TWELVE TABLES, LAW OF THE

Latin Lex Xii Tabularum, the earliest codification of ancient Roman law, traditionally dated 451450 BC. The Twelve Tables were allegedly written at the demand of the plebeians, who at law felt hampered by the fact that court judgments were rendered according to unwritten custom preserved within a narrow group of learned patricians. They managed to have a commission of 10 (decemvirs) appointed to draw up a code. The decemvirs began work in 451, and in 450 the code was posted in the Forum. The Twelve Tables were in no sense a reform or a liberalizing of old custom. They recognized the prerogatives of the patrician class and of the patriarchal family, the validity of enslavement for unpaid debt, and the interference of religious custom in civil cases. That they reveal a remarkable liberality for their time with respect to testamentary rights and contracts is probably due not to any alteration brought in by the decemvirs but rather to the progress that had been made in commercial customs in Rome in an era of prosperity and vigorous trade. Only random quotations from the Twelve Tables are extant, so that much knowledge of their contents derives from references in later juridical writings. Romans venerated the Twelve Tables as a prime legal source.