degradation by the censor and of a public detestation that drove the perjurer to suicide.[1392] Such are some of the isolated specimens that have been handed down to us of rules of international right which Rome thought due to every nation. But, apart from such universal duties, the Roman mind, with its simple dichotomy of the world into enemies (_hostes_)[1393] and friends (_amici_), recognised varying degrees of obligation as due to either class. The _hostes_ were all states or individuals with whom Rome had no treaty relations. With these there was no presupposition even of constant diplomatic relations, and their absence was symbolised by the manner in which envoys from such states were received. The tradition of “speaking with one’s enemy in the gate” was rigorously preserved to the end of the Republic, and the Senate had to meet a messenger from the enemy outside the walls.[1394] The friends of Rome were those with whom she had any relations that approximated to a federative character. There might be no definite treaty, no specified interchange of obligations; but the vague term _amicitia_ with kindred titles of affection was applied to the vaguest association as well as to the closest alliance with Rome; it was indifferently a symbol of the greatest independence or of the practical subjection of the contracting state. The members of the military symmachy in Italy could share this title with distant Carthage,[1395] and even the barbarous Aedui are “kinsmen and brothers” of the Roman people.[1396] Even in the case of these communities the perpetual representation of mutual interests by means of permanent ambassadors—an institution still in its infancy in the seventeenth century of our era—was naturally unknown; but their recognition as friends granted their envoys or representatives an entrance and an audience of the Senate within the walls.[1397] Closer relations between Rome and her “friends” were generally conditioned by ethnic and their corresponding religious ties. But the foreign element in early Rome shows that this was not universally the case. The rape of the Sabine women in its least significance reveals the fact of the close tie of intermarriage between Rome and a non-Latin community; the first treaty with Carthage reveals commercial relations, which were accompanied by some form of international jurisdiction, with a Phoenician power.[1398] The first, because the most universal, ties which attract our attention as based on treaty relations are those of commerce. Commercial treaties with the foreigner led, in the very infancy of Roman history, to the development both of common courts and of a common code.