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According to traditional, semi- legendary historical accounts preserved in Livy, during the earliest period of the Republic the laws were kept secret by the pontifices and other representatives of the patrician class, and were enforced with untoward severity, especially against the plebeian class. A plebeian named Terentilius proposed in 462 BC that an official legal code should be published, so that plebeians could not be surprised and would know the law.
For several years the patricians opposed this request, but in 451 BCCenturies: 6th century BC 5th century BC 4th century BC Decades: 500s BC 490s BC 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC Years: 456 BC 455 BC 454 BC 453 BC 452 BC 451 BC 450 BC 449 BC 448 BC 447 BC 446 BC Events Athens make a DecemvirateDecemviri (sing. decemvir is a Latin term meaning "Ten Men" which designates any such commission in the Roman Republic (cf. Triumviri Three Men). Different types of decemvirate include the writing of laws with consular imperium legibus scribundis consular, or board of ten men, was appointed to draw up a code. They allegedly sent an embassy to study legislative system of GreeksAncient Greece is the term used to describe the Greek-speaking world in ancient times. It refers not only to the territory of the present Greek state, but also to those areas settled in ancient times by Greeks: Cyprus, the Aegean coast of Turkey (then kno, particulary the laws of SolonSolon ( Greek: , c. 638 BC 558 BC) was a famous Athenian law maker. He was the son of Execestides. He first worked as a foreign trader, and his abilities as a poet had him lauded as one of the Seven Sages of Greece. In the mid 590s BC he worked to promote, possibly in the Greek colonies of the southern Italy.
The first ten codes were completed by the first Decemvirate in 450 BCCenturies: 6th century BC 5th century BC 4th century BC Decades: 500s BC 490s BC 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC Years: 455 BC 454 BC 453 BC 452 BC 451 BC 450 BC 449 BC 448 BC 447 BC 446 BC 445 BC Events Battle of S; the last two codes were completed in 449 BCCenturies: 6th century BC 5th century BC 4th century BC Decades: 490s BC 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC 454 BC 453 BC 452 BC 451 BC 450 BC 449 BC 448 BC 447 BC 446 BC 445 BC 444 BC Events The Peace of Calli by the second Decemvirate and the Law of the Twelve Tables was formally promulgated. The Twelve Tables were literally drawn up on twelve wooden tablets which were posted in the Forum Romanum so that all Romans could read and know them.
The laws of the Twelve Tables are not a comprehensive statement of all law; they are a sequence of definitions of various private rights and procedures. They generally took for granted such things as the institutions of the family, and various rituals for formal transactions. They are somewhat comparable to a Bill of Rights, but the modern observer must be careful not to project a modern understanding of rights and government onto ancient institutions and laws.
For such an important document, it is somewhat surprising that the original text has been lost. The original tablets were destroyed when the Gauls under Brennus burnt Rome in 390 BC. There was no other official promulgation of them to survive, only unofficial editions. What we have of them today is brief excerpts and quotations from these laws in other authors. They are written in a strange, archaic, laconic, and somewhat childish and sing-song version of Latin. As such, though we cannot tell whether the quoted fragments accurately preserve the original form, what we have gives us some insight into the grammar of early Latin.
Like most other primitive laws, they combine strict and rigorous penalties with equally strict and rigorous procedural forms. In most of the surviving quotations from these texts, the original table that held them is not given. Scholars have guessed at where surviving fragments belong by comparing them with the few known attributions. It cannot be known with any certainty from what survives that the originals ever were organised this way, or even if they ever were organised by subject at all.