| rdfs:comment | - Prior to the Twelve Tables, the law was whatever the last Roman King, Tarquinius Superbus (Tarquin the Superb) said it was. (I know it when I see it, the Swell One used to say.) A Cabal called the decemvirs (or "Nine Old Men") wrote the Twelve Tables in the year 451, and then again later, in 450, so that the common citizen in Rome could know exactly which of his civil rights the government had trampled.
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| abstract | - Prior to the Twelve Tables, the law was whatever the last Roman King, Tarquinius Superbus (Tarquin the Superb) said it was. (I know it when I see it, the Swell One used to say.) A Cabal called the decemvirs (or "Nine Old Men") wrote the Twelve Tables in the year 451, and then again later, in 450, so that the common citizen in Rome could know exactly which of his civil rights the government had trampled. The Twelve Tables were the basis of Roman law for many centuries of disappearances, poisonings, treachery, and conspiracy. Much of their contents has been lost to humankind. Despite not knowing what was in them, we are certain that they have informed much of the modern law that "protects" us today.
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