Roman Law: The Twelve Tables Of Rome

Both the United States and roman republic have government that is similar today. In the United States we have the: executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch. The twelve tables remind me of the bill of rights. The law of the twelve

The Code of Hammurabi from the ancient Babylonian civilization, and the Twelve Tables from Ancient Rome society were both sets of laws from by which their societies had to abide. The Ancient Babylonian society abided by the Code of Hammurabi while the Ancient Romans abided by The Twelve Tables. Although they both served as promising laws to live by, they also served as tools that defined and distinguished each citizen’s position in the social order. Depending on where they stood in the social order, any criminal punishment would be tailored to that specific class. In Mesopotamian history, the most consummate code of law was the Code of Hammurabi, engendered by the King Hammurabi. The Twelve Tables was created by the Roman elites in order to create justice and fairness between the plebian and patricians. Both these sets of laws, although belonging to different societies, sought to create the illusion of fairness and equality outwardly towards the people, and inwardly, reward the rich and elite of their respective social class with power. Although these sets of laws belonged to different societies, they both casted an illusion of fairness and equality. However, in actuality these regulations only benefited the rich and elite.

The Twelve Tables were the first laws ever written down and shown to the public in Ancient Rome. The Twelve Tables were displayed in the Roman Forum or marketplace. The Twelve Tables were also the earliest surviving writings of Ancient Rome.

Roman law in the republic was often based on custom (Paul-Louis). During the Roman Empire, however, the emperor became the final source of law. Roman law was one of the original products of the Roman mind. They created the Twelve Tables, which was the first Roman code of law developed during the early republic. Roman civil law allowed great flexibility in adopting new ideas or extending principles in the complex environment of the empire. This was to establish laws that allowed greater fairness. Early Roman law

In Ancient Rome, The way society worked was much similar to America. The Roman social class is and has been very significant in the operational American social class. None of the Roman class’ was oppressed or enslaved rather they were split into two. Once the Romans defeated the Etruscans they went on to build an empire that would change the world. Their influence in today’s society is still very present. We still borrow ideas from them. They formed a government where they would elect people to represent for them, called a republic. This is still the foundation for government in most of today’s world. They formed a system of law that was completely ahead of it’s time so much so that it has become the base for many countries legal system today; one of these being The United States. The political system they built, coincidental caused a division between the Romans. Plebeians were the common people of Rome; the Patricians who were the ones of higher class could serve in the consul. This was the highest position in the senate. The Assembly was made up of Plebeians. They had gained a significant amount of importance when they were the ones given the power to elect Consuls. The Assembly head position was a tribune; he was the leader of the Assembly and had a lot of power. Then they developed the Law of Twelve Tables, a

The Twelve Tables were first introduced to the Roman empire in 455 BC. The Plebeian and Patrician empires appointed a council of ten men to form a set of rules that bound their people. The council was called the Decemviri. Together, the

The ability to be ruled over a constitution gave the citizens guidelines and principles of penalties and un-approved actions one might occur to. The constitution balanced the separation of powers and scheduled elections. All of Roman laws were to be written in the 12 tables. The 12 tables was a constitution concerning laws for the people. Some categories of laws were Concerning judgement and thefts, concerning property which is lent, concerning the laws or real property, concerning public law , concerning religious law and ect. ( ssun.edu) The use of these laws provided a fair nation considering the faults of others and their penalties to society. The 12 tables was was developed in the early days of the Roman republic and the system lasted approximately 1000 years. Some laws concerning the nation were “putting to death …. of any man who has not been convicted, who ever he might be, is forbidden”. Also there were 8 types of punishments which were fines, fetters, flogging, retaliation in kind, civil disagreement, banishment, slavery and even death for any disobeyed laws in the constitution. The evidence proved that the republic of Rome had a constitution as a ruler for the citizens and because of it there was laws for them making it a safer city rather than having chaos without the punishments being recruited.

A Roman commission in the 451-229 B.C. time period created legislation establishing law and order for society to follow. Twelve tables were created as a code of ethics outlining rights and legal procedures. Rome at the time was a society deeply divided between the classes and these tables came about to equalize rights between aristocratic patricians and common plebeians.

What does it Say? The Roman Twelve tables are twelve tables that were created as a code of law. Each table explains the title of that code/law thoroughly. The tables are as follows: Table 1: Procedure: for courts and trials.

The Twelve Tables were drawn up by the ten appointed patrician decemvir under the public pressure around 449 B.C.. They probably were the elder to be qualified as a experienced statement, but they must be the male Roman citizens. There are a lot of bias in The Twelve Tables, such as pro patriarchy, pro preseving blood line, pro-male, pro-healthy offspring, and the most obvious was pro-patricians. Laws in The Twelve Tables targeted plebeians and have a presence to patricians.

Lastly for promote rule of law it earned a D. The laws were not really fair to everyone and their could have been changes that would of made Rome a better place. Some of the first laws were written in Rome on the Twelve Tables. The Twelve Tables were the first laws written down with each table being a different set of rules and laws to follow. It also stated the punishment on the tables. The twelve tables were made in 450 B.C. The laws were written to the rich citizens or poor citizens not to the non-citizens or the slaves. The slaves were pretty much possessions and could not be educated. The slaves were aloud to buy land to get their self out of slavery but it was a very slim chance.the slaves were most of the time free and turned into freed

The Laws of the Twelve Tables, c.450 B.C. was the earliest attempt by the Romans to create a code of law. The twelve Tables was the ancient legislation that stood at the roots of Roman law and formed the centerpiece of the constitution of the Roman Republic. This legal code was written so that citizens would know and abide by the law for the public or they were to be cases of punishment. These laws varied but included Laws relating to Debtors, Laws relating to Inheritance, Laws relating to Marriage, Rights of a Father, Laws relating to Property, Will and Testament and Laws relating to a Woman...etc. In table IV, paternal power, it basically explains that a father among the Romans had the power over life and death of his children, or so forth.

The Roman twelve tables were created in 450B.C. It was the romans first attempt to establish empire laws. The 12 tables were the oldest surviving piece of Roman literature. They dealt with laws involving property,crime and family matters to govern Rome and established the first “bicameral congress”. They were written on bronze tablets called tables.

The cursus honorum was the path that a Roman male would take through the ranks of government offices. The patrician male, who was a born in the upper class, would start as a quaestor, next curule aedile, then praetor, and finally consul. The plebeian male, who was born in the lower class, would start as a tribune, next plebeian aedile, then praetor, and finally consul. In times of emergency, a dictator was elected for six months with complete control of Rome. Each stage of the cursus honorum had many rules, from number of elected officials to the type of clothes they wore. The cursus honorum created a structured and regulated government, that helped led Rome to its greatness.

Justice has been misperceived to go hand and hand with rules in which a society must conform to, mostly in due part to the enlightenment era. In the case with the Romans, the laws they established, especially early on, dealing with the spread of Christianity has been interpreted with a sense of disgust for the unfair treatment targeted towards Christians, and later on to those of other faiths. However, I argue that, Roman law, when concerning religion, was used to strengthen the identity of what it meant to be Roman. Furthermore, as Rome, the political institution, was beginning to decay, as an act of acclamation, the formulation of Roman Laws allowed Christianity to be a main means of connection to what it meant to identify as Roman. Utilizing various primary sources, it is evident that faith had been gradually accepted as the dominant form of unity and law, beginning with Emperor Diocletian to Emperor Theodosia, even among emperors, the Catholic faith had shown that all men were under God, and under God they were all Roman.