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Twelve Tables
Twelve Tables
A Council of Ten were
appointed to draw up a code of laws, and, at the same time,
to carry on the government and administer justice. This code
of Law came to be called the Twelve Tables. They entered
upon their office at the beginning of B.C. 451. They were
all Patricians. They drew up a Code of Ten Tables, in which
equal justice was dealt out to both orders, the Patricians
and the Plebeians. The Ten Tables was sanctioned and became
law. A new Council of Ten was elected, of whom Appius
Claudius alone belonged to the former body as he had been
seen as fair and just. But this only an act and he turned
into a tyrant. Under his direction two new Tables were added
to the Code, making twelve tables in all; but these new laws
were of the most oppressive kind, and confirmed privileges
of the Patricians.
Twelve Tables - Laws
relating to Debtors
By the laws of the twelve
tables, it was ordained, that insolvent debtors should be
given up to their creditors, to be bound in fetters and
cords, and although they did not entirely lose the rights of
freemen, yet they were in actual slavery, and often more
harshly treated than even slaves themselves. To check the
cruelty of usurers, a law was afterwards made that no
debtors should be kept in irons, or in bonds; that the goods
of the debtor, not his person, should be given up to his
creditors. The people, not satisfied with this, as it did
not free them from prison, demanded an entire abolition of
debt, which they used to call new tables; but this was never
granted.
Twelve Tables - Laws
relating to Inheritance
Each clan and family had
certain sacred rights, peculiar to itself, which were
inherited in the same manner as effects. When heirs by the
father's side of the same family failed, those of the same
gens succeeded in preference to relations by the mother's
side of the same family. No one could pass from a Patrician
family to a Plebeian, or from a Plebeian to a Patrician,
unless by that form of adoption which could only be made at
the comitia curiata as decreed by the laws in the Twelve
Tables..
Twelve Tables - Laws
relating to Marriage
No Roman citizen could
marry a slave, barbarian or foreigner, unless by the
permission of the people as decreed by the laws in the
Twelve Tables..
Twelve Tables - Laws
relating to the Rights of a Father
A father among the Romans
had the power of life and death over his children. He could
not only expose them when infants, but when grown up he
might imprison, scourge, send them bound to work in the
country, and also put them to death by any punishment he
pleased as decreed by the laws in the Twelve Tables.
Twelve Tables - Laws
relating to Property
A son could acquire no
property but with his father's consent, and what he thus
acquired was called his peculium as of a slave. Things with
respect to property among the Romans were variously divided.
Some were said to be of divine right, and were held sacred,
as altars, temples, or any thing publicly consecrated to the
gods, by the authority of the Pontiffs; or religious, as
sepulchres—or inviolable, as the walls and gates of a city.
Others were said to be of human right, and called profane.
These were either public and common, as the air, running
water, the sea and its shores; or private, which might be
the property of individuals.
Twelve Tables - Laws
relating to a
Will and Testament
None but a Roman citizen could make a will, or be witnesses
to a testament, or inherit any thing by it. The usual method
of making a will after the laws of the twelve tables were
enacted, was by brass and balance, as it was called. In the
presence of five witnesses, a weigher and witness, the
testator by an imaginary sale disposed of his family and
property to one who was called familiae emptor, who was not
the heir as some have thought, but only admitted for the
sake of form, that the testator might seem to have alienated
his effects in his life time. This act was called familiae
mancipatio. Sometimes the testator wrote his will wholly
with his own hand, in which case it was called holographum,
sometimes it was written by a friend, or by others. Thus the
testament of Augustus was written partly by himself, and
partly by two of his freedmen. Testaments were always
subscribed by the testator, and usually by the witnesses,
and sealed with their seals or rings. They were likewise
tied with a thread drawn thrice through holes and sealed;
like all other civil deeds, they were always written in
Latin. A legacy expressed in Greek was not valid. They were
deposited either privately in the hands of a friend, or in a
temple with the keeper of it. Thus Julius Caesar is said to
have entrusted his testament to the oldest of the vestal
virgins.
Twelve Tables - Guardians
In the Twelve Tables a
father might leave whom he pleased as guardian to his
children; but if he died, this charge devolved by law on the
nearest relation by the father's side. When there was no
guardian by testament, nor a legal one, the praetor and the
majority of the tribunes of the people appointed a guardian.
If any one died without making a will, his goods devolved on
his nearest relations as decreed by the laws in the Twelve
Tables.
Twelve Tables - Laws
relating to a
Women
Women could not transact
any business of importance without the concurrence of their
parents, husbands, or guardians as decreed by the laws in
the Twelve Tables.
The Twelve Tables
The Twelve Tables contain
Debtors Laws, Inheritance Laws, Marriage Laws, Rights of a
Father, Property Laws, Will and Testament and Laws relating
to Women.
Twelve Tables
The content of this Twelve Tables
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