Editing Twelve Tables (section)

{{short description|Roman statute forming the law}}
{{Roman government}}

'''The Laws of the Twelve Tables''' ({{Langx|la|lex duodecim tabularum}}) was the legislation that stood at the foundation of [[Roman law]]. Formally promulgated in 449 BC, the Tables consolidated earlier traditions into an enduring set of laws.<ref>Jolowicz, H.F. ''Historical Introduction to the Study of Roman Law'' (Cambridge, 1952), 108</ref><ref name="Crawford">Crawford, M.H. 'Twelve Tables' in Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth, and Esther Eidinow (eds.) ''Oxford Classical Dictionary'' (4th ed.)</ref>

In the [[Forum (Roman)|Forum]], "The Twelve Tables" stated the rights and duties of the [[Roman citizen]].  Their formulation was the result of considerable agitation by the [[plebeian]] class, who had hitherto been excluded from the higher benefits of the [[Republic]].  The law had previously been unwritten and exclusively interpreted by upper-class priests, the [[pontifices]].  Something of the regard with which later Romans came to view the Twelve Tables is captured in the remark of [[Cicero]] (106–43 BC) that the "Twelve Tables...seems to me, assuredly to surpass the libraries of all the philosophers, both in weight of authority, and in plenitude of utility".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/ancient/12tables.asp |website=Fordham University |title=Internet History Sourcebooks Project: Ancient History }}</ref>  Cicero scarcely exaggerated; the Twelve Tables formed the basis of Roman law for a thousand years.<ref>Book: "[[The Age of Classical Civilization]]"; Chapter "The Twelve Tables c. 450 BC"; p. 27</ref>

The Twelve Tables are sufficiently comprehensive that their substance has been described as a 'code',<ref>Mommsen, T. ''The History of Rome'' trans. W.P. Dickson (London,
1864) 290</ref> although modern scholars consider this characterization exaggerated.<ref name="Crawford"/> The Tables are a sequence of definitions of various private rights and procedures. They generally took for granted such things as the institutions of the family and various rituals for formal transactions. The provisions were often highly specific and diverse.<ref>Steinberg, S. 'The Twelve Tables and Their Origins: An Eighteenth-Century Debate' ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' Vol. 43, No. 3 (1982) 379–396, 381</ref>