Personal satire was condemned by the laws of the twelve tables:—
Si mala condiderit in quem quis carmina, jus est,
Judiciumque —
Horat. Sat. ii. 1, 82.
Julian (in Misopogon, p. 337) owns himself subject to the law; and the Abbe de la Bleterie (Hist. de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 92) has eagerly embraced a declaration so agreeable to his own system, and indeed to the true spirit of the Imperial constitution.