Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/66

52 II. The Decemvirs, the Laws of the Twelve Tables, and the Second Secession.

The First Decemvirs. — On the resignation of the consuls and the tribunes the decemvirs entered office in 451. They were devoted to their work, just in the performance of their official duties, and they voluntarily allowed appeal to the people. Having drawn up a number of laws, they submitted them to the assembly of centuries for ratification. The laws were confirmed by the people, were engraved on ten tables of copper, and fastened to the platform in the Forum. As a supplement was necessary, decemvirs were elected again in 450. They added two more tables.

Laws of the Twelve Tables. — The laws of these Twelve Tables formed the first and the only code of the Roman republic. Livy speaks of them as the source of all public and private law. They contained a few constitutional provisions, but were in the main a code of private law and procedure.

Law concerning Debt, Money, and Intermarriage. — The old form of verbal contract (nexum per aes et libram, p. 41) continued to be legal and valid. According to another and perhaps later form of contract a debtor who had been adjudged (addictus) by a magistrate to his creditors, might at the end of about sixty days, and after due announcements, be cut to pieces by them or sold as a slave.

A maximum legal interest of ten per cent for twelve months was established; and perhaps money was introduced as a standard of value in place of cattle. A list was published of the days on which the courts might be in session. The eleventh or twelfth table stated expressly that the patricians and plebeians did not have the right of intermarriage (conubium).