Work record

The Twelve Tables

The Decemviri of Rome

c. 451–450 BC · Ancient · Political Theory · Latin

Abstract

Written: c. 451–450 BC
Setting: Early Roman Republic; Rome
Author: The decemviri
Country: Roman Republic
Language: Latin
Genre: Law code
Form: Twelve tablets, now known only from fragments
Recommended: Grades 6–12 (Abstract only; short summary suitable for middle and high school.)

Demand. In the fifth century BC, Roman commoners protested that aristocratic magistrates judged by unwritten customs known only to themselves. Because only patricians held office, ordinary citizens could not check whether a judgment matched the law.

Lawgivers. A commission of ten replaced the usual officials for two years and drafted twelve tablets, which were posted in the Forum for every citizen to read. Tradition says Roman envoys first studied the laws of Greek cities, including Athens.

Contents. Brief archaic commands covered summons and trial, debt, the authority of fathers, inheritance, land, injuries and theft, as well as rules for funerals and limits on capital sentences. A citizen summoned to court had to appear, and a night thief could lawfully be killed.

Protections. Laws aimed at a single person were banned, and only the largest assembly of the people could condemn a citizen to death. A ban on intermarriage between the orders, added in the last tablets, was soon repealed.

Survival. The bronze or wooden originals vanished, and scholars piece the laws together from quotations by Cicero, Livy, Gellius and the jurists. Because the arrangement is modern, the exact order and wording remain uncertain.

Legacy. Roman schoolboys once memorized these laws, and they stood at the head of the tradition that led to Justinian's code and to European law. They became a lasting symbol of law that is fixed, public and binding on rulers and ruled alike.

Key figures

The decemviri: Board of ten lawgivers
Appius Claudius: Leading decemvir
Cicero: Later Roman who recalled learning the laws

Summary

The Twelve Tables were the first written law of Rome. According to Roman historians, the common people, the plebeians, complained that the patrician magistrates who judged cases kept the law secret and applied it as they pleased. After years of struggle the Republic suspended its regular magistrates and appointed a board of ten men, the decemviri, to write the laws down. They produced ten tables in 451 BC and two more in 450 BC. The laws were engraved, probably on bronze or wood, and set up in the Forum, where every citizen could read them. The original tablets were lost, perhaps when the Gauls sacked Rome around 390 BC. What survives are fragments quoted or paraphrased by later Roman writers such as Cicero, Livy, Gellius and the jurists collected in Justinian's Digest. Modern scholars have arranged these fragments into twelve tables, but the order and wording are reconstructions. The surviving rules are short, blunt commands written in archaic Latin. They begin with procedure: a man summoned to court must go, and the plaintiff may seize him if he refuses. Other tables deal with debt, including the harsh treatment of a debtor who could not pay; the power of the father over his household; guardianship and inheritance; property and boundaries; injuries and theft, including the right to kill a thief who comes by night; and public law, such as the rule that no law may be passed against a single individual and that a citizen may be sentenced to death only by the greatest assembly. The tenth table limited the expense of funerals and forbade burial or cremation inside the city. One law of the later tables forbade marriage between patricians and plebeians; it was repealed a few years later. The Tables were the foundation of Roman law for centuries. Cicero recalled that boys of his generation learned them by heart at school. Although later Roman law grew far beyond them, they remained a symbol of law that is public, fixed and equal for every citizen, an ideal that passed through Justinian's codification into the legal tradition of Europe.

Plot or Argument

Origins
Plebeian demands lead to the appointment of the decemviri in 451 BC to write down the law.
Procedure
The first tables govern summons to court, trial and the enforcement of judgments.
Debt and family
Rules on debtors, the father's power, guardianship and inheritance.
Property and wrongs
Boundaries, ownership, injuries and theft.
Public and sacred law
Limits on laws against individuals, capital trials, funerals and burial outside the city.
Survival
The tablets are lost; the laws survive as quotations in later writers.

Lessons

Law that all can read
The Twelve Tables were set up in public so that ordinary citizens could know the law. Written, public law protects people from arbitrary rulers.
- Why did the plebeians want the laws written down?
- How does public law protect ordinary people?
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Learning the law by heart
Roman boys memorized the Tables. Memory work can root a people's laws and values in each generation.
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- What texts should students today learn by heart, and why?
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Reconstructing the past
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- How do we know what the Twelve Tables said?
- Why should we be cautious about the exact wording?
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Context

In the early Roman Republic, patricians held the magistracies and priesthoods. The plebeians struggled for a share of power in the long Conflict of the Orders.

Composition

The decemviri wrote ten tables in 451 BC and two more in 450 BC. Roman tradition told that the second board abused its power and was overthrown, and that the laws were then published by the consuls of 449 BC.

Reception

Later Romans called the Tables the source of all public and private law. Jurists wrote commentaries on them, and they were quoted for centuries, though many provisions became obsolete.

Justice Law Power / Politics Class / Society Education

Comparisons

The Institutes of Justinian
Justinian's Institutes, a thousand years later, rest on the legal tradition the Tables began.
The History of Rome, Books I-V
Livy narrates the appointment of the decemviri and the making of the laws.
The Republic and The Laws
Cicero praises the Tables and recalls learning them as a boy.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

Why the laws were written.
The short, command form of the laws.
Rules protecting citizens' rights.
How the text survives.

Key terms and names

Decemviri: The board of ten men appointed to write Rome's laws.
Plebeians: The common citizens of Rome, as distinct from the patricians.
Patricians: The hereditary aristocracy of early Rome.
Forum: The central public square of Rome.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension Why did the plebeians demand written laws?
Comprehension Where were the Tables displayed?
Interpretation Why would it matter that a law could not be passed against a single person?
Interpretation Why might some of the laws seem harsh to us?
Interpretation Is a written law always more just than an unwritten custom?
Interpretation What does the Roman practice of memorizing the laws suggest about education?
Big Question What makes a law fair to everyone?

Faith Connections

Deuteronomy 31:10–12 (Scripture)
Moses commands the law to be read publicly to all the people, men, women, children and strangers.
Deuteronomy 6:6–7 (Scripture)
God's words are to be taught diligently to children, as Roman boys learned their laws.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Law should be written, public and the same for all citizens, so that magistrates cannot judge by secret rules.

Rhetorical device: brevity. The laws are terse commands, easy to remember and recite.

Debate: Resolved: that written law is the foundation of liberty.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Explain the importance of the Twelve Tables for Roman law and for later legal tradition.

Comparison with The Institutes of Justinian: Compare the Twelve Tables with Justinian's Institutes.

Creative Prompts

Classroom
Write a "Twelve Tables" for your classroom: twelve short, clear rules, and explain why each is needed.
Essay
Explain why written law mattered to the plebeians of early Rome.
Dialogue
Write a conversation between a patrician and a plebeian in 452 BC about whether the law should be written down.