I am still digesting the material which has come down the line from Leofranc et al. on this topic, but I would like to throw in one small caveat, leaving sympathy and emotion aside, there is a developing idea of natural law/justice versus custom or the law of individual nations, which I believe is the real point and importance of Zetzel's article. Roman authors do show a sensitivity to this subject, although it is often presented in an oblique way,as in Tacitus, and not without a suggestion that their understanding of its essentials are better than others - most famously in Vergil's vison of the Roman mission. By the time we reach Lactantius, the cross fertilization of this with Christian concepts (already heavily influenced by classical philosophy in the Pauline epistles) - usually expressed in terms of the knowledge of God (which leads to equity as well as justice in the theological sense) has reached a critical mass, and while it may appear to be handled negatively by Augustine, the development goes on, and in the hands of Irish exegetes of the seventh through ninth centuries we would have appear to have the outlines of serious consideration and development of ideas of natural law and justice. Oddly enough the Irish originally became involved with it apparently to produce a theological defense of the native code. It is curious, but I believe when all is saud and done, scholarship will come to see this engagement with natural law as perhaps the achievement of Irish exegetes with the most lasting effect. This is somewhat off subject for a Vergil line, perhaps, but notice the D scholia to Aeneid 2: 426-8. Helen COB
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