Twelve Tables
Twelve Tables(For the historical background, see Rome (history) §1.2.) According to Roman tradition, popular pressure led to the appointment for 451 BC of ten men with consular imperium, for writing down statutes, legibus scribundis, in order to put an end to the patrician and priestly monopoly of the law. They compiled ten tables, were reappointed for 450 BC, and compiled two more, including the ban on intermarriage between patricians and plebeians, which was rapidly abrogated by the lex Canuleia of 445 BC. An attempt to remain in office for 449 BC also failed. The fundamental consequence was that customary law was now enacted by statute and given legislative basis; and the Twelve Tables were seen as the starting-point of the development of Roman law.
We have no way of verifying this tradition; and it may be that the impetus came rather from a desire for self-regulation within the élite. But the...
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