After years of pressure from the plebeians, who complained that the patrician judges applied secret customary law to their advantage, a commission of ten men, the decemvirs, drafted a code of law around 451 to 450 BC and had it engraved on bronze or wooden tablets displayed in the Forum. The Twelve Tables covered family law, debt, property, procedure and crimes. Roman boys learned them by heart even centuries later. The tables are the foundation of Roman law, which in turn became the basis of civil law systems across Europe and Latin America.
Before and after
- 470 BCEBirth of Socrates
- 466 BCEDiscovery of Halley's Comet
- 460 BCEBirth of Hippocrates
- 456 BCEDeath of Aeschylus
- c. 451 BCEThe Twelve Tables, Rome's first written law
- from 450 BCE to 15 CELa Tène culture
- c. 449 BCEConstruction of the Temple of Hephaestus
- from 448 BCE to 433 BCEConstruction of the Parthenon begins
- 445 BCEBirth of Aristophanes
More in Wars, politics & history
- c. 3,101 BCENarmer unifies Egypt
- c. 509 BCECleisthenes lays the foundations of Athenian democracy
- from 264 BCE to 146 BCEPunic Wars
- 147 BCERome destroys Carthage
- 2 September 31 BCEOctavian defeats Antony and Cleopatra at Actium
- August 70 CEThe Romans destroy the Temple in Jerusalem
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires. You can also browse everything in the 5th century BCE.