Law of the Twelve Tables, Latin Lex XII Tabularum, are the first attempt at a law code by the ancient Romans, the written legislation of ancient Roman law, traditionally dated 451–450 BC.
- A wise Ephesian was driven by envy from his native country : before he could reach the shores of Latium, he had observed the various forms of human nature and civil society; he imparted his knowledge to the legislators of Rome, and a statue was erected in the Forum to the perpetual memory of Hermodorus.”
The Roman Republic was founded when after the last Etruscan king was overthrown in 509 B.C. However, In times of crisis, the republic could appoint a dictator – a leader who had absolute power to make laws and command the army.
Three groups that lived in the region and fought for control were the Latins, the Greeks, and the Etruscans, who were native to northern Italy.
They were skilled metalworkers and engineers. They also had a system of writing and the Romans adopted the Etruscan alphabet.
Latins: Were farmers and shepherds who wandered into Italy across the Alps in 1000 B.C. They settled into a region on the Tiber River known as Latium. They were the 1st Romans.
According to legend, Ancient Rome was founded by the two brothers, and demi-gods, Romulus and Remus, on 21 April 753 BC.
The legend claims that, in an argument over who would rule the city(or, in another version, where the city would be located) Romulus killed Remus and named the city after himself. This story of the founding of Rome is the best known but it is not the only one.
Other legends claim the city was named after a woman, Roma, who traveled with Aeneas and the other survivors from Troy after that city fell. Upon landing on the banks of the Tiber River, Roma and the other women objected when the men wanted to move on.
She led the women in the burning of the Trojan ships and so effectively stranded the Trojan survivors at the site which would eventually become Rome. Between 750-600 B.C., Greek settlers established about 50 colonies on the coasts of Italy and Sicily.
Their cities thrived and it brought Romans into closer contact with Greek civilization.
Aeneas of Troy is featured in this legend and also, famously, in Virgil‘s Aeneid, as a founder of Rome and the ancestor of Romulus and Remus, thus linking Rome with the grandeur and might which was once Troy.
Still other theories concerning the name of the famous city suggest it came from Rumon, the ancient name for the Tiber River, and was simply a place-name given to the small trading center established on its banks or that the name derived from an Etruscan word which could have designated one of their settlements.
The Roman Republic was a government in which citizens elected representatives to rule on their behalf, and consisted of Forum, Senate, Consuls, and Tribunes.
A tribune was an official of ancient Rome elected by the plebians to protect their rights; protector of the people. They could not make laws, but they could stop any law they thought would hurt the Plebeian class.
Rome’s next government served as a representative democracy in the form of a republic.
In the year B.C. 462 the Tribune C. Terentilius Arsa proposed a rotation that five men should be appointed for the purpose of preparing a set of laws to limit the Imperium of the consuls.
The Patricians opposed the measure, but it was brought forward by the tribunes in the following year with some modifications: the new rotation proposed that ten men should be appointed (legum latores) from the plebs and the patricii, who were to make laws for the advantage of both classes, and for the “equalizing of liberty,” a phrase the import of which can only be understood by reference to the disputes between the two classes (Liv. II.10;Dionys. X.3).
Punishment of Roman Law Crucifixion: most shameful and disgraceful way of death – Used on criminals and rebels, punishment for serious offenses such as rebellion, treason, and robbery.
The Romans used crucifixion because it was painful and made the criminal suffer, which was seen as payment for their crimes.
The criminal had to first carry their cross outside of the city, where the execution would take place.
The criminal was then whipped with a flagrum, which was a leather whip with small pieces of metal and bone attached to it.
Next the criminal was either nailed to the cross or they were bound to the cross and left to die of hunger.
According to Dionysius (X.52, 54) in the year B.C. 454 the Senate assented to a Plebiscitum, pursuant to which commissioners were to be sent to Athens and the Greek cities generally, in order to make themselves acquired with their laws.
Three commissioners were appointed for the purpose.
Displayed in the Forum which served as the marketplace or public place of an ancient Roman city forming the center of judicial and public business, “The Twelve Tables” stated the rights and duties of the Roman citizen.
They provided legal security among the Romans by establishing what was allowed and what wasn’t.
Before the Twelve Tables there was no written law, therefore people were being punished for wrongdoings, without technically breaking any laws.
The praetor, one of the Roman magistrates, published each year his edict in which he announced how he would apply the laws.
Their formulation was the result of considerable agitation by the plebeian class, who had hitherto been excluded from the higher benefits of the Republic.
Three commissioners were appointed for the purpose.
Roman Court Procedure had no public prosecution service, citizens had to bring cases up themselves.
Roman Court Procedure There was a moral obligation to judge a case called “officium” for any male citizen that was chosen to do so.
Legally no one was required to judge because it was recognized as a burden.
The judge was also not required to come to a conclusion.
If he swore that the case was not clear, he did not have to make a decision about anyone’s guilt.
Roman Court Procedure Roman trial proceedings differed during the Republic and the Empire.
During the republic, court cases were mostly private matters, and the verdicts were made by the judge (praetor) and the jury (quaestiones.)
Anyone who had the aid of a patron could press charges. During the Empire, Roman courts and their proceedings became much more elaborate and organized.
The senate took over the role of the Jury in the three criminal courts, one run by the emperor, another by the consuls, and a third by the city prefect.
At early stages, this was done by verbal summons rather than a legal document.
Next, a judge would be appointed and he would decide on the outcome of the case.
The next step would be the selection of the court for designated to try the case. These were chosen by lot, from an annual list of jurors prepared by the praetor at the beginning of each year.
The accuser could also request a summoning of up to 48 witnesses by the Magistrate, although later he could call up to how many ever he saw fit.
After the required number of jurors (usually 50-75) both the accuser and defendant had an opportunity to disallow a specified number of jurors.
The two parties could either agree on a judge or choose one from a list called the album iudicum.
The presiding magistrate would then replace the disqualified jurors by drawing names from the album iudicum.
During the trials the accuser and defendant dominated the scene by cross examinations.
Roman lawyers were different than today because they weren’t paid and did not present the case (this was mainly done by the client)
They could offer advice and had the choice to present a speech for either side In early Rome, a wealthy class of law specialists developed called juris consults who gave legal opinions to people.
This was not their main career it was more of a hobby.
Notaries appeared later in the roman empire.
They were responsible for, wills, conveyances, and contracts Anyone could call himself a legal expert, but the amount of cases he was asked to handle was up to his reputation This changed once Claudius legalized the legal profession.
During the Empire, Roman courts and their proceedings became much more elaborate and organized.
The senate took over the role of the Jury in the three criminal courts, one run by the emperor, another by the consuls, and a third by the city prefect.
The courts in Imperial Rome were not subject to public appeals, as they had been during the republic. Consuls decided upon whether or not a case would go to trial, and the presentation of evidence and calling of witnesses was strictly timed and recorded.
Provincial governors were allowed to compose their own formulas for court procedures, and in some cases, new governors changed the formulas every year, making the system impossible to keep up with.
Roman law is concerned with the relationships between people, their legal actions, and the right they have on goods.
For centuries there were no courts. In the great public trials, like the ones in which Cicero became famous, his role was more like that of an orator than the role of a modern solicitor.
There were many phases of the punishment process. Taking legal actions is a phase of its own. There were no actual judicial members until one of the final phases of the process.
Patricians: were the aristocratic landowners who held most of the power and inherited their power and social status.
They claimed their ancestry gave them power to make the laws for Rome and the people.
Plebeians: were the common farmers, artisans, and merchants who made up the majority of the population.
Citizens of Rome who had the right to vote ,were barred from holding the most important government positions. In time, the Senate allowed them to form their own assembly and elect representatives called tribunes.
The starting point of the Roman Constitution. Lex Valeria et Horatia de Plebiscitum (449 B.C.)- Defined the rights and authorities of the tribunes.
Leges Genuciae (342 BC)- States the same office should not be held twice within 10 years, and no man can hold two offices at once.
Lex Acilia et Calpurnia (67 BC)- Permanent expulsion from office in the case of corruption.
Tribunes protected the rights of the plebeians from unfair acts of patrician officials.
Although legal reform occurred soon after the implementation of the Twelve Tables, these ancient laws provided social protection and civil rights for both the patricians and plebeians, at a time when there was extreme tension between the privileged class and the common people resulting in the need for some form of social order and eased the civil tension and violence between the plebeians and patricians.
The law had previously been unwritten and exclusively interpreted by upper-class priests, the pontifices.
Initially, Rome’s wealthiest families, the patricians, held power and only they could hold political or religious offices.
Everyone else was considered plebeian, and no member of this group could hold office.
Over a period of nearly 200 years, however, the plebeians fought for and gained power within the government.
The Romans replaced the king with two consuls—( one of the two annually elected chief magistrates who jointly ruled the republic).
Consuls were rulers and members of the Patrician class who served one year terms under this title, and had many of the same powers as the king but were elected to serve one-year terms.
They were responsible for choosing senators, making sure the government ran properly, directing the army, determining the guilty from the non (judges), and finally if at war, they elected a dictator.
Both consuls had to agree on their decision, but each consul could veto, or reject, the actions of the other consul. ( veto is latin for I forbid) .
Although the office of consul probably did not exist in its final form until around 300 BC, the idea behind this change—to prevent any one man from becoming too powerful—was present early on in Roman thought and shaped many of Rome’s political institutions.
Beginning work in 451 BC., the first set of 10 commissioners (Decemviri) produced 10 tables, which were later supplemented by 2 additional tables.
They furnished the foot-rule by which law was, though with an ever-decreasing intensity, measured through ten long centuries.
In 450 BC. the code was formally posted, on bronze tablets, attached to the face of the rostra (speaker’s platform) in the Roman Forum.
The written recording of the law in the Twelve Tables enabled the plebeians both to become acquainted with the law and to protect themselves against patricians’ abuses of power.
Mos Maiorum Consuetudo (Customary Law) developed out of the continuity and stability of a given social behavior.
The Romans felt customary law was the silent expression of the will of the people.
They contrasted it with Statutory Law, which is an overt expression of that will.
The Twelve Tables allegedly were written by the Decemviri, at the insistence of the plebeians, who felt their legal rights were hampered by the fact that court judgments were rendered according to unwritten custom preserved only within a small group of learned patricians.
The social class order before everything changed pre (494BC) was straight forward.
Patricians (an aristocrat or nobleman) were on the top being the rich ruling class being senators- consuls and preators.
Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army; or, an elected magistratus, assigned various duties. (Praetors also acted as judges and interpreted the law.)
Next up, were the plebeians poor with little rights and nowhere equal to patricians.
Last were the freemen and the slaves with no rights at all, the only thing different about freemen was they were released slaves. treated harshly and whipped and forced to do work.
After the roman social class order changed, (post 494BC) made a huge impact on the patricians and plebeians first off patricians could now marry plebeians and vise versa.
However, the plebeians such as, the shop keepers and cleaners, got so upset with their few rights they decided to leave and city became a mess, so after they left the patricians invited them back giving them similar rights to the consul of plebs and tribune, they were also now allowed to vote and elect senators.
The Twelve Tables were not a reform or a liberalizing of old custom.
Rather, 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 the result not of any innovations by the Decemviri but rather of the progress that had been made in commercial customs in Rome in an era of prosperity and vigorous trade.
Because only random quotations from the Twelve Tables are extant, knowledge about their contents is largely derived from references in later juridical writings.
Venerated by the Romans as a prime legal source, the Twelve Tables were superseded by later changes in Roman law but were never formally abolished.
The Twelve Tables were dictated by the rigid and jealous spirit of an aristocracy which had yielded with reluctance to the just demands of the people.
But the substance of the Twelve Tables was adapted to the state of the city, and the Romans had emerged from barbarism, since they were capable of studying and embracing the institutions of their more enlightened neighbors.
seen below: Demonstrative and highly emotive, Henry Tresham’s history paintings show the influence of Henry Fuseli.
This work illustrates a Roman story dating from ca. 450BC, in which the centurion Virginus stabbed his daughter, Virginia, to protect her from the lust of a cruel consul, Appius Claudius Crassus. Virginus put his daughter’s honour before her life.
This event brought about an uprising and the eventual fall of the ruling Decemviri, who were renowned for abusing their power.
At the heart of the Roman Republic was the Senate.
It is believed that the Senate existed during the rule of the Etruscan kings.
The Senate advised the kings on matters pertaining to rules governing the city and population.
In the republic, members of the patrician class served as advisors to the other governing bodies of the republic.
Although the Senate did not formally make laws, the prestige of its members gave the Senate great influence over Rome’s law-making bodies.
The Senate lasted as a sole governing body for the republic for only a brief time, lasting from the republic’s founding in 509 B.C. until 494 B.C., when a strike orchestrated by the plebeians resulted in the establishment of the Concilium Plebis, or the Council of the Plebs.
This gave the plebeians a voice in the government. As a result, new legislative, or law-making bodies of the Roman Republic, were formed. Called assemblies, these legislative bodies shared power in the following way:
- Comitia Centuriata – Decided about war and peace; passed laws; elected magistrates (consuls, praetors, and censors); considered appeals of capital convictions, conducted foreign relations.
- Concilium Plebis – Elected its own officials, formulated decrees for observance by the plebeian class; in 287 B.C., gained the power to make all decrees binding for the entire Roman community.
- Comitia Tributa – The tribal assemblies, open to all citizens; elected minor officials; approved legislative decisions often on local matters; could wield judicial powers but could only levy fines rather than capital punishment.
Leading the republic were two consuls who were elected by legislative assemblies. They served for one year, presided over the Roman Senate, and commanded the Roman military.
Depitcted below:
- Crusian Demarius, leader of the Vitorian Consul
Though their power was somewhat limited by the establishment of other magistrate positions, the consuls were effectively the heads of state.
The republic stood strong for several centuries.
However, as Rome’s power and territory expanded, internal conflicts began to emerge as citizens and families struggled for power.
For example, in the 1st century B.C. the famous Roman orator Marcus Cicero uncovered a plot by a Roman senator, Lucius Catiline, to overthrow the Roman government.
Some citizens, such as the Gracchus brothers, attempted to institute government reforms and social reforms to help the poor.
Ultimately, factions emerged (loyal to either the patrician or plebeian classes or to a specific military general), hostilities erupted, and a series of civil wars plagued the republic.
During these civil wars, a prominent general and statesmen named Julius Caesar began gaining significant power. He commanded the loyalty of the soldiers in his army and enjoyed access to substantial wealth after conquering the province of Gaul.
- The Senate of the Roman Empire was a political institution in the ancient Roman Empire. After the fall of the Roman Republic, the constitutional balance of power shifted from the “Roman Senate” to the “Roman Emperor.”
The Senate, fearful of Caesar’s power, demanded he give up command of his army and return to Rome as a citizen. Caesar refused, instead marching his army south directly into Rome.
As a result, another civil war erupted between Caesar and his chief political rival, Pompey. Caesar emerged victorious, and was named dictator for life.
Other leaders within the republic feared Caesar would become a tyrant with this new title. To prevent this, a group of senators conspired and assassinated him.
In response to Caesar’s death, his nephew and heir Augustus defeated the conspirators. He then established himself as the first Roman emperor.
The Roman Empire dramatically shifted power away from representative democracy to centralized imperial authority, with the emperor holding the most power.
For example, under Augustus’ reign, emperors gained the ability to introduce and veto laws, as well as command the army.
Furthermore, the emperor wielded significant authority over those who served in lower level executive positions.
No citizen could hold office without the emperor’s consent. As a result of this redistribution of power, the popular assemblies that functioned during the republican period became less important and powerful.
While the assembly became virtually ceremonial, the Senate survived. Primarily, the Senate survived during the early period of the empire as a legitimizer of an emperor’s rule.
The powers given to the emperor still came from the Senate. Since the Senate was composed of Rome’s elite and intellectual citizens, they impacted public opinion.
With this power, the Senate could declare an emperor to be an enemy of the state, or following an emperor’s removal or death, the Senate could officially wipe the record of his reign from official history.
At the time of Augustus’ reign, the Roman Republic had solidified control over the Italian peninsula, established North African colonies following its victory over Carthage during the Punic Wars, and controlled large swaths of territory in Spain and Gaul. Under the Imperial Roman emperors, Roman territory expanded farther, dominating most of the European continent, including Britain and major areas of modern-day Eastern Europe.
This expansion, while bringing to Rome great wealth, power, and prestige, ultimately helped bring about its downfall.
Even with the Roman road system contributing to the mobility of the military and trade, the cost of maintaining the vast empire weighed heavily on both Rome’s treasury and its political administration.
Added to this burden were increasing raids and attacks by foreign tribes and communities. Emperors attempted to solve these problems through internal reforms.
Roman Army :All citizens who owned land were required to serve in the army. To secure certain public offices, 10 years of service were required.
Roman soldiers were organized into large military units called legions. The Roman legion was made up of some 5,000 heavily armed foot soldiers which was known as an infantry.
Legions were divided into smaller groups of about 100 men, each of which was called a century. This military organization and fighting skill of the Roman army were key factors in Rome’s rise to greatness.
For example, the emperor Diocletian split control of the Roman Empire into two halves, a western and an eastern portion.
Diocletian believed the territories throughout the empire would be easier to control and support if they were overseen by two administrations.
seen below:
- Days of Diocletian festival held in Croatia.
In 284 A.D., Diocletian, a strong- willed army leader, became the new emperor. Diocletian accomplished many reforms: –
- Doubled the size of the Roman armies.
- He divided the empire into Greek-speaking East, and Latin- speaking West.
- Diocletian took the Eastern Empire and appointed General Maximian ruler of the Western Empire.
- Each emperor had an assistant, who was to become their successor.
Diocletian retired in 305 A.D. and plans for his succession failed after his death in 311. The results:
- 312: Constantine gains control of the Western Empire
- 324: Constantine gains control of the Eastern Empire
- 330: Constantine moves the capital from Rome to the Greek city of Byzantium, a grave consequence for the Roman Empire.
- He renamed the city Constantinople.
Future emperors attempted similar reforms, but ultimately the internal conflict between the eastern and western halves, external pressure by foreign tribes, and the ongoing depletion of Rome’s wealth and infrastructure finally rendered the empire vulnerable to collapse.
In A.D. 476, the last of the western Roman emperors, Romulus Augustulus, was dethroned. Nevertheless, the eastern half of the Roman Empire, identified in history as the Byzantine Empire, would last another thousand years falling to the Ottoman Turks in A.D. 1453.
Thank you for the encouragement, means a lot.
Wow – thanks for sharing all this research. I realized, while reading your post, that I know very little about Roman history. You’ve certainly provided a lot of history here. Thanks again!