Note 21 — Chapter XI

The "Twelve Tables" were formulated about B.C. 450. They constituted the code of written law, and were written or engraved on tables of wood. They settled usages long in practice, but never before written, defining the rights of plebeians and patricians. They were agreed to only after ten years of dispute and mutual concession. They resembled Solon's laws, owing, doubtless, to the commission which was sent to Greece to study the laws of that country. These tables were destroyed when the Gauls sacked Rome (B.C. 390), but their contents had been widely committed to memory, and were handed down from generation to generation. The mothers saw to it that these laws were early taught to their children, who thus came to venerate them and to have respect for authority.