non autem si ea omissa sit; omissa enim non prodest, nec si per mille annos fuisset continuata, ut recte animadvertit Castrensis. Et quamvis hoc voluisset Martianus, quod minime credendus est cogitasse, in quo loco occupatio conceditur, in eodem praescriptionem concedi, tamen absurdum erat quod de flumine publico dictum erat ad Mare commune, et quod de diverticulo ad sinum proferre, cum haec praescriptio usum qui est Iuregentium communis, impeditura sit, illa autem publico usui non admodum noceat. Alterum autem Angeli argumentum quod ex aquaeductu sumitur,[120a] eodem Castrensi monstrante, ut a quaestione alienissimum, ab omnibus merito exploditur.
Falsum igitur est talem praescriptionem etiam eo tempore gigni, cuius initium omnem memoriam excedat. Vbi enim lex omnem omnino tollit praescriptionem, ne istud quidem tempus admittitur, hoc est, ut Felinus loquitur,[121a] materia impraescriptibilis tempore immemoriali non fit praescriptibilis. Fatetur haec vera esse Balbus;[122a] sed Angeli sententiam receptam dicit hac ratione, quia tempus extra memoriam positum idem valere creditur privilegio, cum titulus amplissimus ex tali tempore praesumatur. Apparet hinc non aliud illos sensisse, quam si pars aliqua reipublicae, puta Imperi Romani, supra omnem memoriam usa esset tali iure, ei dandam praescriptionem hoc colore, quasi Principis
cease; and occupation once interrupted, even if it had been continuous for a thousand years, loses its rights, as Paul de Castro† justly observes. And even if Marcianus had meant—which certainly was not in his mind at all—that acquisition by prescription is to be recognized wherever occupation is recognized, still it would have been absurd to apply what had been said about a public river to the common sea, or what had been said about an inlet or a river branch to a bay, since in the latter case prescription would hinder the use of something common to all by the law of nations, and in the former case would work no great injury to public use. Moreover, another argument brought forward by Angeli based on the use of aqueducts,[120] has quite properly been rejected by every one, being, as de Castro pointed out, entirely aside from the point.
* [Bartolus de Saxoferrato (1314-1357) the most famous of the Post-glossators, was called by many of his biographers ‘Optimus auriga in hac civili sapientia’.]
† [The celebrated Italian jurist (?-1420 or 1437) of whom Cujas said: “Si vous n’avez pas Paul de Castro, vendez votre chemise pour l’acheter.” (Note from page 55 of the French translation of Grotius by de Grandpont.)]
It is not true then that such prescription rises even at a time beyond the period of the memory of man. For since the law absolutely denies all prescription, not even immemorial time has any effect on the question; that is, as Felinus[121] says, things imprescriptible by nature do not become prescriptible by the mere efflux of immemorial time. Balbus admits the truth of these arguments,[122] but says that the opinion of Angeli is to be accepted on the ground that time immemorial is believed to have the same validity as prerogative for setting up a title, since a perfect title is presumed from such efflux of time. Hence it appears that the jurists thought if some part of a state, say of the Roman empire for example, at a period before the memory of man had exercised such a right, that a title by prescription would