The Law of the Twelve Tables (Illustrated Edition)

The Law of the Twelve Tables (Latin: Leges Duodecim Tabularum or, informally, Duodecim Tabulae) was the ancient legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. The Law of the Twelve Tables formed the centrepiece of the constitution of the Roman Republic and the core of the mos maiorum (custom of the ancestors). The Twelve Tables are distinguished from the unrelated and much older "twelve shields" of King Numa Pompilius. According to traditional, semilegendary 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 the plebeians could not be surprised and would know the law. Patricians long opposed this request, but around 451 BC, the first decemviri (decemvirate - board of "Ten Men") was appointed to draw up the first ten tables. They allegedly sent an embassy to Greece to study the legislative system of Athens, known as the Solonian Constitution, but also to find out about the legislation of other Greek cities. Modern scholars believe the Roman assembly most likely visited the Greek cities of Southern Italy, and did not travel all the way to Greece.[citation needed] In 450 B.C., the second decemviri started work on the last two tables. This edition includes pictures of Ancient Rome