Twelve Tables

Overview

The Twelve Tables (Lex Duodecim Tabularum, ~451–449 BCE) were the foundation of Roman law, the first written legal code of the Roman Republic. @t[451 BCE..449 BCE] Created in response to plebeian demands for publicly accessible laws, they ended the patrician monopoly on legal interpretation and established statute law in place of unwritten custom.

Key Facts

Date: ~451–449 BCE @t[451 BCE..449 BCE]
Issuer: Decemviri (commission of ten men, all patricians)
Language: Archaic Latin
Context: Conflict of the Orders between patricians and plebeians
Formal Latin name: Lex Duodecim Tabularum (Law of the Twelve Tables)

Creation

In 451 BCE, the decemviri were appointed under public pressure to codify Roman law ¹
Before drafting, a delegation of three men was sent to Athens to study the laws of Solon (c. 640–560 BCE) ¹
The first decemviri (all patricians) produced ten tables; a second commission added two more in 450 BCE ¹
A plebeian uprising in 449 BCE forced the decemviri to resign; Rome's constitution was revised and tribunes and consuls were reinstated ¹
Formally promulgated 449 BCE @t[=449 BCE]

Content

Originally inscribed on twelve bronze tablets displayed in the Roman Forum
Covered: Court procedure, debt, family law, property, inheritance, torts, public law ²
Focused primarily on private law and relations between individual citizens, not individuals vs. the state ¹
Established legal equality (in principle) between patricians and plebeians
Prohibited intermarriage between classes (later repealed by Lex Canuleia, 445 BCE) @t[=445 BCE]
Penalties included death by burning for arson, and banishment or loss of citizenship for property crimes ¹

Significance

Foundation of all subsequent Roman law (ius civile)
Livy described them as fons omnis publici privatique iuris ("the source of all public and private law") ¹
First written Roman law, ending patrician monopoly on legal interpretation
Cicero records that Roman schoolchildren memorized them as part of their education ¹
From the 3rd century BCE onward, steadily superseded by laws more relevant to the expanding Republic ¹
Original tablets lost (possibly in the Gallic sack of Rome, 390 BCE) @t[=390 BCE] ³
Survived through quotations in later Roman legal and literary sources

Cartwright, M. "Twelve Tables." World History Encyclopedia, 11 Apr 2016. https://www.worldhistory.org/Twelve_Tables/ ↩︎
Crawford, M.H. Roman Statutes (1996) ↩︎
Watson, A. Rome of the XII Tables (Princeton, 1975) ↩︎

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