Roman Law in European History

THE LAW OF THE TWELVE TABLES

When recorded history begins, Rome was a monarchy, but at the end of the sixth century bc the kings were expelled and a republic was established in their place. At this time, Rome was a small community on the left bank of the river Tiber not far from its estuary. Its people believed that they were descended from refugees from the city of Troy after its sack by the Greeks. Their law was a set of unwritten customs, passed on orally from one generation to the next, which were regarded as part of their folk heritage as Romans. These laws were applicable only to those who could claim to be Roman citizens (ius civile, law for cives, citizens).

In cases where the application of a customary rule to a particular case was doubtful, the interpretation of the college of pontiffs, a body of aristocrats responsible for maintaining the state religious cults, was decisive. The citizen body was divided into two social groups, the patricians, a relatively small group of propertied families of noble birth, and the plebeians, numerically larger but disadvantaged in various ways. The pontiffs were exclusively patrician and the plebeians naturally suspected that their pronouncements on the validity of particular acts and forms were not always entirely disinterested. The plebeians argued that if the customary law were written down in advance of cases arising, it would be to their advantage.