The Law of the 12 Tables

Starting around 494 BC, the plebeians began to fight against the rule of the patricians. They protested by leaving the city for a while, refusing to work, or even refusing to fight in the army. By the end of the year 452BC the ordinary people of Rome were extremely angry for not having the same rights as the wealthy, aristocratic citizens of Rome, the patricians and also the priests(pontifices) of Rome. Following the public pressure, in the year 451BC, a group of a committee called the Decemviri received the task to compose a law code that better fits the requirements of the plebeians. The result was a list of 10 laws written on 10 different bronze tables, two more to be added the following year. The Law of the Twelve Tables is remembered as the legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law.

The twelve tables were displayed in the Forum and stated the legal rights of the citizens of Rome regardless of their social class. Unfortunately for us, the tables have not survived, according to the tradition, they were destroyed during the sack of Rome by the Gauls in 390BC. Luckily, because of some remaining fragments, and of the references in literature, we identified some specifics of the tables.

The structure of the tables:

As every start is difficult, so was the start of the twelve tables. Some patricians refused to submit to the statutes of the tables. Plebeians got also angry because they saw that some of the “new” rules were in place until this time but they were not respected. Considering these factors the plebeians made an uprising in 449BC that led to the resignation of the Decemviri.

So, in order to better understand the content, let’s see a selection from the twelve tables:

Table I. 1. If any man is summoned before the magistrate, he must be present. If he does not go, the one that is summoning can call the bystanders to witness and take him by force. If he runs away, the summoner can lay hands on him. 6-9. When the litigants can agree on a compromise, the magistrate has to announce it. If they can not reach an agreement, they are allowed to state each his own side in the comitium of the forum before noon. After the noon, in case either party has failed to appear, the magistrate can pronounce judgment in favor of the one who is present. If both are present the trial may last no later than sunset.

Table II. 2. He whose witness has failed to appear can call him by loud calls before his house every third day.

Table III. 1. A man who has confessed a debt, or against whom judgment has been pronounced, has thirty days to pay it. If he does not pay, the creditor can bring him before the magistrate. The punishment is to take him home and fasten him in stocks or fetters that are not less than fifteen pounds of weight. Table IV. 1. Dreadfully deformed children have to be quickly killed. 2. If a father sells his son more than two times, the son will be free from his father. 5. A child born after ten months since the father’s death will not be admitted into a legal inheritance.

Table V. 1. Females will remain in guardianship even when they become major.

Table VI. 1. Formal declaration is obligatory for bonds and conveyances of property.

Table VII. 9. If a tree crooks over your territory, you may take legal action for removal of that tree. 10. Men can pick up fruit that was falling down onto another man’s farm.

Table VIII. 3. If men got injured while committing theft by night, he is rightly in pain. 4. If a patron shall have devised any deceit against his client, let him be accursed. 10. Any man who destroys by burning any building has to be bound and put to death by burning. But if it was an accident, he has to repair the damage. 23. A person who had been found guilty of giving false witness has to be hurled down from the Tarpeian Rock. 26. It is not allowed to hold meetings by night in the city.

Table IX. 5. Treason: he who does not hand out a citizen to a public enemy must suffer capital punishment. 6. Putting to death of anyone, who might be unconvicted is forbidden.

Table X. 1. No one is allowed to bury or burn a corpse in the city. 3. Women are not allowed during a funeral to lacerate their faces or tear their cheeks with their nails.

Table XI. 1. A person of a certain class shall not partake in marriage with a person of a lower class. For example a patrician with a plebeian.

Table XII. 5. Whatever one or more persons have ordered into law, shall be held by the law

So, that’s it, a little selection from the tables. As I already said, the start of the tables was not easy. Even some laws in the tables were not very long-lasting such as the one which prohibited intermarriage between two classes. This law was canceled in 445 BCE with the edict of the Lex Canuleia. Other laws were modified over time.