The Laws of the Twelve Tables (c. 450 B.C.E.)
In 494 B.C.E., the plebeians threatened to leave Rome and set up their own independent state (concilium plebis). Their object was to acquire protection against the arbitrary acts of the Senate and consuls. During the Struggle of the Orders, the Roman constitution was modified. What the plebeians gained was the right to elect two Tribunes. In typical Roman fashion, the Roman Senate compromised with the plebeians. The Tribunes had absolute veto power; they could not be called to account for their actions; and they could not be harmed in any way or even touched. The only actions a tribune could not veto were those of military commanders or dictators. By 450 B.C. the plebeians had won another important concession, the Laws of the Twelve Tables, which Livy tells us were inscribed on bronze tablets and placed on public display.
The notion which has sometimes been entertained — that the Twelve Tables contained a body of rules of law entirely new — is not supported by any evidence, and is inconsistent with all that we know of them and of Roman institutions. It is more reasonable to suppose that they fixed in a written form a large body of customary law, which would be a benefit to the plebeians, inasmuch as the patricians were the expounders of the law; and it would be to the patricians a better security for their privileges. One of the two last tables contained a provision which allow
Table I.
1. If anyone summons a man before the magistrate, he must go. If the man summoned does not go, let the one summoning him call the bystanders to witness and then take him by force. If he shirks or runs away, let the summoner lay hands on him. If illness or old age is the hindrance, let the summoner provide a team. He need not provide a covered carriage with a pallet unless he chooses.
2. Let the protector of a landholder be a landholder; for one of the proletariat, let anyone that cares, be protector.
3. When the litigants settle their case by compromise, let the magistrate announce it. If they do not compromise, let them state each his own side of the case, in the comitium of the forum before noon. Afterwards let them talk it out together, while both are present. After noon, in case either party has failed to appear, let the magistrate pronounce judgment in favor of the one who is present. If both are present the trial may last until sunset but no later.
Table II.
2. He whose witness has failed to appear may summon him by loud calls before his house every third day.
Table III.
1. One who has confessed a debt, or against whom judgment has been pronounced, shall have thirty days to pay it in. After that forcible seizure of his person is allowed. The creditor shall bring him before the magistrate. Unless he pays the amount of the judgment or some one in the presence of the magistrate interferes in his behalf as protector the creditor so shall take him home and fasten him in stocks or fetters. He shall fasten him with not less than fifteen pounds of weight or, if he choose, with more. If the prisoner choose, he may furnish his own food. If he does not, the creditor must give him a pound of meal daily; if he choose he may give him more.
2. On the third market day let them divide his body among them. If they cut more or less than each one’s share it shall be no crime.
3. Against a foreigner the right in property shall be valid forever.
Table IV.
1. If a father sell his son three times, the son shall be free from his father.
2. As a man has provided in his will in regard to his money and the care of his property, so let it be binding. If he has no heir and dies intestate, let the nearest agnate have the inheritance. If there is no agnate, let the members of his gens have the inheritance.
3. If one is mad but has no guardian, the power over him and his money shall belong to his agnates and the members of his gens.
Table VI.
1. When one makes a bond and a conveyance of property, as he has made formal declaration so let it be binding.
3. A beam that is built into a house or a vineyard trellis one may not take from its place.
Table VII.
1. Let them keep the road in order. If they have not paved it, a man may drive his team where he likes.
Table VIII.
2. If one has maimed a limb and does not compromise with the injured person, let there be retaliation. If one has broken a bone of a freeman with his hand or with a cudgel, let him pay a penalty of three hundred coins. If he has broken the bone of a slave, let him have one hundred and fifty coins. If one is guilty of insult, the penalty shall be twenty-five coins.
3. If one is slain while committing theft by night, he is rightly slain.
4. If a patron shall have devised any deceit against his client, let him be accursed.
5. If one shall permit himself to be summoned as a witness, or has been a weigher, if he does not give his testimony, let him be noted as dishonest and incapable of acting again as witness.
Table X.
1. None is to bury or burn a corpse in the city.
5. If one obtains a crown himself, or if his chattel does so because of his honor and valor, if it is placed on his head, or the head of his parents, it shall be no crime.