ABSTRACT
The two features that characterize the political world after the death of Aristotle are the disappearance of the city-state as a vital force and the development, within the milieu of empire, of the sense of the individual and his self-sufficiency expressed by the new "philosophies of conduct". The task of adjusting men's ideas and ideals to the new world of empire was carried out by the "philosophies of conduct"—Stoicism, Cynicism, and Epicureanism. For Aristotle the form of human life is made determinate and complete through acts, habits, laws, and institutions—all manifestations of self-government. The writings of the great Roman jurists were compiled in the Digest published in 533 by Justinian. The authors of the Digest and the Institutes distinguish three kinds of right expressed by three kinds of law: Civil Right, expressed by the civil law or enactments of particular states; Right of Nations, expressed in the Law of Nations; and Natural Right, expressed by Natural Law.
