Twelve Tables replica discovered during the Renaissance ?

[Guest ronbarak]

Hi,

 

During a discussion of the Twelve Tables, I remarked remembering reading that Augustus created a marble replica of the Twelve Tables' laws, part of which were discovered when renovations were made during the Renaissance, and the marble was rescued from being ground for re-use as was the custom then.

 

However, I cannot remember where I read that, and all my searches led me only to texts stating that our knowledge of the laws ow the Twelve Tables are known from quotes in secondary sources.

 

Are any of you familiar with the above Renaissance factoid, and can give me the book it appears in ?

 

Thanks,

Ron.

[Melvadius]

I'm pretty sure that although, in common with all important Roman laws or regulations, they would have originally been carved/ cast in bronze the Twelve Tables have not survived in their original form or indeed in any way complete except possibly by inference.

 

However the remains of a large marble map of Rome was discovered in precisely this way and your source may have accidently conflated mixed up) the two facts. Full details of the marble map are available at Stanford Digital Forma Urbis Romae Project

while detailed discussion of the Twelve Tables from a late 19th Century book is on the Lacus Curtius site under Lex Duodecim Tabularum.

[romantimetable]

However the remains of a large marble map of Rome was discovered in precisely this way and your source may have accidently conflated mixed up) the two facts. Full details of the marble map are available at Stanford Digital Forma Urbis Romae Project

while detailed discussion of the Twelve Tables from a late 19th Century book is on the Lacus Curtius site under Lex Duodecim Tabularum.

 

Why is it called Twelve Tables? I am so good with Roman history...

[Melvadius]

As the Lacius Curtis site makes clear in early Rome there were twelve laws created which limited the imperium (power) of the consuls:

 

The Twelve Tables are mentioned by the Roman writers under a great variety of names: Leges Decemvirales, Lex Decemviralis, Leges XII, Lex XII tabularum or Duodecim, and sometimes they are referred to under the names of Leges and Lex simply, as being pre-eminently The Law.

 

For this purpose I would suggest that 'Lex XII tabularum' equates to 'Twelve Tables'.

[Maty]

The issue was that until then the Romans did not have their laws down in writing, so the patrician class could pretty well make things up to suit themselves. As the plebeian class became more powerful they agitated for a written legal code.

 

They sent a delegation to Greece where Solon had recently done the same thing, and the XII tables were the end result.