ABSTRACT
The modern conception of a written constitution includes several elements. First, it is entirely embodied in one —or sometimes more than one —specially important document. Second, it is a product of conscious art, "the result of a deliberate effort on the part of a state to lay down once for all a body of coherent provisions under which its government shall be established and conducted." Third, it is of the rigid type; that is, it stands "above the other laws of the state"; it "is repealable in a different way, exerts a superior force." There is one element of the modern written constitution which Cicero might certainly have had in mind. That is its rigidity; the fact that it is more difficult to repeal than other laws. The problem of discovering the original elements in the individual laws is much more concrete. The elements which are revivals of old laws repealed before Cicero's time are few.
