VI.11 That when a people is virtuous, few penalties are required
The Roman people had probity. That probity had such force that often the legislator needed only to show them the good for it to be followed ; it was as if in lieu of decrees it was enough to give them advice.
The penalties of royal laws and the laws of the Twelve Tables were almost all suppressed under the republic, either by a sequel to the Valerian Law, [1] or by a consequence of the Porcian Law. [2] It was not observed that the republic was for that less well ordered, and it resulted in no rupture in political administration.
This Valerian Law, which forbade magistrates any violence against a citizen who had appealed to the people, imposed no other penalty on the man who would violate it than to have a mean reputation. [3]