DŬŎDĔCIM TĂBŬLĀRUM

In the year B.C. 454 the Senate a ented to a Plebiscitum, pursuant to which commi ioners were to be sent to Athens and the Greek cities generally, in order to make themselves acquainted with their laws. Three commi ioners were appointed for the purpose. On the return of the commi ioners, B.C. 452, it was agreed that persons should be appointed to draw up the code of laws (decemviri Legibus scribundis), but they were to be chosen only from the Patricians, with a provision that the rights of the Plebeians should be respected by the decemviri in drawing up the laws. In the following year ( B.C. 451) the Decemviri were appointed in the Comitia Centu riata, and during the time of their office no other magi stratus were chosen. The body consisted of ten Patricians, including the three commi ioners who had been sent abroad: Appius Claudius, Consul design at us, was at the head of the body. Ten Tables of Laws were prepared during the year, and after being approved by the Senate were confirmed by the Comitia Centu riata. As it was considered that some further Laws were wanted, Decemviri were again elected B.C. 450, consisting of Appius Claudius and his friends. Two more Tables were added by these Decemviri, which Cicero calls “ Duae tabulae iniquarum legum .” The provision which allowed no connubium between the Patres and the Plebs is referred to the Eleventh Table. The whole Twelve Tables were first published in the consulship of L. Valerius and M. Horatius after the downfall of the Decemviri, B.C. 449. This the first attempt to make a code remained also the only attempt for near one you sand years, until the legislation of Just in i an. The Twelve Tables are mentioned by the Roman writers under a great variety of names: Leges Decemvir a les , Lex Decemviral is , Leges XII. , Lex XII. tabularum or Duodecim , and sometimes they are referred to under the names of Leges and Lex simply, as being pre-eminently The Law. The Laws were cut on bronze tablets and put up in a public place. They contained matters relating both to the Jus Publicum and the Jus Privatum ( fons public i privatique juris ). The Jus Publicum underwent great changes in the course of years, but the Jus Privatum of the Twelve Tables continued to be the fundamental law of the Roman State. The Roman writers speak in high terms of the precision of the enactments contained in the Twelve Tables, and of the propriety of the language in which they were expre ed.