XV. A right in common to stay for a time.
There is likewise a common Right for all that travel as well by Sea as by Land, to stay and rest for a while, in any Foreign parts, either for health or for any other just cause. This being comprehended among things innocently profitable, and therefore Ilioneus in Virgil being forbidden to stay on the African Shore, presumed to invoke the Gods as Judg∣es, and the complaint of the Megarenses against the Athenians for denying them admittance into their Ports, was allowed by the Graecians to have been just, as being against common Right, as Plutarch notes. The Shore is his that occupies it,* 1.1 and therefore they must needs be cruel who deny us things that are common. Hercules slew Laomedon for denying him the benefit of his Port: And the Lacedaemonians thought no cause of War could be more just, than to be denyed the benefit of the Shore. And consequently it is likewise lawful to erect a little slight Cottage on the Shore for present shelter, notwithstanding that, we do grant that shore to be possest by the people that are Natives: For whereas Pomponius requires an Order from the People or Praetor, to license any man to erect any thing upon the common shore or in the Sea, it is to be understood of such Edifices, as are lasting and permanent; whereunto tends that of the Poet,
Contracta pisces aequora sentiunt, Jactis in altum molibus.—Whilst Hills in Seas are cast, Fish frighted from their Holds, do stand agast.