DOTLAN EveMaps

u'Creation of The Twelve Tables

According to tradition, in 451 BCE a committee, the decemviri, were, following public pressure, given the task of composing a law code which would better represent the interests of the ordinary people (plebeians) and reduce the undue influence on Roman law of the aristocrats (patricians) and priests (pontifices). These latter had exclusively sat on a council which interpreted the law as they saw fit. In preparation for this responsibility, a delegation of three men was sent to Athens where they studied the laws of the celebrated lawgiver Solon (c. 640 \u2013 c. 560 BCE). Then ten men, all patricians, were given consular power (imperium) and permitted to draw up a list of laws which they considered most needed and useful.'