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Twelve Tables - Final Draft

The Laws of the Twelve Tables:

The commission produced enough statutes (most of them were already `customary law' anyway) to fill TEN TABLETS, but this attempt seems not to have been entirely satisfactory--especially to the plebeians. A second commission of ten was therefore appointed (450 B.C.) and two additional tablets were drawn up. The originals, said to have been inscribed on bronze, were probably destroyed when the Gauls sacked and burned Rome in the invasion of 387 B.C. Some of the provisions are procedural to ensure fairness amongst all Romans in the courts, while other established legal terms dictating the legality of capital crimes, international homicide, treason, perjury, judicial corruption, and writing slanderous poems. The Romans valued keeping peace in the city and the Twelve Tables were a mechanism of establishing and continuing peace and equality.

Table I. (Procedure)

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. 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. (Theft)

Where anyone commits a theft by night, and caught in the act is killed, he is legally killed. If anyone commits a theft during the day, and is caught in the act, he shall be scourged, and given up as a slave to the person against whom the theft was committed. Stolen property shall always be his to whom it formerly belonged; nor can the lawful owner ever be deprived of it by long possession; nor can it ever be acquired by another, no matter in what way this may take place. He whose witness has failed to appear may summon him by loud calls before his house every third day.

Table III. (Loans/Debt)

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. Against a foreigner the right in property shall be valid forever.

Table IV. (Rights of a Father)

A dreadfully deformed child shall be quickly killed. If a father sell his son three times, the son shall be free from his father. A child born after ten months since the father's death will not be admitted into a legal inheritance.

Table V. (Estates and Guardianship)

Female heirs should remain in guardianship even when they have attained the age of majority, but exception is made for the Vestal Virgins.

Table VI. (Ownership and Possession)

When anyone sells property by making a verbal agreement, this shall have the force of the law. Where a slave is ordered to be free by a will, upon his compliance with a certain condition, and he complies with the condition, he shall be free. Where a woman, who has not been united to a man in marriage, lives with him for an entire year without an interruption of three nights, she shall pass into his power as his legal wife. If a husband desires to divorce his wife, and dissolve his marriage, he must give a reason for doing so.

Table VII. (Crimes)

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. If one is slain while committing theft by night, he is rightly slain. If a patron shall have devised any deceit against his client, let him be accursed. Any person who destroys by burning any building or heap of corn deposited alongside a house shall be bound, scourged, and put to death by burning at the stake provided that he has committed the said misdeed with malice aforethought; but if he shall have committed it by accident, that is, by negligence, it is ordained that he repair the damage or, if he be too poor to be competent for such punishment, he shall receive a lighter punishment. A person who had been found guilty of giving false witness shall be hurled down from the Tarpeian Rock. No person shall hold meetings by night in the city.

Table VIII. (Real Estate)

Let them keep the road in order. If they have not paved it, a man may drive his team where he likes. A space of two feet and a half must be left between neighboring buildings. The space of five feet shall be left between adjoining fields, by means of which the owners can visit their property, or drive and plow around it. When a tree overhangs the land of a neighbor, so as to case injury by its branches and its shade, it shall be cut off 15 feet from the ground. When the fruit of a tree falls upon the premises of a neighbor, the owner of the tree shall have the right to gather and remove it.

Table IX. (Public Law)

The penalty shall be capital for a judge or arbiter legally appointed who has been found guilty of receiving a bribe for giving a decision. Treason: he who shall have roused up a public enemy or handed over a citizen to a public enemy must suffer capital punishment. Putting to death of any man, whosoever he might be unconvicted is forbidden.

Table X. (Religion)

None is to bury or burn a corpse in the city. The women shall not tear their faces nor wail on account of the funeral.

Table XI. (Supplement I)

Affairs of great importance shall not be transacted without the vote of the people, with whom rests the power to appoint magistrates, to condemn citizens, and to enact laws. Laws subsequently passed always take preference over former ones. Marriages should not take place between plebeians and patricians.

Table XII. (Supplement II)

Whatever the people had last ordained should be held as binding by law.

Women in the Laws of the Twelve Tables

What the Twelve Tables Says About Women:

• Table V (Estates and Guardianship): “Female heirs should remain under guardianship even when they have attained the age of majority, but exception is made for the Vestal Virgins.” 
• Table VI (Ownership and Possession): “Where a woman, who has not been united to a man in marriage, lives with him for an entire year without an interruption of three nights, she shall pass into his power as his legal wife.” 
• Table X (Religion): “Women shall not during a funeral lacerate their faces, or tear their cheeks with their nails; nor shall they utter loud cries bewailing the dead.”

While the Twelve Tables does not provide a full view into the lives of women in the early Roman Republic, the Tables do provide scholars with a basic understanding of the legal rights of women. One aspect, highlighted in the Twelve Tables, of the life of a woman is her legal status and standing within society. The fact that women were even acknowledged at all as a significant entity in which laws needed to be centered around, says that the Roman Republic realized the important role of women in the society. First, from the Twelve Tables, onlookers are able to infer that women were to be under the guardianship of a kind similar to that of minors. Second, we may conjecture that a woman was deemed something similar to a movable thing or piece of real estate or property. The individual who is “owned” in the relationship often times tries to break free and disassociate from the social construct that confines their innate human freedom. Due to the lack of sources, when referring to property, while there could be several meanings, scholars are only able to guess what property was. In general, many have agreed that property referred to, who could own it, and what owning meant altogether. Third, in funerals women were prohibited from showing their emotions in the specified ways. This is a point of intrigue as it fails to address the emotions of men at funerals; did men not have emotions; or were they legally allowed to demonstrate their emotions freely? The lack of explanation of legally sanctioned male behavior at funerals signifies that men were allowed to act freely and only women had to suppress and internalize their emotions. 

Twelve Tables - Rough Draft

The Laws of the Twelve Tables:

***Want to further expand on these twelve laws***I'm trying to figure out how to further expand on the twelve tables other than just the laws.

The commission produced enough statutes (most of them were already `customary law' anyway) to fill TEN TABLETS, but this attempt seems not to have been entirely satisfactory--especially to the plebeians. A second commission of ten was therefore appointed (450 B.C.) and two additional tablets were drawn up. The originals, said to have been inscribed on bronze, were probably destroyed when the Gauls sacked and burned Rome in the invasion of 387 B.C.

The Twelve Tables give the student of Roman culture a chance to look into the workings of a society which is still quite agrarian in outlook and operations, and in which the main bonds which hold the society together and allow it to operate are: the clan (genos, gens), patronage (patron/client), and the inherent (and inherited) right of the patricians to leadership (in war, religion, law, and government).

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.

2. If he shirks or runs away, let the summoner lay hands on him.

6-9. 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.

3. Against a foreigner the right in property shall be valid forever.

Table IV.

1. A dreadfully deformed child shall be quickly killed.

2. If a father sell his son three times, the son shall be free from his father.

5. A child born after ten months since the father's death will not be admitted into a legal inheritance.

Table V.

1. Females should remain in guardianship even when they have attained their majority.

Table VI.

1. When one makes a bond and a conveyance of property, as he has made formal declaration so let it be binding.

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.

9. Should a tree on a neighbor's farm be bent crooked by the wind and lean over your farm, you may take legal action for removal of that tree.

10. A man might gather up fruit that was falling down onto another man's farm.

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.

10. Any person who destroys by burning any building or heap of corn deposited alongside a house shall be bound, scourged, and put to death by burning at the stake provided that he has committed the said misdeed with malice aforethought; but if he shall have committed it by accident, that is, by negligence, it is ordained that he repair the damage or, if he be too poor to be competent for such punishment, he shall receive a lighter punishment.

23. A person who had been found guilty of giving false witness shall be hurled down from the Tarpeian Rock.

26. No person shall hold meetings by night in the city.

Table IX.

4. The penalty shall be capital for a judge or arbiter legally appointed who has been found guilty of receiving a bribe for giving a decision.

5. Treason: he who shall have roused up a public enemy or handed over a citizen to a public enemy must suffer capital punishment.

6. Putting to death of any man, whosoever he might be unconvicted is forbidden.

Table X.

1. None is to bury or burn a corpse in the city.

3. The women shall not tear their faces nor wail on account of the funeral.

Table XI.

1. Marriages should not take place between plebeians and patricians.

Table XII.

5. Whatever the people had last ordained should be held as binding by law.

Mellor, Ronald. The Historians of Ancient Rome: An Anthology of the Major Writings. London: Routledge, 2013. Print.

***I might add sections on the authenticity of the twelve tables and cicero's contribution to the twelve tables***

Topic Ideas:

• Roman Law (Classical)I think it would be interesting to further explore this idea as well as the law that was created so that foreigners could have a fair trial against governors. Interesting topic idea?
• Very interested in the Twelve Tables - I also think it could still be expanded on
• I definitely want to discuss the Roman laws in some capacity - still need to narrow things down

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