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Authors: Paul A. Zoch
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II.32.8-11)
Menenius then compared that story to the political problems in Rome, and the common people's anger cooled. The two sides negotiated and reached this decision: The plebeians were to have their own officers, called tribunes , who would represent them and protect them from the magistrates' abuses of power. The tribunes would be sacrosanct (immune to the power of those holding imperium ), and no man from the patrician class could be a tribune. Eventually the tribunes gained the power to veto any action of the magistrates; armed with this intercessio , one tribune could put a halt to what the Senate and consuls were doing (see chapter 6).
The Twelve Tables
The patricians still kept great power over the common people, because the tribunes were the plebeians' sole representatives in the government. All the magistrates were patricians, and the patricians alone knew the laws, which were not recorded, but were passed down orally through the generations. Undoubtedly the patricians changed the laws as they thought necessary and expedient. This imbalance of knowledge led to abuses of power and to civil strife. Finally, the two sides agreed to appoint a panel of ten men (called decemviri ) to write down the laws for all to see, read, and learn. While this was taking place, normal government was suspended, and the ten ruled Rome, with their decisions immune to veto or appeal.
Roman tradition says that three Romans were sent to Athens to study the laws of Solon, one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece, who had created reforms to save Athens from civil war in 594 B.C. After returning to Rome, in 451 B.C. the decemviri produced ten tables of laws, which were written on bronze or wooden tablets (Latin tabulae ). More were needed, however, so the ten then
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produced two more tables. The Twelve Tables, as they were called, became the foundation of Roman law. Once they had completed their work, the decemviri soon began to abuse their power and became hated by all; the usual government was then restored.
Although Roman schoolboys are said to have learned the Twelve Tables by heart, only fragments of the Twelve Tables survive, and their meaning is not always clear. Yet we can see in them both the Romans' concern for creating a civil, orderly society and also their respect for individual rights and property. Some of the laws, for example, established standards for legal procedure: how one citizen might call another to court, and what to do if he refused to come or ran away. Another such law stipulated that a judge who accepted a bribe should suffer capital punishment, and that a person who lied under oath must be hurled from the Tarpeian Rock.
Other laws detailed certain civil rights. For example, a citizen was guaranteed a trial before execution. A man in default of a debt was allowed a grace period of thirty days before being liable to arrest and being summoned to court; after the grace period, he could be put in chains and imprisoned, if the creditor wished, yet if the creditor decided to imprison the debtor, he had to feed him. One law prohibited marriage between plebeians and patricians; another guaranteed that a measure approved by the people had the force of law.
The Romans' concern for property rights is seen in other laws. If a man willfully destroyed another's building or heap of grain, he was to be flogged and burned at the stake, but if the destruction occurred because of his negligence or by accident, he had to repair the damage; if he was very poor, he would receive a lighter punishment. Another law concerning property probably gave Roman women some protection from abusive husbands and their families. With the exception of the Vestal Virgins, Roman women, by law (because of their supposed "lightness of mind," levitas animi ), were not allowed to be independent; they had to have a male guardian, whether a father, husband, or other male family member, who exercised legal rights for them. A married woman and her father's
Menenius then compared that story to the political problems in Rome, and the common people's anger cooled. The two sides negotiated and reached this decision: The plebeians were to have their own officers, called tribunes , who would represent them and protect them from the magistrates' abuses of power. The tribunes would be sacrosanct (immune to the power of those holding imperium ), and no man from the patrician class could be a tribune. Eventually the tribunes gained the power to veto any action of the magistrates; armed with this intercessio , one tribune could put a halt to what the Senate and consuls were doing (see chapter 6).
The Twelve Tables
The patricians still kept great power over the common people, because the tribunes were the plebeians' sole representatives in the government. All the magistrates were patricians, and the patricians alone knew the laws, which were not recorded, but were passed down orally through the generations. Undoubtedly the patricians changed the laws as they thought necessary and expedient. This imbalance of knowledge led to abuses of power and to civil strife. Finally, the two sides agreed to appoint a panel of ten men (called decemviri ) to write down the laws for all to see, read, and learn. While this was taking place, normal government was suspended, and the ten ruled Rome, with their decisions immune to veto or appeal.
Roman tradition says that three Romans were sent to Athens to study the laws of Solon, one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece, who had created reforms to save Athens from civil war in 594 B.C. After returning to Rome, in 451 B.C. the decemviri produced ten tables of laws, which were written on bronze or wooden tablets (Latin tabulae ). More were needed, however, so the ten then
Page 54
produced two more tables. The Twelve Tables, as they were called, became the foundation of Roman law. Once they had completed their work, the decemviri soon began to abuse their power and became hated by all; the usual government was then restored.
Although Roman schoolboys are said to have learned the Twelve Tables by heart, only fragments of the Twelve Tables survive, and their meaning is not always clear. Yet we can see in them both the Romans' concern for creating a civil, orderly society and also their respect for individual rights and property. Some of the laws, for example, established standards for legal procedure: how one citizen might call another to court, and what to do if he refused to come or ran away. Another such law stipulated that a judge who accepted a bribe should suffer capital punishment, and that a person who lied under oath must be hurled from the Tarpeian Rock.
Other laws detailed certain civil rights. For example, a citizen was guaranteed a trial before execution. A man in default of a debt was allowed a grace period of thirty days before being liable to arrest and being summoned to court; after the grace period, he could be put in chains and imprisoned, if the creditor wished, yet if the creditor decided to imprison the debtor, he had to feed him. One law prohibited marriage between plebeians and patricians; another guaranteed that a measure approved by the people had the force of law.
The Romans' concern for property rights is seen in other laws. If a man willfully destroyed another's building or heap of grain, he was to be flogged and burned at the stake, but if the destruction occurred because of his negligence or by accident, he had to repair the damage; if he was very poor, he would receive a lighter punishment. Another law concerning property probably gave Roman women some protection from abusive husbands and their families. With the exception of the Vestal Virgins, Roman women, by law (because of their supposed "lightness of mind," levitas animi ), were not allowed to be independent; they had to have a male guardian, whether a father, husband, or other male family member, who exercised legal rights for them. A married woman and her father's
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