Note {21} — I. THE GERMANS AND THE EMPIRE TO 1073

That is, the delinquent is to be given the full legal day, and when that has passed with the setting of the sun, the penalty is incurred. It is interesting to notice the same feature in the law of the XII Tables, which was apparently merely the primitive tribal law of the early Romans reduced to written form. There, in the first table, the description of a public court process ends with the sentence: "Sol occasus suprema tempestas esto"—sunset is to be the latest hour [of the legal day].