Twelve Tables
Roman statute / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Law of the Twelve tables (Latin: Leges Duodecim Tabularum or Duodecimo Tabulae) was the legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. Formally promulgated in 449 BC, the Tables were mostly a summary earlier traditions written down as a set of laws.
Displayed in the Forum, "The Twelve Tables" stated the rights and duties of the Roman citizen. Their formulation was the result of considerable agitation by the plebeian class, who had until then been excluded from the higher benefits of the Republic. Before that, the law had not been written down. Higher-class priests, the pontifices, intepreted it. Cicero (106–43 BC) stated that the "Twelve Tables...seems to me, assuredly to [be better than] the libraries of all the philosophers, both in weight of authority, and in [usefulness]". Cicero hardly exaggerated; the Twelve Tables formed the basis of Roman law for a thousand years.
The Twelve Tables are rather comprehensive, they have been described as a 'code'. Modern scholars consider this characterization 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.
Table 1 | Procedure: for courts and trials |
Table 2 | Further enactments on trials |
Table 3 | Execution of judgments |
Table 4 | Rights of familial heads |
Table 5 | Legal guardianship and inheritance laws |
Table 6 | Acquisition and possession |
Table 7 | Land rights and crimes |
Table 8 | Torts and delicts (Laws of injury) |
Table 9 | Public law |
Table 10 | Sacred law |
Table 11 | Supplement I |
Table 12 | Supplement II |