2. introduction
? In 451 BCE plebeian presser led to the creation of a special
committee of ten man who were responsible for codifying Rome’s
laws and making them public. In so doing, the plebeians hoped that
they could restrict the arbitrary power of the patricians magistrates
who alone had access to the laws. The twelve tables represent the
first formal codification of roman laws and customs. The dealt the
litigation procedures, debt , family relations, property and others
matters of public and sacred law. Consider a land mark in the
de3velopment of roman law, the twelve tables remain one of the
fundamental texts memorized by roman schoolboys until the time of
Cicero. The code was inscribed in bronze plaques , which eventually
were destroyed. These selections are taken the reconstructions of
the code preserved in later writings.
3. TABLE ONE
1. If anyone summons a man before the
magistrate he must go. If the man summoned
does not go. Let the one summing the
bystander him to withness and then take him
by force.
4. Table two
He whose witness has failed to appear may
summons him by loud calls before of his house
has every third day.
5. Table three
? One has confessed a debt , or against whom judgement has
benn pronounced, shall have thirty days to pay at in. After the
forceible seizure of his person is allowed. the creditor shall
bring him before the magistrate. Unless he pays the amount of
the judgement or someone in the aprence of the magistrate
interferes in his behalf as protector the creditor so shall take
him home and fasten him in stocks or fetters. He shall fasten
him with not less than fifteen pounds of weight or, if he
chooses , with more. If the prisoner chooses , he may furnish
his own food. If he does not, the craditor must give him a
pound of meal daily, he choses he may give him more.