a democratic official to safeguard him against the arbitrary action of a magistrate. The dictatorship, the “final decree of the senate,” and the other devices which the state used under the republic to suspend the rights of citizens were either done away with or hemmed in by constitutional safeguards. Cicero brings his terrible indictment of the governor of Sicily to a fitting climax with the charge that Verres had caused a Roman citizen to be put to death, and turning to the man at the bar he cries: _si tu apud Persas aut in extrema India deprehensus, Verres, ad supplicium ducerere, quid clamitares, nisi ~te civem esse Romanum~_? It is true that there were many slaves in the Roman world, and that many freemen within its limits did not enjoy the full rights of Roman citizenship until late in the imperial period, but these facts do not weaken the point in which we are interested here. Wherever he went a citizen had behind him the sovereignty of the Roman state. Any community which wronged him must make restitution, or it would feel the heavy hand of Rome. This Roman principle that a state may protect its citizens even in a foreign land has been accepted by modern nations and is jealously observed by them. In fact international relations are concerned in large measure with the protection by a state of its citizens or subjects residing in foreign countries. Their passports certify to their citizenship. They may appeal to their minister or ambassador when they think themselves wronged, and may