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Twelve Tables

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Ancient Rome
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According to Roman tradition, the Law of the Twelve Tables (Latin: Leges Duodecim Tabularum or Duodecim Tabulae) was the legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. The Tables consolidated earlier traditions into an enduring set of laws.

The Twelve Tables are sufficiently comprehensive that their substance has been described as a 'code', although modern scholars consider this characterisation exaggerated. The Tables were a sequence of definitions of various private rights and procedures. They generally took for granted such things as the institutions of the family and various rituals for formal transactions. The provisions were often highly specific and diverse, and lack an intelligible system or order.

Contents

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Drafting and development[edit | edit source]

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The Twelve Tables of Roman society were said by the Romans to have come about as a result of the long social struggle between patricians and plebeians. After the expulsion of the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, the Republic was governed by a hierarchy of magistrates. Initially, only patricians were eligible to become magistrates and this, among other plebeian complaints, was a source of discontent for plebeians. In the context of this unequal status, plebeians would take action to secure concessions for themselves using the threat of secession. They would threaten to leave the city with the consequence that it would grind to a halt, as the plebeians were Rome's labor force. Tradition held that one of the most important concessions won in this class struggle was the establishment of the Twelve Tables, establishing basic procedural rights for all Roman citizens as against one another. However this tradition cannot be verified, and the drafting of the Twelve Tables may have been fomented by a desire for self-regulation by the patricians, or for other reasons.

Around 450 BC, the first decemviri (decemvirate - board of "Ten Men") were appointed to draw up the first ten tables. According to Livy, they sent an embassy to Greece to study the legislative system of Athens, known as the Solonian Constitution, but also to find out about the legislation of other Greek cities. Some scholars dispute the veracity of any claim that the Romans imitated the Greeks in this respect or suggest that they visited the Greek cities of Southern Italy, and did not travel all the way to Greece. In 450 BC, the second decemviri started to work on the last two tables.

The first decemvirate completed the first ten codes in 450 BC. Here is how Livy describes their creation,

In 449 BC, the second decemvirate completed the last two codes, and after a secessio plebis to force the Senate to consider them, the Law of the Twelve Tables was formally promulgated. According to Livy (AUC 3.57.10) the Twelve Tables were inscribed on bronze (Pomponius (Dig. 1 tit. 2 s2 §4) alone says on ivory), and posted publicly, so all Romans could read and know them.

Influence and significance[edit | edit source]

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Roman civilians examining the Twelve Tables after they were first implemented.

The Twelve Tables are often cited as the foundation for ancient Roman law. Although faced with many issues, the Twelve Tables provided a premature understanding of some key concepts such as justice, equality, and punishment.[1] While these ideas were not fully understood, the Twelve Tables play a significant role in the basis of the early American legal system. Political theorists, such as James Madison have highlighted the importance of the Twelve Tables in crafting the United States Bill of Rights.[2] In addition, the Twelve Tables include the idea of capital punishment as means of retribution in early Roman society.[3] As noted by early Roman historians, the first settlers in Rome were often prisoners, slaves, and outlaws of neighboring states. As a result, it was extremely paramount that the Twelve Tables laid out specific punishments for crimes such as thievery and murder.[4] The idea of property was also perpetuated in the Twelve Tables, they emphasizes different forms of property such as money, land, and slaves.

Although legal reform occurred soon after the implementation of the Twelve Tables, these ancient laws provided social protection and civil rights for both the patricians and plebeians. At this time, there was extreme tension between the privileged class and the common people resulting in the need for some form of social order. While the existing laws had major flaws that were in need of reform, the Twelve Tables eased the civil tension and violence between the plebeians and patricians.[5]

While currently the Twelve Tabes are not enforced in practice, there influence and significance is still evident in the modern day. For example, the Twelve Tables are tied into the notion of Jus Commune, also known as "common law." Some countries including South Africa and San Marino still base there current legal system on aspects of common law.[5] In addition, in the modern day, law school students throughout the world are still required to study the Twelve Tables as well as other facets of Roman Law in order to better understand the current legal system in place.[6] Although the original twelve laws are extremely outdated, the influence of the Twelve Tables is still present today.

Sources[edit | edit source]

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The Twelve Tables are no longer extant: although they remained an important source through the Republic, they gradually became obsolete, eventually being only of historical interest. The original tablets may have been destroyed when the Gauls under Brennus burned Rome in 387 BC. Cicero claimed  that he learned them by heart as a boy in school, but that no one did so any longer. What we have of them today are brief excerpts and quotations from these laws in other authors, often in clearly updated language. They are written in an archaic, laconic Latin (described as Saturnian verse). As such, though it cannot be determined whether the quoted fragments accurately preserve the original form, what is present gives some insight into the grammar of early Latin. Some claim that the text was written as such so plebeians could more easily memorise the laws, as literacy was not commonplace during early Rome. Roman Republican scholars wrote commentaries upon the Twelve Tables, such as L. Aelius Stilo, teacher of both Varro and Cicero.

Like most other early codes of law, they were largely procedural, combining strict and rigorous penalties with equally strict and rigorous procedural forms. In most of the surviving quotations from these texts, the original table that held them is not given. Scholars have guessed at where surviving fragments belong by comparing them with the few known attributions and records, many of which do not include the original lines, but paraphrases. It cannot be known with any certainty from what survives that the originals ever were organised this way, or even if they ever were organised by subject at all.

Footnotes[edit | edit source]

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  1. Jump up ^ Jolowicz, H. F. Historical Introduction to the Study of Roman Law (Cambridge, 1952), 108
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Crawford, M. H. 'Twelve Tables' in Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth, and Esther Eidinow (eds.) Oxford Classical Dictionary (4th ed.)
  3. Jump up ^ Mommsen, T. The History of Rome trans. W. P. Dickson (London, 1864) 290
  4. Jump up ^ Steinberg, S. 'The Twelve Tables and Their Origins: An Eighteenth-Century Debate' Journal of the History of Ideas Vol. 43, No. 3 (1982) 379-396, 381
  5. Jump up ^ 
  6. Jump up ^ Livy, 2002, p. 23
  7. Jump up ^ Durant, 1942, p. 23
  8. Jump up ^ Steinberg, S. 'The Twelve Tables and Their Origins: An Eighteenth-Century Debate' Journal of the History of Ideas Vol. 43, No. 3 (1982) 379-396
  9. Jump up ^ 
  10. Jump up ^ McCarty, Nick "Rome The Greatest Empire of the Ancient World", The Rosen Publishing Group, 2008
  11. Jump up ^ Cic. Leg. 2.59
  12. Jump up ^ cf. Funaioli GRF p57
  13. Jump up ^ Cicero, Brutus 205; Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 16.8.2.
  1. ^ Gary, Forsythe. A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War. 1st ed., University of California Press, 2005, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1ppxrv.
  2. ^ Denis, Fustel De Coulanges Numa. The Ancient City a Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2010. Print.
  3. ^ Gary, Forsythe. A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War. 1st ed., University of California Press, 2005, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1ppxrv.
  4. ^ Gary, Forsythe. A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War. 1st ed., University of California Press, 2005, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1ppxrv.
  5. ^ a b "Law in Ancient Rome, The Twelve Tables - Crystalinks". www.crystalinks.com. Retrieved 2017-05-08.
  6. ^ Baker, Keir (2016-04-11). "Studying Roman law: Juno it's more useful than you'd think". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-05-08.
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