What were the twelve tables better known as the roman code of laws?

Answer 1

The Twelve Tables (XII Tabulae), or Law of the Twelve Tables (Lex XII Tabularum), is the earliest known law code of Rome. It is lost except as reconstructed from references by later Roman writers. For them it was obsolete, being written in an earlier form of the language (conventionally called Old Latin), and thus at times unintelligible. Festus (late 2c, epitomizing Verrius Flaccus, the tutor of Augustus's grandsons) notes several archaic usages in Roman writers which were based on the wording of the Twelve Tables. As for its ongoing legal relevance, Gellius (c130-c180, ap 1:10) says that the whole obsolete system of the Twelve Tables had been "put to rest" by the Aebutian Law of c0150. Cicero (0106-043) tells us that in his youth students used to memorize the Twelve Tables "as a ditty," but that this was no longer the case in his later years. The Tables would thus seem to have been known in late Republican times, though with less relevance for legal proceedings after 0150, and dropping out of the rhetoricians' curriculum about 050, during the early Empire. The suggestion that the Tables were originally a codification of rules derived from previous practice fits the known contents sufficiently well.

Legend. The date and circumstances of the Twelve Tables (see the separate History page) are uncertain. The tradition that they were compiled by a Commission of Ten (decemviri) is taken for granted by Cicero, but may be legendary, as may the supposed date of that Commission, which is usually given as 0451, with a second and supplementary meeting in c0450, at which it is said that two more tables were added to the original ten. Some historians have suggested much later dates for the Tables, such as c0300 (Pais) or c0200 (Lambert). It is also claimed that their composition was preceded by a visit to Athens for the purpose of examining the Solonic law; this might be a mythic exaggeration of a more modest and more gradual contact with the Greek cities in Italy. The Twelve Tables are alleged to be favorable toward the aspirations of the commoners, an opinion which is also found in the law foundation myths of other cultures (in China, we have the Tsau Gwei story and the Lw Sying text, both from the 04th century but claiming to represent a situation of centuries earlier, and both representing the operation of law as favorable to the common people. But the Twelve Tables as we have them do not support this idea; one provision in fact forbids marriage between nobles and commoners. The cosmological number of "ten" compilers may be mythical as well; compare the symbolic number of "seventy" translators for the Suptuagint (sometimes given as seventy-two, both versions implying "for all the nations").

Nor is the middle of the 05th century itself historically clear. Nearly all Roman laws ascribed to that period are in one way or another suspect. Traditions about the Twelve Tables thus look more like cultural piety than cultural memory. It will be best to get our initial impression of the Tables from an examination of the content and implied aetiology of the Tables themselves.

Reality. There were, however, in some sense Twelve Tables, perhaps more likely twelve chapters in a code than twelve plates of bronze (though fragments of bronze plates with later laws written on them have been found archaeologically). The provisions of the Twelve Tables were known to legally knowledgeable or generally erudite persons in later times. Only a few references by those persons mention the number of the Table on which a given law was written, or give the position of that law on that table. Modern reconstructions are thus in large part arbitrary or extrapolative, and their arrangement of material cannot be relied on. The same applies to the reconstruction given here. With a few changes, we follow the order of Warmington (1938, rev 1967), who in turn follows Dirksen (1824). Warmington's numbering gives 111 laws in 12 tables, plus a further 10 unplaced laws, for a total of 121. 121 is not an intrisically unrealistic number: it is within the range found in several other early West Asian law codes. The order of topics, including the late placement of laws involving the sacred, also has parallels elsewhere.

Character. The content of the Tables, and the tone of later references to them, both suggest a codification of previous case law, formulated as advice to future judges (the typical verb is hortatory: "let it be"), and given further authority by proclamation. That authority was never formally revoked in later centuries, though law as such continued to evolve. This would somewhat parallel the Hammurabi Code, which (as we see it) is an empirical case law collection given authority by framing statements and by public display on a stone monument. The contents of the Tables may fruitfully be compared with this and other Mesopotamian codes, as well as with the Greek code preserved at Gortyn.

Answer 2

The Law of the Twelve Tables was legislation in ancient Rome, and the Law of Nations was a political philosophy book. They were significant for the political ideas they contained, which continued to inspire other governments.

Answer 3

The Twelve Tables or the Twelve Tablets were the first written laws of the Roman Republic.

The Twelve Tables or the Twelve Tablets were the first written laws of the Roman republic.

The Twelve Tables or the Twelve Tablets were the first written laws of the Roman republic.

The Twelve Tables or the Twelve Tablets were the first written laws of the Roman republic.

The Twelve Tables or the Twelve Tablets were the first written laws of the Roman republic.

The Twelve Tables or the Twelve Tablets were the first written laws of the Roman republic.

The Twelve Tables or the Twelve Tablets were the first written laws of the Roman republic.

The Twelve Tables or the Twelve Tablets were the first written laws of the Roman republic.

The Twelve Tables or the Twelve Tablets were the first written laws of the Roman republic.

Answer 4

It was known by its full name: the law of the Twelve Tables. This was the first general legislation and dated form the Early Repubilc (450 BC). Over the centuries after this, the Romans added to, repealed, modified ,and refined their legislation until it developed into the body of civil law.

Answer 5

The law of the Twelve Tables (which the Romans called Law of the Twelve Tablets) was Rome's first set of written and published laws. It was compiled in 451 BC and 450 BC, before Rome had an empire. It covered punishments for crimes and matters which would later be defined as civil law. It was inscribed on twelve tablets of bronze and displayed on boards at the forum for anyone literate to read.

Answer 6

The twelve tables were a national law while the law of nations dealt with international actions.

Answer 7

The Twelve Tables or the Twelve Tablets were the first written laws of the Roman republic.