Twelve Tables

The Romau plebs, in their struggle with the patricians for equality of rights, demanded that the laws of the state be reduced to written form, the patricians, it was claimed, administering the law to suit themselves. A commission of ten persons {decemviri) was appointed, 451 B. C, to draw up a code. In 452 the commission reported ten tables or chapters of laws, and added two more in 453. The object was to obtain an open and exact statement of the system already existing. This code continued for many centuries as the fundamental law. The legislation of Justinian supplanted it iu form. The original Tables were inscribed on plates of brass. Quotations are preserved in the extant worljs of ancient writers. Form and ceremony in actions were rigorously insisted upon.*