diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 14783-0.txt | 1004 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/14783-8.txt | 1399 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/14783-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 24576 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/14783.txt | 1399 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/14783.zip | bin | 0 -> 24558 bytes |
8 files changed, 3818 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/14783-0.txt b/14783-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0e4c8bb --- /dev/null +++ b/14783-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1004 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14783 *** + +THE TWELVE TABLES + + + +_prefaced, arranged, translated, annotated_ + +BY P.R. COLEMAN-NORTON + +PRINCETON UNIVERSITY + +DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The legal history of Rome begins properly with the Twelve Tables. It +is strictly the first and the only Roman code,[1] collecting the +earliest known laws of the Roman people and forming the foundation of +the whole fabric of Roman Law. Its importance lies in the fact that by +its promulgation was substituted for an unwritten usage, of which the +knowledge had been confined to some citizens of the community, a +public and written body of laws, which were easily accessible to and +strictly binding on all citizens of Rome. + +Till the close of the republican period (509 B.C.-27 B.C.) the Twelve +Tables were regarded as a great legal charter. The historian Livy (59 +B.C.-A.D. 17) records: "Even in the present immense mass of +legislation, where laws are piled on laws, the Twelve Tables still +form the fount of all public and private jurisprudence."[2] + +This celebrated code, after its compilation by a commission of ten men +(_decemviri_), who composed in 451 B.C. ten sections and two sections +in 450 B.C., and after its ratification by the (then) principal +assembly (_comitia centuriata_) of the State in 449 B.C., was engraved +on twelve bronze[3] tablets (whence the name Twelve Tables), which +were attached to the Rostra before the Curia in the Forum of Rome. +Though this important witness of the national progress probably was +destroyed during the Gallic occupation of Rome in 387 B.C., yet copies +must have been extant, since Cicero (106 B.C.-43 B.C.) says that in +his boyhood schoolboys memorized these laws "as a required +formula."[4] However, now no part of the Twelve Tables either in its +original form or in its copies exists. + +The surviving fragments of the Twelve Tables come from the writings of +late Latin writers and fall into these four types: + +(1) Fragments which seem to contain the original words (or nearly so) +of a law, "modernized" in spelling and to some extent in formation; + +(2) Fragments which are fused with the context of the quoter, but +which otherwise exhibit little distortion; + +(3) Fragments which not only are fused with the sentences of the citer +but also are much distorted, although these preserve in paraphrase the +purport of the provisions of a law; + +(4) Passages which present only an interpretation (or an opinion based +on interpretation) or a title or a convenient designation of a law. + +Only in very few cases do we know or can we conjecture the number of +the tablet whereon any law appeared. Consequently of the arrangement +very little is ascertainable and the attribution of some items to +certain tablets is debatable. The probable order of the fragments, +which total over 115, has been inferred from various statements and +from other indications of ancient authors. + +The amount of detail apparently varies either with the importance of +the matter or with the degree of general or particular knowledge of +the subject supposed by the commissioners to be held commonly by the +citizens. The style is characterized by such simplicity and by such +brevity that the meaning in some instances borders upon obscurity,--at +least so far as modern interpretation is concerned. + +The value of the Twelve Tables consists not in any approach to +symmetrical classification or even to terse clarity of expression, but +in the publication of the method of procedure to be adopted, +especially in civil cases, in the knowledge furnished to every Roman +of high or low degree as to what were both his legal rights and his +legal duties, in the political victory won by the plebeians, who +compelled the codification and the promulgation of what had been +largely customary law interpreted and administered by the patricians +primarily in their own interests. + + + + +THE TWELVE TABLES[5] + + +TABLE I. PROCEEDINGS PRELIMINARY TO TRIAL + +1. If he (the plaintiff) summon [the defendant] to court (_in ius_), +he (the defendant) shall go. If he (the defendant) go not, he (the +plaintiff) shall call a witness thereto. Then only he (the plaintiff) +shall take [the defendant] by force. + +2. If he (the defendant) attempt evasion or take to flight, he (the +plaintiff) shall lay hand [on the defendant]. + +3. If disease or [old] age shall be an impediment, he who shall summon +[the defendant] to court (_in ius_) shall grant [him] a conveyance; if +he (the plaintiff) shall not wish, he (the plaintiff) shall not spread +[with cushions] a covered carriage. + +4. For a freeholder (taxpayer whose fortune is valued at not less than +1,500 _asses_[6]) a freeholder shall be surety (_vindex_) [for his +appearance at trial]. For a proletary (non-taxpayer whose fortune is +rated at less than a freeholder's) any one who shall be willing shall +be surety (_vindex_). + +5. When they (the parties) come to terms, [an official] shall announce +[it].[7] + +6. If they (the parties) agree not on terms, they shall state [their] +case in the _comitium_ (meeting-place) or, in the _forum_ +(market-place) ere noon. Both (parties) shall appear in person and +shall argue the matter. + +7. [If one of the parties shall not have appeared,] after noon [the +judge] shall adjudge the case (_lis_) in favor of him present. + +8. If both (parties) be present, sunset shall be the time-limit [of +the proceedings]. + +9. [Both parties shall post] sureties (_vades_) and subsureties +(_subvades_) [for their appearance]. + + + + +TABLE II. TRIAL + +1. The legal action of solemn deposit (_sacramenti actio_) [demands +that each litigant shall wager either 500 _asses_ or 50 _asses_]: 500 +_asses_ for solemn deposit (_sacramentum_) when the subject of the +dispute [is valued at] 1,000 _asses_ or more, 50 _asses_ when +[estimated at] less [than 1,000 _asses_]. [But] if the controversy +concerns the liberty of a human being [, however valuable may be the +person], the solemn deposit (_sacramentum_) [shall be] 50 _asses_. + +2. A dangerous disease or a day appointed [for the hearing of a case] +with an alien [, when the latter is a party] ... If any of these +(circumstances) be an impediment for judge (_index_)[8] or arbitrator +(_arbiter_)[9] or party (_reus_),[10] on this account the day of trial +shall be deferred. + +3. Whoever shall have need of evidence, he shall go on every third +day[11] to cry[12] before the doorway [of the witness's house]. + + + + +TABLE III. DEBT + +1. Of debt acknowledged and for matters judged in court (_in iure_) +thirty days shall be allowed by law [for payment or for +satisfaction].[13] + +2. After that [elapse of thirty days without payment] hand shall be +laid on (_manus iniectio_) [the debtor]. He shall be brought into +court (_in ius_). + +3. Unless he (the debtor) discharge the debt or unless some one appear +in court (_in iure_) to guarantee payment for him, he (the creditor) +shall take [the debtor] with him. He shall bind [him] either with +thong or with fetters, of which the weight shall be not less than +fifteen pounds or shall be more, if he (the creditor) choose. + +4. If he (the debtor) choose, he shall live on his own [means]. If he +live not on his own [means], [the creditor,] who shall hold him in +bonds, shall give [him] a pound of bread daily; if he (the creditor) +shall so desire, he shall give [him] more. + +5. Unless they (the debtors) make a compromise, they (the debtors) +shall be held in bonds for sixty days. During those days they shall be +brought to [the magistrate] into the _comitium_ (meeting-place) on +three successive market-days and the amount for which they have been +judged liable shall be declared publicly. Moreover on the third +market-day they (the debtors) shall suffer capital punishment (_capite +poenae_) or shall be delivered for sale beyond the Tiber [River]. + +6. On the third market-day they (the creditors) shall cut pieces.[14] +If they shall have cut more or less [than their shares], it shall be +with impunity (_s[in]e fraude_). + + + + +TABLE IV. PATERNAL POWER + +1. A dreadfully deformed child shall be killed quickly. + +2. If a father thrice surrender a son for sale, the son shall be free +from the father.[15] + +3. [To repudiate his wife her husband] shall order her to mind her own +affairs, shall take [her] keys [, shall expel her]. + +4. Into a legal inheritance he who has been in the womb (_in utero_) +is admitted [, if he shall have been born].[16] + + + + +TABLE V. INHERITANCE AND GUARDIANSHIP + +1. Women shall remain under guardianship (_tutela_), even though they +shall become of full age (_perfecta aetas_)[17] ... the Vestal Virgins +are excepted [and] shall be free [from control]. + +2. The mancipable (conveyable or movable) possessions of a woman who +is under tutelage of [her] agnates[18] shall not be acquired +rightfully by usucapion (long usage or long possession), save if these +(possessions) by herself shall have been delivered with the sanction +of [her] guardian (_tutor_).[19] + +3. According as a person shall have ordered regarding his property or +the guardianship (_tutela_) of his estate, so shall be the law (_ita +ius esto_). + +4. If a person die intestate (_intestatus_) and have no self-successor +(_suus heres_), the [deceased's] nearest male agnate shall have +possession of the estate. + +5. If there be no male agnate, the [deceased's] clansmen[20] shall +have possession of the estate. + +6. To persons[21] for whom a guardian (_tutor_) shall not have been +appointed by will (_testamentum_), to them [their] agnates shall be +guardians. + +7. If a person be insane (_furiosus_), if there be not a guardian +(_custos_) for him, rightful authority over his person and over his +property shall belong to [his] agnates and [in default of these] to +[his] clansmen. If a person be a spendthrift (_prodigus_), he shall be +prohibited from [administering his own] goods and he shall be under +the guardianship (_curatio_) of [his] agnates. + +8. If a freedman (_libertus_) shall have died intestate without +self-successor, [his] patron (_patronus_) shall take the inheritance +of a Roman citizen-freedman ... from said household into said +household. + +9. Items which are in the category of debts [due to or incurred by a +deceased person] shall be divided [among his consuccessors] by mere +operation of law (_ipso iure_) [in proportion] to [their] portions of +the inheritance.[22] + +10. Apportionment of an estate (_actio familiae erciscundae_) +[occurs], when coheirs (_coheres_) wish to withdraw from common [and +equal] participation [in the inheritance].[23] + + + + +TABLE VI. OWNERSHIP AND POSSESSION + +1. When a person shall make bond (_nexum_) and conveyance +(_mancipium_), according as he has specified with [his] tongue, so +shall be the law (_ita ius esto_). + +2. Both conveyance (_mancipatio_) and surrender in court (_in iure +cessio_) are confirmed. + +3. Articles which have been sold and delivered are not acquired by the +buyer otherwise than if he has paid the price to the seller or has +satisfied him in some other way, that is, by providing a guarantor +(_expromissor_) or a security (_pignus_). + +4. It shall be sufficient to make good those [faults] which have been +named by [one's] tongue, [while] for those [flaws] which he (the +vendor) has denied expressly [, when asked about these,] he (the +vendor) shall undergo a penalty of double [damages].[24] + +5. For a loyal person and for a person restored to allegiance there +shall be the same right (_ius_) of bond (_nexum_) and of conveyance +(_mancipium_) with the Roman people.[25] + +6. Against an alien (_hostis_) title of ownership (_auctoritas_) shall +be [valid] forever.[26] + +7. A prescriptive title (_usucapio_) of movable things is completed by +one year's [possession], but [a prescriptive title] of an estate and +of buildings [is completed] by two years' [possession]. + +8. A person [who had been a slave and] who has been declared to be a +free man [in a will on some condition], if he shall have given 10,000 +[_asses_] to the heir, although he (the slave) has been alienated by +the heir, by giving the money to the purchaser shall enter into his +freedom. + +9. If any woman [not married by _confarreatio_[27] or by +_co-emptio_[28]] be unwilling to be subjected in this manner [by +_usus_ (possession)] to the hand of her husband (_in manum mariti_), +she shall be absent [from his house] for three successive nights in +every year and by this means shall interrupt the _usus_ (possession) +of each year.[29] + +10. If the (the parties) join [their] hands [on the disputed property +when pleading] in court (_in iure_), [the actual possessor shall +retain provisional possession; but, when it is a case of personal +freedom, the magistrate] shall grant the right of claim (_vindicia_) +[provisionally to the party] asserting [the person's] freedom. + +11. [If he find that another has used his timber (_tignum_)[30] in +building a house or in supporting vines,] a person shall not dislodge +from the framework the timber fixed in buildings in vineyard; [but he +shall have the right of action] for double [damages] against him who +has been convicted of fixing [such timber]. + +12. Whenever [the vines] have been pruned, until fruit shall have been +gathered [therefrom, the owner shall not recover the timber]. + + + + +TABLE VII. REAL PROPERTY + +1. [Ownership] within [a strip of] five feet [along a boundary] shall +not be acquired by long usage (_usucapio_).[31] + +2. The way round [each outer wall of a building] shall be two and +one-half feet. + +3. If they (the parties) disagree, boundaries shall be marked by three +arbitrators (_arbiter_).[32] + +4. [Regulations relating to] inclosures, inherited plots, +cottages.[33] + +5. The width of a road [extends to] eight feet on a straight +[stretch], [but it extends to] sixteen [feet] on a bend. + +6. [Neighboring] persons shall mend the roadway. If they keep it not +laid with stones, one shall drive [one's] beast vehicles [across the +land] where one shall wish. + +7. If rain-water do damage [through artificial diversion from its +natural channels, the offending owner] shall be restrained by an +arbitrator (_arbiter_). + +8. If a water-course directed through a public place shall do damage +to a private person, to the [same] private person shall be [the right +to bring] an action (_actio_), that damage shall be repaired for the +owner. + +9. Branches of a tree may be lopped all around to a height of fifteen +feet.[34] If a tree on a neighbor's farm [be bent crooked] by the wind +[and] lean over one's farm, [one can take] legal action (_agere_) for +removal of that [tree or at least of the offending part of it]. + +10. [The owner of a tree] may gather its fruit which falls upon +another's farm. + + + + +TABLE VIII. TORTS OR DELICTS + +1. If any person had sung or had composed a song,[35] which caused +slander[36] or insult to another person ... he should be clubbed to +death.[37] + +2. A person who had sung an evil spell ...[38] + +3. If a person has broken another's limb (_membrum_),[39] unless he +make agreement [for compensation] with him, there shall be retaliation +in kind (_talio_).[40] + +4. If a person has broken or has bruised a bone with hand club, he +[shall] undergo a penalty of 300 [_asses_, if] to [an injured] +freeman, [or] of 150 [_asses_,] if to [an injured] slave. + +5. If a person shall have done [simple] harm (_iniuria_) to another, +penalties shall be 25 _asses_. + +6. [If] a person shall have caused loss ... [41] + +7. If a quadruped shall be said to have caused damage (_pauperies_), +legal action (_actio_) [shall be sanctioned] either for the surrender +of the thing which made the damage[42] or for the offer of assessment +for the damage. + +8. [If a person] pasture [his] cattle [on a neighbor's land, he shall +be liable to a legal action].[43] + +9. He who has enchanted crops[44] ... nor should he decoy another's +corn ... [45] + +10. For pasturing on or for cutting secretly by night [another's] +crops acquired by tillage [shall be] in the case of an adult hanging +and death [by sacrifice] to Ceres;[46] a person under the age of +puberty (under 15 years of age) [shall] either be scourged at the +discretion [of the magistrate] or make composition by [paying] double +[damages] for the harm [done]. + +11. Who shall have destroyed by burning a building or a stack of corn +set alongside a house is ordered to be bound, scourged, burned to +death, provided that knowingly and consciously he shall have committed +this; but if this be by accident [, that is] by negligence, either he +is ordered to repair the damage or, if he be too poor to be competent +for such punishment, he shall be chastised more lightly. + +12. Any person who shall have felled wrongfully (_iniuria_) other +persons' trees shall pay 25 asses for every [tree]. + +13. If theft has been done by night, if [owner] has killed him (the +thief), he (the thief) shall be [held] killed lawfully (_iure_). + +14. It is forbidden that a thief be killed by day ... Unless he (the +thief) defend himself with a weapon, even though he (the thief) shall +have come with a weapon, unless he (the thief) shall use that weapon +and shall resist, you shall not kill him. And even if he (the thief) +resist, [you] shall shout [, that some persons may hear and +assemble].[47] + +15. In the case of all other thieves caught in the act [it is +ordained] that freemen be scourged and be adjudged [as bondsmen] to +the person against whom the theft has been committed, provided that +they had done this by day and had not defended themselves with a +weapon; that slaves caught in the act of theft be whipped with +scourges and be thrown from the rock;[48] that boys below the age of +puberty (under 15 years old) be flogged at [the magistrate's] +discretion and that damage done by them be repaired. + +16. Thefts which have been discovered through [use of] platter and +loincloth [shall be punished just as if the culprits had been caught +in the act]. For cases of stolen goods discovered (_furtum conceptum_) +[by other means than by platter and loincloth] or introduced (_furtum +oblatum_) the penalty is triple [damages].[49] + +17. If a person plead on case of theft, in which [the thief] shall not +be caught in the act, [the thief] shall compound for the loss by +[paying] double [damages].[50] + +18. A stolen thing is debarred from prescription (_usucapio_).[51] + +19. No person shall practise usury at a rate of more than +one-twelfth[52] ... [if he do,] a usurer shall be condemned for +quadruple [damages]. + +20. In a suit concerning an article deposited [with a person who has +failed to return the article] legal action (_actio_) for double +[damages is granted]. + +21. [If] guardians (_tutor et curator_) [be suspected of +mal-administration, there is] the right to accuse [them] on suspicion +... the legal action (_actio_) against guardians (tutor) [shall be] +for double [damages]. + +22. If a patron (_patronus_) shall have defrauded a client (_cliens_), +he shall be forfeited solemnly (_sacer_).[53] + +23. Whoever shall have allowed himself to be called as a witness or +shall have been a scales-bearer (_libripens_),[54] if he [as a +witness] pronounce not his testimony, he shall be dishonored and +incapable of giving evidence (_intestabilis_). + +24. The penalty for false testimonies [is] that any person +who has been convicted of speaking false witness [shall be] +precipitated from the Tarpeian Rock. + +25. If a weapon has sped from one's hand rather than [if the wielder] +has hurled [it, ... he shall atone for the accidental deed by +providing] the substitution of a ram [as a peace-offering to prevent +blood-revenge]. + +26. [For administering] a noxious drug ... + +27. No person shall hold nocturnal meetings in the city. + +28. Members of guilds have the power to make for themselves any +binding rule which they may wish, provided that they violate nothing +in accordance with public law (_publica lex_). + + + + +TABLE IX. PUBLIC LAW + +1. Laws of personal exception (_privilegium_)[55] shall not be +proposed. + +2. [Laws] concerning the person (_caput_)[56] of a citizen shall not +be passed except by the greatest assembly (_maximus comitiatus_)[57] +and through those whom they (the consuls)[58] have placed upon the +registers of the citizenry. + +3. A judge (_iudex_) or an arbitrator (_arbiter_) legally (_iure_) +appointed, who has been convicted of receiving money for declaring a +decision, shall be punished capitally (_capite_). + +4. [Provisions pertaining to] the investigators of murder (_quaestor +parricidii_) [appointed to have charge over capital cases]. + +5. Whoever shall have incited a public enemy (_hostis_) or whoever +shall have delivered a citizen (_civis_) to a public enemy shall be +punished capitally (_capite_). + +6. It is forbidden to put to death ... unconvicted any one whomsoever. + + + + +TABLE X. SACRED LAW + +1. A dead person shall not be buried or burned in the city.[59] + +2. More than this shall not be done. The funeral pyre (_rogum_) shall +not be smoothed with the axe.[60] + +3. [Expenses of a funeral shall be limited to] three [mourners +wearing] veils and one [mourner wearing] small purple tunic and ten +flute-players. + +4. Women shall not tear their cheeks or have a _lessus_ (sorrowful +outcry)[61] on account of the funeral. + +5. The bones of a dead person shall not be collected that one may make +a funeral afterward.[62] An exception is for death in battle or on +foreign soil.[63] + +6. Anointing by slaves and every kind of drinking-bout is abolished +... [there shall be] no costly sprinkling, no myrrh-spiced drink, no +long garlands, no incense-boxes. + +7. Whoever wins a crown (_corona_)[64] himself or through his +chattel[65] or by his valor, [a crown] is bestowed on him [, when he +is burned or buried] ... on him (who has won it) and on his father [it +shall be laid] with impunity (_sine fraude_). + +8. This also shall not be done: to make more than one funeral and to +spread more than one bier for one person. + +9. Gold shall not be added [to a corpse]. But him whose teeth shall +have been fastened with gold, if a person shall bury or shall burn him +with that (gold), it shall be with impunity (_sine fraude_). + +10. It is forbidden for a new pyre (_rogum_) or a burning-mound +(_bustum_) to be erected nearer than sixty feet to another person's +buildings without the owner's consent.[66] + +11. It is forbidden for a vestibule of a sepulcher (_forum_) and a +burning-mound (_bustum_)[67] to be acquired by usucapion. + + + + +TABLE XI. SUPPLEMENTARY LAWS + +1. Intermarriage (_conubium_) between plebeians and patricians shall +not occur.[68] + +2. [Regulations] concerning intercalation. + +3. [Declaration concerning] days deemed favorable for official legal +action (_dies agendi_). + + + + +TABLE XII. SUPPLEMENTARY LAWS + +1. [There shall lie] a levy of distress (_pignoris capio_)[69] against +a person who has bought an animal for sacrifice and pays not the +price; likewise against a person who makes not payment for that +yoke-beast which any one has lent for this purpose, that therefrom he +may raise money to spend on a sacred banquet (sacrifice). + +2. If a slave shall have committed theft or shall have done damage ... +with his master's knowledge ... the action for damages (_actio +noxalis_) is in the slave's name. Arising from delicts committed by +children and by slaves of a household ... actions for damages (_actio +noxalis_) shall be appointed, that the father or the master can be +allowed either to undergo assessment of the suit (_litis aestimatio_) +or to deliver [the delinquent] for punishment.[70] + +3. If a person has taken [a thing by] a false claim,[71] if he should +wish ... the magistrate shall grant three arbitrators (_arbiter_); by +their [adverse] arbitration (_arbitrium_) ... [the defendant] shall +compound for loss caused by [paying] double [damages from enjoyment of +the article].[72] + +4. It is forbidden to dedicate for consecrated use (_in sacrum_) any +thing of which there is a controversy [about its ownership]; otherwise +a penalty of double [the amount involved] shall be suffered.[73] + +5. Whatsoever last the people have ordained, this shall be binding and +valid (_ius ratumque_).[74] + + +UNPLACED FRAGMENTS + +There are extant about a dozen fragments of whose place in the Twelve +Tables we are ignorant. In nearly every instance these fragments +consist of only one word or phrase, which later Latin antiquarians +have preserved to illustrate an ancient spelling or to explain an +archaic usage or to point a definition. + +The longest fragment only is worth reproduction for the present +purpose: To appeal from any judgement (_inuicium_) and sentence +(_poena_) is allowed.[75] + + + + +NOTES + + +[1] The code was known under two titles: _Lex Duodecim Tabularum_ (Law +of Twelve Tables) and _Duodecim Tabulae_ (Twelve Tables). + +[2] _Ab Vrbe Condita_, III. 34. 6. This claim--that these statutes +were the source of all public and private law--is exaggerated. Rather +the code is chiefly an exposition of private law, derived from +customary law, which already existed, and contains some public and +religious law as well. + +For another estimate see Cicero, _De Oratore_, I. 44. 195, where the +advocate asserts that "the small manual of the _Twelve Tables_ by +itself surpasses the libraries of all the philosophers both in weight +of authority and in wealth of utility." + +[3] Such is the almost unanimous tradition; but one source says ivory +(_eboreas_). Since some scholars scout the use of ivory in Rome at +that time, the emendation of _eboreas_ to _roboreas_ (wooden) is +suggested. + +[4] _De Legibus_, II. 23. 59: _ut carmen necessarium_. + +[5] Words between [ ] complete the sense of a sentence. Words between +( ) are either definitions or translations. + +[6] The _as_ originally was a bar (one foot in length) of _aes_ +(copper), then a weight, then a coin weighing one pound and worth +about $.17. From time to time the _as_ was reduced in weight and was +depreciated in value, until by the provisions of the Lex Papiria in +191 B.C. the _as_ weighed one-half ounce and was valued at $.008. + +[7] Some scholars suggest that this statute should be translated thus: +"When the parties agree on preliminaries, each party shall plead." + +[8] The _index_ hears cases in which a fixed amount is to be adjudged. + +[9] The _arbiter_ hears cases in which an indefinite sum is to be +assessed. + +[10] At this time in the language _reus_ means any litigant; in later +Latin _reus_ is restricted to signify the defendant. + +[11] Perhaps "on every other day" or "on three market-days" is meant. + +[12] This means, we suppose, that the litigant requiring evidence must +proclaim his need by shouting certain legal phrases before the +residence of the person who is capable of supplying such evidence and +who thereby is summoned to court. + +[13] Some scholars suggest that the Latin represented by the words +"and for matters in court" should be omitted and that the passage +should open "For persons judged liable for acknowledged debt", thus +restricting the period of thirty days' grace only to matters of debt. +Even if this view be correct, it disproves not the probability that +the thirty days applied to various kinds of cases. + +[14] "Shall cut pieces" (_partes secanto_) is explained variously: "to +divide the debtor's functions or capabilities", "to claim shares in +the debtor's property", "to divide the price obtained for the sale of +the debtor's person", "to divide the debtor's family and goods", "to +announce to the magistrate their shares of the debtor's estate"; the +old Roman writers, however, understand by the phrase that the +creditors can cut their several shares of the debtor's body! + +[15] In primitive times a father can sell his son into slavery. If the +buyer free the son, the son reënters his father's control (_patria +potestas_). + +Here apparently we have an old _formula_ surviving in a sham triple +sale, whereby a descendant is liberated from the authority of an +ascendant, or after a triple transfer and a triple manumission the son +is freed from his father and stands in his own right (_sui iuris_). + +[16] Otherwise (an interpretation probably, perhaps not a paraphrase): +"After ten months from [the father's] death a child born shall not be +admitted into a legal inheritance." + +[17] "Full age" for females is 25 years. For keeping women of full age +under a guardian almost no reason of any worth can be urged. The +common belief, that because of the levity of their disposition +(_propter animi levitatem_) they often are deceived and therefore may +be guided by a guardian, seems more plausible than true. + +According to Roman Law of this period a woman never has legal +independence: if she be not under the power (_potestas_) of her +father, she is dependent on the control (_manus_) of her husband or, +unmarried and fatherless, she is subject to the governance (_tutela_) +of her guardian. + +[18] Agnates (_agnati_) are relatives by blood or through adoption on +male side only; cognates (_cognati_) are blood-relatives on either +male or female side. The family of the _ius civile_ is the agnatic +family; the family of the _ius gentium_ is the cognatic family. + +[19] Beside a guardian (_tutor_) for a child of certain age (sixth +statute of this Table; cf. p. 7, n. 21) there is provided also a +guardian (_custos_, later _curator_) for a lunatic and for a prodigal +(seventh statute of this Table). + +[20] Clansmen (_gentiles_) are persons all belonging to the same clan +(_gens_) as the deceased and of course include agnates, when these +exist. + +[21] Boys between the ages of 7 and 15, girls between the ages of 7 +and 13, women neither under paternal power (_patria potestas_) nor +under marital control (_in manu mariti_). + +[22] Another version of this provision reads thus: "Debts bequeathed +by inheritance shall be divided by automatic liability (_ipso iure_) +proportionally [among the heirs], after the details shall have been +investigated." + +[23] That is, the judicial division of an estate by a _iudex_ among +the disagreeing coheirs. + +[24] That is, double the proportionate part of the price or of the +things transferred. + +[25] This statute is set in Table I by some scholars. + +[26] This probably means that a foreigner resident in Roman territory +never can obtain rights over any property simply by long possession +(_usu-capio_) thereof; but the meaning of _auctoritas_ in this clause +is disputed. At any rate _usucapio_ is peculiar to Roman citizens. + +This provision sometimes is placed in Table III by scholars. + +[27] This is an exclusively patrician type of wedding, wherein is made +a mutual offering of bread in the presence of a priest and ten +witnesses. + +[28] This type of wedlock, used originally by plebeians, is a +fictitious sale, by which a woman is freed from either _patria +potestas_ or _tutela_. It comes perhaps from the primitive custom of +bride-purchase. + +[29] This method explains how a wife can remain married to a husband +without remaining in his _manus_ (rights of possession). If the _usus_ +be interrupted, the time of the _usus_ must begin afresh, because the +previous possession (_usus_) is considered as cancelled. + +[30] Apparently _tignum_, as "timber" in English covers material for +construction, includes every kind of material used in buildings and in +vine-yards. + +[31] This strip is reserved as a path between any two estates +belonging to different owners. Both owners can walk on the whole +space, but neither owner can claim possession of the strip through +continued usage. + +[32] In view of the ancient tradition that the decemvirs sent to +Athens a committee to study the laws written by Solon (c. 639 B.C.--c. +559 B.C.) for the Athenians (Livy, _op. cit_., III. 33. 5), it may not +be out of place to record what Gaius (_ob. c_. 180 A.D.) reports about +marking boundaries (_Digesta_, X. 1. 13): "We must remember in an +action for marking boundaries (_actio finium regundorum_) that we must +not overlook that old provision which was written in a manner after +the pattern of the law which at Athens Solon is said to have given. +For there it is thus: 'If any man erect a rough wall alongside another +man's estate, he must not overstep the boundary; if he build a massive +wall, he must leave one foot to spare; a building, two feet; if he dig +a trench or a hole, he must leave a space equal or about equal in +breadth to depth: if a well, six feet; an olive tree or a fig tree he +must plant nine feet from the other man's property and any other trees +five feet.'" + +While there is no evidence whatever that any enactment of the Twelve +Tables reproduced in any form the terms of the Athenian statute here +quoted, still the Twelve Tables may have contained some such +provisions. + +[33] What were these conditions we know not; all that we have from +this item are the unbracketed words, which are quoted as examples of +how words change their meanings and which are assigned to the Twelve +Tables. + +[34] Some scholars suppose that only branches over fifteen feet above +ground are meant. In any case the idea is that shade from the tree may +not damage a neighboring estate. + +[35] We know that this item was interpreted to include prose as well +as verse. + +[36] Slander and libel are not distinguished from each other in Roman +Law. + +[37] The severity of the penalty indicates that the Romans viewed +offence not as a private delict but as a breach of the public peace. + +[38] Apparently an incantation against a person, for the ninth statute +in this Table treats such practice against property. + +[39] The penalty points to an incurable maim or break, because the +next statute seems to provide for injuries which can be mended. + +[40] Thus the injured person or his next of kin may maim or break limb +for limb. Cf. the Mosaic _lex talionis_ recorded in _Leviticus_, 24. +17-21. + +[41] Most scholars connect this fragment with damage to property and +conjecture that the rest of it must have been concerned with +compensation for accidental damage. + +[42] That is, the animal which committed the damage may be surrendered +to the aggrieved person. + +[43] From the context, wherein the unbracketed words are preserved, we +can reconstruct the sense of this statute. + +[44] Not apparently into one's own fields, but to destroy these where +these were. + +[45] Apparently into one's own fields by means of magical incantation. + +[46] Properly the goddess of creation, occasionally (by extension) the +goddess of marriage, usually the goddess of agriculture, especially +the goddess of cultivation of grain and of growth of fruits in +general. + +Ceres is represented commonly as a matronly woman, always clad in full +attire of flowing draperies, crowned either with a simple ribband or +with ears of grain holding in her hand sometimes a poppy, sometimes a +scepter, sometimes a sickle, sometimes a sheaf of grain, sometimes a +torch, sometimes a basket full of fruits or of flowers, seated or +standing in a chariot drawn by dragons or by horses. + +[47] That is, the slayer must call aloud, lest he be considered a +murderer trying to hide his own act. + +Our sources leave it uncertain whether the law forbids that a thief be +killed by day, unless he defend himself, with a weapon, or the law +permits that a thief be killed, if he so defend himself. + +[48] A southern spur of the Capitoline Hill, which overlooks the +Forum, and named after Tarpeia, a legendary traitress, who, tempted by +golden ornaments of besieging Sabines, opened to them the gate of the +citadel, of which her father was a governor during the regal period. +As they entered, the enemy by their shields crushed her to death: +Tarpeia was buried on the Capitoline Hill, whereon stood the citadel, +and her memory was preserved by the name of the Tarpeian Rock (Rupes +Tarpeia), whence certain classes of condemned criminals, in later +times, were thrown to their death. + +[49] Our sources tell us that a person who searched for stolen +property on the premises of another searched alone and naked, lest he +be deemed later to have brought concealed in his clothing any article, +which he might pretend then to have found in the house, save for a +loincloth and a platter, on the latter of which he probably placed the +stolen articles when found. We hear also that a man could institute a +search in normal dress, but only in the presence of witnesses. If in +the latter case stolen goods were discovered, the thief on conviction +was condemned to pay thrice their value for _furtum conceptum_ +(detected theft). But in either case, if the accused householder could +prove that a person other than himself for any reason had placed the +stolen articles in his house, he could obtain from that person on +conviction damages of thrice their value for _furtum oblatum_ +("planted" theft). Search by platter and loincloth (_lanx et licium_) +became obsolete; search with witnesses present survived. + +[50] The ancient commentators take this statute to mean "double in +kind" not in value: for example, two cows surrendered for one cow +stolen. + +[51] That is, neither a thief nor a receiver of stolen goods, whether +acquired through purchase or by other method, can acquire title to +property in stolen goods through long possession of such. + +[52] The uncia (whence our "ounce") is the unit of division of the as +and is used also as one-twelfth of anything. One-twelfth of the +principal paid yearly as interest equals 8-1/3%. + +[53] This originally is a religious penalty, whereby the person is +sacrificed. But sacer comes to mean "a person disgraced and outlawed +and deprived of his property." + +[54] At a sale (_mancipium_ or _mancipatio_) the buyer in the presence +of five adult citizens had his money weighed by another adult citizen +who held scales for this purpose. + +This practice obtained originally ere the introduction of coinage. + +[55] That is, enactments referring to a single citizen, whether or not +in his favor. + +[56] Caput includes also privileges of citizenship (_civitas_). + +[57] Commonly known as the _comitia centuriata_, an assembly which +comprised all citizens. To this assembly a citizen convicted in court +on a capital charge had the right of appeal (_ius provocationis_) at +least as early as the passage of the Lex Valeria in 509 B.C., for +Cicero claims that the pontifical as well as the augural books state +that the right of appeal from the regal sentences had been recognized +(De Re Publica, 11. 31. 54). + +[58] This statute is quoted by Cicero (De Legibus, III. 4. 11), who +inserts censores (censors) as the subject of the last verb _locassint_ +(have placed). But the last clause must have been "modernized" either +by Cicero or in his source, because the promulgation of the Twelve +Tables in 449 B.C. antedated the creation of the censorship, which can +not be traced higher than 443 B.C., if we can believe Livy's account +of its institution (op. cit., IV. 8. 2-7). Before that time the +consuls superintended the lists of citizens. + +[59] The first provision doubtlessly descends from a primitive tribal +tabu. Cicero supposes that the second provision is due to danger from +fire (De Legibus, II. 23. 58). + +[60] In view of the simplicity enjoined in some of the following +statutes of this Table, for the decemvirs apparently took a dim view +of extravagant funerals, this statute seems to mean that a rough-hewn +pyre without elaborate smoothness of its wooden material suffices for +the cremation-couch of a citizen. + +[61] Cicero says that some older interpreters suspected that some kind +of mourning-garment was meant by _lessus_, but that he inclines to the +interpretation that it signifies a sort of sorrowful wailing (De +Legibus, II.23.59) + +[62] This provision is aimed at the common custom of prolonging +mourning by gathering and preserving unburied some part of the corpse. +When this part (_os resectum_) later had been buried, then only +mourning ceased. It is possible that some Romans may have thought that +cremation might be wrong or that its ceremony was inadequate. + +[63] That is, in such a case a limb could be carried to Rome and then +buried. + +[64] That is, a garland or a chaplet or a wreath as a prize of +achievement. + +[65] A chattel, for example, is a slave or a horse who wins a wreath +for the owner. + +[66] Cicero says that this statute seems to suggest fear of disastrous +fire (_De Legibus_, II. 24. 61). + +[67] In the burning-mound also ashes were buried. + +[68] This statute proved so unpopular that it soon was repealed by the +Lex Canuleia in 445 B.C. + +[69] This process of "taking a pledge" is the seizure and the +detention of a debtor's property or part thereof to induce the debtor +to pay the debt before any other legal action will be taken. + +It will be noticed that the two instances given in this statute +concern Sacred Law, with which by anticipation the fourth statute of +this Table likewise is concerned. Modern scholars place these two +provisions among the Supplementary Laws despite the temptation to set +these among the statutes of Table X, of which all but one item come +from Cicero's discussion of Sacred Law in his _De Legibus_, II. 23. +58-24. 61, in the concluding portion of which Cicero seems to speak +with some finality that he has given all the regulations regarding +religion found in the Twelve Tables. Moreover these two rules come +from Gaius, who flourished more than two centuries after Cicero. But +if every Supplementary Law resembling the subject-matter of Tables I-X +should be advanced to the appropriate position forward, few would be +the statutes left in Tables XI-XII. It is merely coincidental that +some of the statutes among the Supplementary Laws should concern +topics already treated, for from the Romans we must not remove the +faculty of aftersight. + +[70] Some scholars seek to place this provision in Table VIII, where +it seems properly to belong, despite its traditional position here. + +This dislocation, coupled with that of the preceding provision, well +illustrates how hopeless is our reconstruction of the order of the +regulations of the Twelve Tables. + +[71] That is, apparently, if a person with or without fraudulent +intent had held and claimed as his a thing which a judicial court now +decided belonged to another party. + +[72] Retention of the article is deemed to have brought the defendant +some profit; therefore he must pay double this profit. + +[73] Cf. second paragraph in note [69] _supra_. + +[74] That is, the most recent law repeals all previous laws which are +inconsistent with it. + +[75] Cicero says that many laws in the Twelve Tables exhibit this rule +(_De Re Publica_, II. 31. 54). + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Twelve Tables, by Anonymous + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14783 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..68bdecd --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #14783 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14783) diff --git a/old/14783-8.txt b/old/14783-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ce6733 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14783-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1399 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Twelve Tables, by Anonymous + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Twelve Tables + +Author: Anonymous + +Release Date: January 24, 2005 [EBook #14783] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWELVE TABLES *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Project Manager, Keith M. Eckrich, +Post-Processor and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + + +THE TWELVE TABLES + + + +_prefaced, arranged, translated, annotated_ + +BY P.R. COLEMAN-NORTON + +PRINCETON UNIVERSITY + +DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The legal history of Rome begins properly with the Twelve Tables. It +is strictly the first and the only Roman code,[1] collecting the +earliest known laws of the Roman people and forming the foundation of +the whole fabric of Roman Law. Its importance lies in the fact that by +its promulgation was substituted for an unwritten usage, of which the +knowledge had been confined to some citizens of the community, a +public and written body of laws, which were easily accessible to and +strictly binding on all citizens of Rome. + +Till the close of the republican period (509 B.C.-27 B.C.) the Twelve +Tables were regarded as a great legal charter. The historian Livy (59 +B.C.-A.D. 17) records: "Even in the present immense mass of +legislation, where laws are piled on laws, the Twelve Tables still +form the fount of all public and private jurisprudence."[2] + +This celebrated code, after its compilation by a commission of ten men +(_decemviri_), who composed in 451 B.C. ten sections and two sections +in 450 B.C., and after its ratification by the (then) principal +assembly (_comitia centuriata_) of the State in 449 B.C., was engraved +on twelve bronze[3] tablets (whence the name Twelve Tables), which +were attached to the Rostra before the Curia in the Forum of Rome. +Though this important witness of the national progress probably was +destroyed during the Gallic occupation of Rome in 387 B.C., yet copies +must have been extant, since Cicero (106 B.C.-43 B.C.) says that in +his boyhood schoolboys memorized these laws "as a required +formula."[4] However, now no part of the Twelve Tables either in its +original form or in its copies exists. + +The surviving fragments of the Twelve Tables come from the writings of +late Latin writers and fall into these four types: + +(1) Fragments which seem to contain the original words (or nearly so) +of a law, "modernized" in spelling and to some extent in formation; + +(2) Fragments which are fused with the context of the quoter, but +which otherwise exhibit little distortion; + +(3) Fragments which not only are fused with the sentences of the citer +but also are much distorted, although these preserve in paraphrase the +purport of the provisions of a law; + +(4) Passages which present only an interpretation (or an opinion based +on interpretation) or a title or a convenient designation of a law. + +Only in very few cases do we know or can we conjecture the number of +the tablet whereon any law appeared. Consequently of the arrangement +very little is ascertainable and the attribution of some items to +certain tablets is debatable. The probable order of the fragments, +which total over 115, has been inferred from various statements and +from other indications of ancient authors. + +The amount of detail apparently varies either with the importance of +the matter or with the degree of general or particular knowledge of +the subject supposed by the commissioners to be held commonly by the +citizens. The style is characterized by such simplicity and by such +brevity that the meaning in some instances borders upon obscurity,--at +least so far as modern interpretation is concerned. + +The value of the Twelve Tables consists not in any approach to +symmetrical classification or even to terse clarity of expression, but +in the publication of the method of procedure to be adopted, +especially in civil cases, in the knowledge furnished to every Roman +of high or low degree as to what were both his legal rights and his +legal duties, in the political victory won by the plebeians, who +compelled the codification and the promulgation of what had been +largely customary law interpreted and administered by the patricians +primarily in their own interests. + + + + +THE TWELVE TABLES[5] + + +TABLE I. PROCEEDINGS PRELIMINARY TO TRIAL + +1. If he (the plaintiff) summon [the defendant] to court (_in ius_), +he (the defendant) shall go. If he (the defendant) go not, he (the +plaintiff) shall call a witness thereto. Then only he (the plaintiff) +shall take [the defendant] by force. + +2. If he (the defendant) attempt evasion or take to flight, he (the +plaintiff) shall lay hand [on the defendant]. + +3. If disease or [old] age shall be an impediment, he who shall summon +[the defendant] to court (_in ius_) shall grant [him] a conveyance; if +he (the plaintiff) shall not wish, he (the plaintiff) shall not spread +[with cushions] a covered carriage. + +4. For a freeholder (taxpayer whose fortune is valued at not less than +1,500 _asses_[6]) a freeholder shall be surety (_vindex_) [for his +appearance at trial]. For a proletary (non-taxpayer whose fortune is +rated at less than a freeholder's) any one who shall be willing shall +be surety (_vindex_). + +5. When they (the parties) come to terms, [an official] shall announce +[it].[7] + +6. If they (the parties) agree not on terms, they shall state [their] +case in the _comitium_ (meeting-place) or, in the _forum_ +(market-place) ere noon. Both (parties) shall appear in person and +shall argue the matter. + +7. [If one of the parties shall not have appeared,] after noon [the +judge] shall adjudge the case (_lis_) in favor of him present. + +8. If both (parties) be present, sunset shall be the time-limit [of +the proceedings]. + +9. [Both parties shall post] sureties (_vades_) and subsureties +(_subvades_) [for their appearance]. + + + + +TABLE II. TRIAL + +1. The legal action of solemn deposit (_sacramenti actio_) [demands +that each litigant shall wager either 500 _asses_ or 50 _asses_]: 500 +_asses_ for solemn deposit (_sacramentum_) when the subject of the +dispute [is valued at] 1,000 _asses_ or more, 50 _asses_ when +[estimated at] less [than 1,000 _asses_]. [But] if the controversy +concerns the liberty of a human being [, however valuable may be the +person], the solemn deposit (_sacramentum_) [shall be] 50 _asses_. + +2. A dangerous disease or a day appointed [for the hearing of a case] +with an alien [, when the latter is a party] ... If any of these +(circumstances) be an impediment for judge (_index_)[8] or arbitrator +(_arbiter_)[9] or party (_reus_),[10] on this account the day of trial +shall be deferred. + +3. Whoever shall have need of evidence, he shall go on every third +day[11] to cry[12] before the doorway [of the witness's house]. + + + + +TABLE III. DEBT + +1. Of debt acknowledged and for matters judged in court (_in iure_) +thirty days shall be allowed by law [for payment or for +satisfaction].[13] + +2. After that [elapse of thirty days without payment] hand shall be +laid on (_manus iniectio_) [the debtor]. He shall be brought into +court (_in ius_). + +3. Unless he (the debtor) discharge the debt or unless some one appear +in court (_in iure_) to guarantee payment for him, he (the creditor) +shall take [the debtor] with him. He shall bind [him] either with +thong or with fetters, of which the weight shall be not less than +fifteen pounds or shall be more, if he (the creditor) choose. + +4. If he (the debtor) choose, he shall live on his own [means]. If he +live not on his own [means], [the creditor,] who shall hold him in +bonds, shall give [him] a pound of bread daily; if he (the creditor) +shall so desire, he shall give [him] more. + +5. Unless they (the debtors) make a compromise, they (the debtors) +shall be held in bonds for sixty days. During those days they shall be +brought to [the magistrate] into the _comitium_ (meeting-place) on +three successive market-days and the amount for which they have been +judged liable shall be declared publicly. Moreover on the third +market-day they (the debtors) shall suffer capital punishment (_capite +poenae_) or shall be delivered for sale beyond the Tiber [River]. + +6. On the third market-day they (the creditors) shall cut pieces.[14] +If they shall have cut more or less [than their shares], it shall be +with impunity (_s[in]e fraude_). + + + + +TABLE IV. PATERNAL POWER + +1. A dreadfully deformed child shall be killed quickly. + +2. If a father thrice surrender a son for sale, the son shall be free +from the father.[15] + +3. [To repudiate his wife her husband] shall order her to mind her own +affairs, shall take [her] keys [, shall expel her]. + +4. Into a legal inheritance he who has been in the womb (_in utero_) +is admitted [, if he shall have been born].[16] + + + + +TABLE V. INHERITANCE AND GUARDIANSHIP + +1. Women shall remain under guardianship (_tutela_), even though they +shall become of full age (_perfecta aetas_)[17] ... the Vestal Virgins +are excepted [and] shall be free [from control]. + +2. The mancipable (conveyable or movable) possessions of a woman who +is under tutelage of [her] agnates[18] shall not be acquired +rightfully by usucapion (long usage or long possession), save if these +(possessions) by herself shall have been delivered with the sanction +of [her] guardian (_tutor_).[19] + +3. According as a person shall have ordered regarding his property or +the guardianship (_tutela_) of his estate, so shall be the law (_ita +ius esto_). + +4. If a person die intestate (_intestatus_) and have no self-successor +(_suus heres_), the [deceased's] nearest male agnate shall have +possession of the estate. + +5. If there be no male agnate, the [deceased's] clansmen[20] shall +have possession of the estate. + +6. To persons[21] for whom a guardian (_tutor_) shall not have been +appointed by will (_testamentum_), to them [their] agnates shall be +guardians. + +7. If a person be insane (_furiosus_), if there be not a guardian +(_custos_) for him, rightful authority over his person and over his +property shall belong to [his] agnates and [in default of these] to +[his] clansmen. If a person be a spendthrift (_prodigus_), he shall be +prohibited from [administering his own] goods and he shall be under +the guardianship (_curatio_) of [his] agnates. + +8. If a freedman (_libertus_) shall have died intestate without +self-successor, [his] patron (_patronus_) shall take the inheritance +of a Roman citizen-freedman ... from said household into said +household. + +9. Items which are in the category of debts [due to or incurred by a +deceased person] shall be divided [among his consuccessors] by mere +operation of law (_ipso iure_) [in proportion] to [their] portions of +the inheritance.[22] + +10. Apportionment of an estate (_actio familiae erciscundae_) +[occurs], when coheirs (_coheres_) wish to withdraw from common [and +equal] participation [in the inheritance].[23] + + + + +TABLE VI. OWNERSHIP AND POSSESSION + +1. When a person shall make bond (_nexum_) and conveyance +(_mancipium_), according as he has specified with [his] tongue, so +shall be the law (_ita ius esto_). + +2. Both conveyance (_mancipatio_) and surrender in court (_in iure +cessio_) are confirmed. + +3. Articles which have been sold and delivered are not acquired by the +buyer otherwise than if he has paid the price to the seller or has +satisfied him in some other way, that is, by providing a guarantor +(_expromissor_) or a security (_pignus_). + +4. It shall be sufficient to make good those [faults] which have been +named by [one's] tongue, [while] for those [flaws] which he (the +vendor) has denied expressly [, when asked about these,] he (the +vendor) shall undergo a penalty of double [damages].[24] + +5. For a loyal person and for a person restored to allegiance there +shall be the same right (_ius_) of bond (_nexum_) and of conveyance +(_mancipium_) with the Roman people.[25] + +6. Against an alien (_hostis_) title of ownership (_auctoritas_) shall +be [valid] forever.[26] + +7. A prescriptive title (_usucapio_) of movable things is completed by +one year's [possession], but [a prescriptive title] of an estate and +of buildings [is completed] by two years' [possession]. + +8. A person [who had been a slave and] who has been declared to be a +free man [in a will on some condition], if he shall have given 10,000 +[_asses_] to the heir, although he (the slave) has been alienated by +the heir, by giving the money to the purchaser shall enter into his +freedom. + +9. If any woman [not married by _confarreatio_[27] or by +_co-emptio_[28]] be unwilling to be subjected in this manner [by +_usus_ (possession)] to the hand of her husband (_in manum mariti_), +she shall be absent [from his house] for three successive nights in +every year and by this means shall interrupt the _usus_ (possession) +of each year.[29] + +10. If the (the parties) join [their] hands [on the disputed property +when pleading] in court (_in iure_), [the actual possessor shall +retain provisional possession; but, when it is a case of personal +freedom, the magistrate] shall grant the right of claim (_vindicia_) +[provisionally to the party] asserting [the person's] freedom. + +11. [If he find that another has used his timber (_tignum_)[30] in +building a house or in supporting vines,] a person shall not dislodge +from the framework the timber fixed in buildings in vineyard; [but he +shall have the right of action] for double [damages] against him who +has been convicted of fixing [such timber]. + +12. Whenever [the vines] have been pruned, until fruit shall have been +gathered [therefrom, the owner shall not recover the timber]. + + + + +TABLE VII. REAL PROPERTY + +1. [Ownership] within [a strip of] five feet [along a boundary] shall +not be acquired by long usage (_usucapio_).[31] + +2. The way round [each outer wall of a building] shall be two and +one-half feet. + +3. If they (the parties) disagree, boundaries shall be marked by three +arbitrators (_arbiter_).[32] + +4. [Regulations relating to] inclosures, inherited plots, +cottages.[33] + +5. The width of a road [extends to] eight feet on a straight +[stretch], [but it extends to] sixteen [feet] on a bend. + +6. [Neighboring] persons shall mend the roadway. If they keep it not +laid with stones, one shall drive [one's] beast vehicles [across the +land] where one shall wish. + +7. If rain-water do damage [through artificial diversion from its +natural channels, the offending owner] shall be restrained by an +arbitrator (_arbiter_). + +8. If a water-course directed through a public place shall do damage +to a private person, to the [same] private person shall be [the right +to bring] an action (_actio_), that damage shall be repaired for the +owner. + +9. Branches of a tree may be lopped all around to a height of fifteen +feet.[34] If a tree on a neighbor's farm [be bent crooked] by the wind +[and] lean over one's farm, [one can take] legal action (_agere_) for +removal of that [tree or at least of the offending part of it]. + +10. [The owner of a tree] may gather its fruit which falls upon +another's farm. + + + + +TABLE VIII. TORTS OR DELICTS + +1. If any person had sung or had composed a song,[35] which caused +slander[36] or insult to another person ... he should be clubbed to +death.[37] + +2. A person who had sung an evil spell ...[38] + +3. If a person has broken another's limb (_membrum_),[39] unless he +make agreement [for compensation] with him, there shall be retaliation +in kind (_talio_).[40] + +4. If a person has broken or has bruised a bone with hand club, he +[shall] undergo a penalty of 300 [_asses_, if] to [an injured] +freeman, [or] of 150 [_asses_,] if to [an injured] slave. + +5. If a person shall have done [simple] harm (_iniuria_) to another, +penalties shall be 25 _asses_. + +6. [If] a person shall have caused loss ... [41] + +7. If a quadruped shall be said to have caused damage (_pauperies_), +legal action (_actio_) [shall be sanctioned] either for the surrender +of the thing which made the damage[42] or for the offer of assessment +for the damage. + +8. [If a person] pasture [his] cattle [on a neighbor's land, he shall +be liable to a legal action].[43] + +9. He who has enchanted crops[44] ... nor should he decoy another's +corn ... [45] + +10. For pasturing on or for cutting secretly by night [another's] +crops acquired by tillage [shall be] in the case of an adult hanging +and death [by sacrifice] to Ceres;[46] a person under the age of +puberty (under 15 years of age) [shall] either be scourged at the +discretion [of the magistrate] or make composition by [paying] double +[damages] for the harm [done]. + +11. Who shall have destroyed by burning a building or a stack of corn +set alongside a house is ordered to be bound, scourged, burned to +death, provided that knowingly and consciously he shall have committed +this; but if this be by accident [, that is] by negligence, either he +is ordered to repair the damage or, if he be too poor to be competent +for such punishment, he shall be chastised more lightly. + +12. Any person who shall have felled wrongfully (_iniuria_) other +persons' trees shall pay 25 asses for every [tree]. + +13. If theft has been done by night, if [owner] has killed him (the +thief), he (the thief) shall be [held] killed lawfully (_iure_). + +14. It is forbidden that a thief be killed by day ... Unless he (the +thief) defend himself with a weapon, even though he (the thief) shall +have come with a weapon, unless he (the thief) shall use that weapon +and shall resist, you shall not kill him. And even if he (the thief) +resist, [you] shall shout [, that some persons may hear and +assemble].[47] + +15. In the case of all other thieves caught in the act [it is +ordained] that freemen be scourged and be adjudged [as bondsmen] to +the person against whom the theft has been committed, provided that +they had done this by day and had not defended themselves with a +weapon; that slaves caught in the act of theft be whipped with +scourges and be thrown from the rock;[48] that boys below the age of +puberty (under 15 years old) be flogged at [the magistrate's] +discretion and that damage done by them be repaired. + +16. Thefts which have been discovered through [use of] platter and +loincloth [shall be punished just as if the culprits had been caught +in the act]. For cases of stolen goods discovered (_furtum conceptum_) +[by other means than by platter and loincloth] or introduced (_furtum +oblatum_) the penalty is triple [damages].[49] + +17. If a person plead on case of theft, in which [the thief] shall not +be caught in the act, [the thief] shall compound for the loss by +[paying] double [damages].[50] + +18. A stolen thing is debarred from prescription (_usucapio_).[51] + +19. No person shall practise usury at a rate of more than +one-twelfth[52] ... [if he do,] a usurer shall be condemned for +quadruple [damages]. + +20. In a suit concerning an article deposited [with a person who has +failed to return the article] legal action (_actio_) for double +[damages is granted]. + +21. [If] guardians (_tutor et curator_) [be suspected of +mal-administration, there is] the right to accuse [them] on suspicion +... the legal action (_actio_) against guardians (tutor) [shall be] +for double [damages]. + +22. If a patron (_patronus_) shall have defrauded a client (_cliens_), +he shall be forfeited solemnly (_sacer_).[53] + +23. Whoever shall have allowed himself to be called as a witness or +shall have been a scales-bearer (_libripens_),[54] if he [as a +witness] pronounce not his testimony, he shall be dishonored and +incapable of giving evidence (_intestabilis_). + +24. The penalty for false testimonies [is] that any person +who has been convicted of speaking false witness [shall be] +precipitated from the Tarpeian Rock. + +25. If a weapon has sped from one's hand rather than [if the wielder] +has hurled [it, ... he shall atone for the accidental deed by +providing] the substitution of a ram [as a peace-offering to prevent +blood-revenge]. + +26. [For administering] a noxious drug ... + +27. No person shall hold nocturnal meetings in the city. + +28. Members of guilds have the power to make for themselves any +binding rule which they may wish, provided that they violate nothing +in accordance with public law (_publica lex_). + + + + +TABLE IX. PUBLIC LAW + +1. Laws of personal exception (_privilegium_)[55] shall not be +proposed. + +2. [Laws] concerning the person (_caput_)[56] of a citizen shall not +be passed except by the greatest assembly (_maximus comitiatus_)[57] +and through those whom they (the consuls)[58] have placed upon the +registers of the citizenry. + +3. A judge (_iudex_) or an arbitrator (_arbiter_) legally (_iure_) +appointed, who has been convicted of receiving money for declaring a +decision, shall be punished capitally (_capite_). + +4. [Provisions pertaining to] the investigators of murder (_quaestor +parricidii_) [appointed to have charge over capital cases]. + +5. Whoever shall have incited a public enemy (_hostis_) or whoever +shall have delivered a citizen (_civis_) to a public enemy shall be +punished capitally (_capite_). + +6. It is forbidden to put to death ... unconvicted any one whomsoever. + + + + +TABLE X. SACRED LAW + +1. A dead person shall not be buried or burned in the city.[59] + +2. More than this shall not be done. The funeral pyre (_rogum_) shall +not be smoothed with the axe.[60] + +3. [Expenses of a funeral shall be limited to] three [mourners +wearing] veils and one [mourner wearing] small purple tunic and ten +flute-players. + +4. Women shall not tear their cheeks or have a _lessus_ (sorrowful +outcry)[61] on account of the funeral. + +5. The bones of a dead person shall not be collected that one may make +a funeral afterward.[62] An exception is for death in battle or on +foreign soil.[63] + +6. Anointing by slaves and every kind of drinking-bout is abolished +... [there shall be] no costly sprinkling, no myrrh-spiced drink, no +long garlands, no incense-boxes. + +7. Whoever wins a crown (_corona_)[64] himself or through his +chattel[65] or by his valor, [a crown] is bestowed on him [, when he +is burned or buried] ... on him (who has won it) and on his father [it +shall be laid] with impunity (_sine fraude_). + +8. This also shall not be done: to make more than one funeral and to +spread more than one bier for one person. + +9. Gold shall not be added [to a corpse]. But him whose teeth shall +have been fastened with gold, if a person shall bury or shall burn him +with that (gold), it shall be with impunity (_sine fraude_). + +10. It is forbidden for a new pyre (_rogum_) or a burning-mound +(_bustum_) to be erected nearer than sixty feet to another person's +buildings without the owner's consent.[66] + +11. It is forbidden for a vestibule of a sepulcher (_forum_) and a +burning-mound (_bustum_)[67] to be acquired by usucapion. + + + + +TABLE XI. SUPPLEMENTARY LAWS + +1. Intermarriage (_conubium_) between plebeians and patricians shall +not occur.[68] + +2. [Regulations] concerning intercalation. + +3. [Declaration concerning] days deemed favorable for official legal +action (_dies agendi_). + + + + +TABLE XII. SUPPLEMENTARY LAWS + +1. [There shall lie] a levy of distress (_pignoris capio_)[69] against +a person who has bought an animal for sacrifice and pays not the +price; likewise against a person who makes not payment for that +yoke-beast which any one has lent for this purpose, that therefrom he +may raise money to spend on a sacred banquet (sacrifice). + +2. If a slave shall have committed theft or shall have done damage ... +with his master's knowledge ... the action for damages (_actio +noxalis_) is in the slave's name. Arising from delicts committed by +children and by slaves of a household ... actions for damages (_actio +noxalis_) shall be appointed, that the father or the master can be +allowed either to undergo assessment of the suit (_litis aestimatio_) +or to deliver [the delinquent] for punishment.[70] + +3. If a person has taken [a thing by] a false claim,[71] if he should +wish ... the magistrate shall grant three arbitrators (_arbiter_); by +their [adverse] arbitration (_arbitrium_) ... [the defendant] shall +compound for loss caused by [paying] double [damages from enjoyment of +the article].[72] + +4. It is forbidden to dedicate for consecrated use (_in sacrum_) any +thing of which there is a controversy [about its ownership]; otherwise +a penalty of double [the amount involved] shall be suffered.[73] + +5. Whatsoever last the people have ordained, this shall be binding and +valid (_ius ratumque_).[74] + + +UNPLACED FRAGMENTS + +There are extant about a dozen fragments of whose place in the Twelve +Tables we are ignorant. In nearly every instance these fragments +consist of only one word or phrase, which later Latin antiquarians +have preserved to illustrate an ancient spelling or to explain an +archaic usage or to point a definition. + +The longest fragment only is worth reproduction for the present +purpose: To appeal from any judgement (_inuicium_) and sentence +(_poena_) is allowed.[75] + + + + +NOTES + + +[1] The code was known under two titles: _Lex Duodecim Tabularum_ (Law +of Twelve Tables) and _Duodecim Tabulae_ (Twelve Tables). + +[2] _Ab Vrbe Condita_, III. 34. 6. This claim--that these statutes +were the source of all public and private law--is exaggerated. Rather +the code is chiefly an exposition of private law, derived from +customary law, which already existed, and contains some public and +religious law as well. + +For another estimate see Cicero, _De Oratore_, I. 44. 195, where the +advocate asserts that "the small manual of the _Twelve Tables_ by +itself surpasses the libraries of all the philosophers both in weight +of authority and in wealth of utility." + +[3] Such is the almost unanimous tradition; but one source says ivory +(_eboreas_). Since some scholars scout the use of ivory in Rome at +that time, the emendation of _eboreas_ to _roboreas_ (wooden) is +suggested. + +[4] _De Legibus_, II. 23. 59: _ut carmen necessarium_. + +[5] Words between [ ] complete the sense of a sentence. Words between +( ) are either definitions or translations. + +[6] The _as_ originally was a bar (one foot in length) of _aes_ +(copper), then a weight, then a coin weighing one pound and worth +about $.17. From time to time the _as_ was reduced in weight and was +depreciated in value, until by the provisions of the Lex Papiria in +191 B.C. the _as_ weighed one-half ounce and was valued at $.008. + +[7] Some scholars suggest that this statute should be translated thus: +"When the parties agree on preliminaries, each party shall plead." + +[8] The _index_ hears cases in which a fixed amount is to be adjudged. + +[9] The _arbiter_ hears cases in which an indefinite sum is to be +assessed. + +[10] At this time in the language _reus_ means any litigant; in later +Latin _reus_ is restricted to signify the defendant. + +[11] Perhaps "on every other day" or "on three market-days" is meant. + +[12] This means, we suppose, that the litigant requiring evidence must +proclaim his need by shouting certain legal phrases before the +residence of the person who is capable of supplying such evidence and +who thereby is summoned to court. + +[13] Some scholars suggest that the Latin represented by the words +"and for matters in court" should be omitted and that the passage +should open "For persons judged liable for acknowledged debt", thus +restricting the period of thirty days' grace only to matters of debt. +Even if this view be correct, it disproves not the probability that +the thirty days applied to various kinds of cases. + +[14] "Shall cut pieces" (_partes secanto_) is explained variously: "to +divide the debtor's functions or capabilities", "to claim shares in +the debtor's property", "to divide the price obtained for the sale of +the debtor's person", "to divide the debtor's family and goods", "to +announce to the magistrate their shares of the debtor's estate"; the +old Roman writers, however, understand by the phrase that the +creditors can cut their several shares of the debtor's body! + +[15] In primitive times a father can sell his son into slavery. If the +buyer free the son, the son reënters his father's control (_patria +potestas_). + +Here apparently we have an old _formula_ surviving in a sham triple +sale, whereby a descendant is liberated from the authority of an +ascendant, or after a triple transfer and a triple manumission the son +is freed from his father and stands in his own right (_sui iuris_). + +[16] Otherwise (an interpretation probably, perhaps not a paraphrase): +"After ten months from [the father's] death a child born shall not be +admitted into a legal inheritance." + +[17] "Full age" for females is 25 years. For keeping women of full age +under a guardian almost no reason of any worth can be urged. The +common belief, that because of the levity of their disposition +(_propter animi levitatem_) they often are deceived and therefore may +be guided by a guardian, seems more plausible than true. + +According to Roman Law of this period a woman never has legal +independence: if she be not under the power (_potestas_) of her +father, she is dependent on the control (_manus_) of her husband or, +unmarried and fatherless, she is subject to the governance (_tutela_) +of her guardian. + +[18] Agnates (_agnati_) are relatives by blood or through adoption on +male side only; cognates (_cognati_) are blood-relatives on either +male or female side. The family of the _ius civile_ is the agnatic +family; the family of the _ius gentium_ is the cognatic family. + +[19] Beside a guardian (_tutor_) for a child of certain age (sixth +statute of this Table; cf. p. 7, n. 21) there is provided also a +guardian (_custos_, later _curator_) for a lunatic and for a prodigal +(seventh statute of this Table). + +[20] Clansmen (_gentiles_) are persons all belonging to the same clan +(_gens_) as the deceased and of course include agnates, when these +exist. + +[21] Boys between the ages of 7 and 15, girls between the ages of 7 +and 13, women neither under paternal power (_patria potestas_) nor +under marital control (_in manu mariti_). + +[22] Another version of this provision reads thus: "Debts bequeathed +by inheritance shall be divided by automatic liability (_ipso iure_) +proportionally [among the heirs], after the details shall have been +investigated." + +[23] That is, the judicial division of an estate by a _iudex_ among +the disagreeing coheirs. + +[24] That is, double the proportionate part of the price or of the +things transferred. + +[25] This statute is set in Table I by some scholars. + +[26] This probably means that a foreigner resident in Roman territory +never can obtain rights over any property simply by long possession +(_usu-capio_) thereof; but the meaning of _auctoritas_ in this clause +is disputed. At any rate _usucapio_ is peculiar to Roman citizens. + +This provision sometimes is placed in Table III by scholars. + +[27] This is an exclusively patrician type of wedding, wherein is made +a mutual offering of bread in the presence of a priest and ten +witnesses. + +[28] This type of wedlock, used originally by plebeians, is a +fictitious sale, by which a woman is freed from either _patria +potestas_ or _tutela_. It comes perhaps from the primitive custom of +bride-purchase. + +[29] This method explains how a wife can remain married to a husband +without remaining in his _manus_ (rights of possession). If the _usus_ +be interrupted, the time of the _usus_ must begin afresh, because the +previous possession (_usus_) is considered as cancelled. + +[30] Apparently _tignum_, as "timber" in English covers material for +construction, includes every kind of material used in buildings and in +vine-yards. + +[31] This strip is reserved as a path between any two estates +belonging to different owners. Both owners can walk on the whole +space, but neither owner can claim possession of the strip through +continued usage. + +[32] In view of the ancient tradition that the decemvirs sent to +Athens a committee to study the laws written by Solon (c. 639 B.C.--c. +559 B.C.) for the Athenians (Livy, _op. cit_., III. 33. 5), it may not +be out of place to record what Gaius (_ob. c_. 180 A.D.) reports about +marking boundaries (_Digesta_, X. 1. 13): "We must remember in an +action for marking boundaries (_actio finium regundorum_) that we must +not overlook that old provision which was written in a manner after +the pattern of the law which at Athens Solon is said to have given. +For there it is thus: 'If any man erect a rough wall alongside another +man's estate, he must not overstep the boundary; if he build a massive +wall, he must leave one foot to spare; a building, two feet; if he dig +a trench or a hole, he must leave a space equal or about equal in +breadth to depth: if a well, six feet; an olive tree or a fig tree he +must plant nine feet from the other man's property and any other trees +five feet.'" + +While there is no evidence whatever that any enactment of the Twelve +Tables reproduced in any form the terms of the Athenian statute here +quoted, still the Twelve Tables may have contained some such +provisions. + +[33] What were these conditions we know not; all that we have from +this item are the unbracketed words, which are quoted as examples of +how words change their meanings and which are assigned to the Twelve +Tables. + +[34] Some scholars suppose that only branches over fifteen feet above +ground are meant. In any case the idea is that shade from the tree may +not damage a neighboring estate. + +[35] We know that this item was interpreted to include prose as well +as verse. + +[36] Slander and libel are not distinguished from each other in Roman +Law. + +[37] The severity of the penalty indicates that the Romans viewed +offence not as a private delict but as a breach of the public peace. + +[38] Apparently an incantation against a person, for the ninth statute +in this Table treats such practice against property. + +[39] The penalty points to an incurable maim or break, because the +next statute seems to provide for injuries which can be mended. + +[40] Thus the injured person or his next of kin may maim or break limb +for limb. Cf. the Mosaic _lex talionis_ recorded in _Leviticus_, 24. +17-21. + +[41] Most scholars connect this fragment with damage to property and +conjecture that the rest of it must have been concerned with +compensation for accidental damage. + +[42] That is, the animal which committed the damage may be surrendered +to the aggrieved person. + +[43] From the context, wherein the unbracketed words are preserved, we +can reconstruct the sense of this statute. + +[44] Not apparently into one's own fields, but to destroy these where +these were. + +[45] Apparently into one's own fields by means of magical incantation. + +[46] Properly the goddess of creation, occasionally (by extension) the +goddess of marriage, usually the goddess of agriculture, especially +the goddess of cultivation of grain and of growth of fruits in +general. + +Ceres is represented commonly as a matronly woman, always clad in full +attire of flowing draperies, crowned either with a simple ribband or +with ears of grain holding in her hand sometimes a poppy, sometimes a +scepter, sometimes a sickle, sometimes a sheaf of grain, sometimes a +torch, sometimes a basket full of fruits or of flowers, seated or +standing in a chariot drawn by dragons or by horses. + +[47] That is, the slayer must call aloud, lest he be considered a +murderer trying to hide his own act. + +Our sources leave it uncertain whether the law forbids that a thief be +killed by day, unless he defend himself, with a weapon, or the law +permits that a thief be killed, if he so defend himself. + +[48] A southern spur of the Capitoline Hill, which overlooks the +Forum, and named after Tarpeia, a legendary traitress, who, tempted by +golden ornaments of besieging Sabines, opened to them the gate of the +citadel, of which her father was a governor during the regal period. +As they entered, the enemy by their shields crushed her to death: +Tarpeia was buried on the Capitoline Hill, whereon stood the citadel, +and her memory was preserved by the name of the Tarpeian Rock (Rupes +Tarpeia), whence certain classes of condemned criminals, in later +times, were thrown to their death. + +[49] Our sources tell us that a person who searched for stolen +property on the premises of another searched alone and naked, lest he +be deemed later to have brought concealed in his clothing any article, +which he might pretend then to have found in the house, save for a +loincloth and a platter, on the latter of which he probably placed the +stolen articles when found. We hear also that a man could institute a +search in normal dress, but only in the presence of witnesses. If in +the latter case stolen goods were discovered, the thief on conviction +was condemned to pay thrice their value for _furtum conceptum_ +(detected theft). But in either case, if the accused householder could +prove that a person other than himself for any reason had placed the +stolen articles in his house, he could obtain from that person on +conviction damages of thrice their value for _furtum oblatum_ +("planted" theft). Search by platter and loincloth (_lanx et licium_) +became obsolete; search with witnesses present survived. + +[50] The ancient commentators take this statute to mean "double in +kind" not in value: for example, two cows surrendered for one cow +stolen. + +[51] That is, neither a thief nor a receiver of stolen goods, whether +acquired through purchase or by other method, can acquire title to +property in stolen goods through long possession of such. + +[52] The uncia (whence our "ounce") is the unit of division of the as +and is used also as one-twelfth of anything. One-twelfth of the +principal paid yearly as interest equals 8-1/3%. + +[53] This originally is a religious penalty, whereby the person is +sacrificed. But sacer comes to mean "a person disgraced and outlawed +and deprived of his property." + +[54] At a sale (_mancipium_ or _mancipatio_) the buyer in the presence +of five adult citizens had his money weighed by another adult citizen +who held scales for this purpose. + +This practice obtained originally ere the introduction of coinage. + +[55] That is, enactments referring to a single citizen, whether or not +in his favor. + +[56] Caput includes also privileges of citizenship (_civitas_). + +[57] Commonly known as the _comitia centuriata_, an assembly which +comprised all citizens. To this assembly a citizen convicted in court +on a capital charge had the right of appeal (_ius provocationis_) at +least as early as the passage of the Lex Valeria in 509 B.C., for +Cicero claims that the pontifical as well as the augural books state +that the right of appeal from the regal sentences had been recognized +(De Re Publica, 11. 31. 54). + +[58] This statute is quoted by Cicero (De Legibus, III. 4. 11), who +inserts censores (censors) as the subject of the last verb _locassint_ +(have placed). But the last clause must have been "modernized" either +by Cicero or in his source, because the promulgation of the Twelve +Tables in 449 B.C. antedated the creation of the censorship, which can +not be traced higher than 443 B.C., if we can believe Livy's account +of its institution (op. cit., IV. 8. 2-7). Before that time the +consuls superintended the lists of citizens. + +[59] The first provision doubtlessly descends from a primitive tribal +tabu. Cicero supposes that the second provision is due to danger from +fire (De Legibus, II. 23. 58). + +[60] In view of the simplicity enjoined in some of the following +statutes of this Table, for the decemvirs apparently took a dim view +of extravagant funerals, this statute seems to mean that a rough-hewn +pyre without elaborate smoothness of its wooden material suffices for +the cremation-couch of a citizen. + +[61] Cicero says that some older interpreters suspected that some kind +of mourning-garment was meant by _lessus_, but that he inclines to the +interpretation that it signifies a sort of sorrowful wailing (De +Legibus, II.23.59) + +[62] This provision is aimed at the common custom of prolonging +mourning by gathering and preserving unburied some part of the corpse. +When this part (_os resectum_) later had been buried, then only +mourning ceased. It is possible that some Romans may have thought that +cremation might be wrong or that its ceremony was inadequate. + +[63] That is, in such a case a limb could be carried to Rome and then +buried. + +[64] That is, a garland or a chaplet or a wreath as a prize of +achievement. + +[65] A chattel, for example, is a slave or a horse who wins a wreath +for the owner. + +[66] Cicero says that this statute seems to suggest fear of disastrous +fire (_De Legibus_, II. 24. 61). + +[67] In the burning-mound also ashes were buried. + +[68] This statute proved so unpopular that it soon was repealed by the +Lex Canuleia in 445 B.C. + +[69] This process of "taking a pledge" is the seizure and the +detention of a debtor's property or part thereof to induce the debtor +to pay the debt before any other legal action will be taken. + +It will be noticed that the two instances given in this statute +concern Sacred Law, with which by anticipation the fourth statute of +this Table likewise is concerned. Modern scholars place these two +provisions among the Supplementary Laws despite the temptation to set +these among the statutes of Table X, of which all but one item come +from Cicero's discussion of Sacred Law in his _De Legibus_, II. 23. +58-24. 61, in the concluding portion of which Cicero seems to speak +with some finality that he has given all the regulations regarding +religion found in the Twelve Tables. Moreover these two rules come +from Gaius, who flourished more than two centuries after Cicero. But +if every Supplementary Law resembling the subject-matter of Tables I-X +should be advanced to the appropriate position forward, few would be +the statutes left in Tables XI-XII. It is merely coincidental that +some of the statutes among the Supplementary Laws should concern +topics already treated, for from the Romans we must not remove the +faculty of aftersight. + +[70] Some scholars seek to place this provision in Table VIII, where +it seems properly to belong, despite its traditional position here. + +This dislocation, coupled with that of the preceding provision, well +illustrates how hopeless is our reconstruction of the order of the +regulations of the Twelve Tables. + +[71] That is, apparently, if a person with or without fraudulent +intent had held and claimed as his a thing which a judicial court now +decided belonged to another party. + +[72] Retention of the article is deemed to have brought the defendant +some profit; therefore he must pay double this profit. + +[73] Cf. second paragraph in note [69] _supra_. + +[74] That is, the most recent law repeals all previous laws which are +inconsistent with it. + +[75] Cicero says that many laws in the Twelve Tables exhibit this rule +(_De Re Publica_, II. 31. 54). + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Twelve Tables, by Anonymous + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWELVE TABLES *** + +***** This file should be named 14783-8.txt or 14783-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/7/8/14783/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Project Manager, Keith M. Eckrich, +Post-Processor and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/14783-8.zip b/old/14783-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe18220 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14783-8.zip diff --git a/old/14783.txt b/old/14783.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..98c99a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14783.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1399 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Twelve Tables, by Anonymous + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Twelve Tables + +Author: Anonymous + +Release Date: January 24, 2005 [EBook #14783] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWELVE TABLES *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Project Manager, Keith M. Eckrich, +Post-Processor and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + + +THE TWELVE TABLES + + + +_prefaced, arranged, translated, annotated_ + +BY P.R. COLEMAN-NORTON + +PRINCETON UNIVERSITY + +DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The legal history of Rome begins properly with the Twelve Tables. It +is strictly the first and the only Roman code,[1] collecting the +earliest known laws of the Roman people and forming the foundation of +the whole fabric of Roman Law. Its importance lies in the fact that by +its promulgation was substituted for an unwritten usage, of which the +knowledge had been confined to some citizens of the community, a +public and written body of laws, which were easily accessible to and +strictly binding on all citizens of Rome. + +Till the close of the republican period (509 B.C.-27 B.C.) the Twelve +Tables were regarded as a great legal charter. The historian Livy (59 +B.C.-A.D. 17) records: "Even in the present immense mass of +legislation, where laws are piled on laws, the Twelve Tables still +form the fount of all public and private jurisprudence."[2] + +This celebrated code, after its compilation by a commission of ten men +(_decemviri_), who composed in 451 B.C. ten sections and two sections +in 450 B.C., and after its ratification by the (then) principal +assembly (_comitia centuriata_) of the State in 449 B.C., was engraved +on twelve bronze[3] tablets (whence the name Twelve Tables), which +were attached to the Rostra before the Curia in the Forum of Rome. +Though this important witness of the national progress probably was +destroyed during the Gallic occupation of Rome in 387 B.C., yet copies +must have been extant, since Cicero (106 B.C.-43 B.C.) says that in +his boyhood schoolboys memorized these laws "as a required +formula."[4] However, now no part of the Twelve Tables either in its +original form or in its copies exists. + +The surviving fragments of the Twelve Tables come from the writings of +late Latin writers and fall into these four types: + +(1) Fragments which seem to contain the original words (or nearly so) +of a law, "modernized" in spelling and to some extent in formation; + +(2) Fragments which are fused with the context of the quoter, but +which otherwise exhibit little distortion; + +(3) Fragments which not only are fused with the sentences of the citer +but also are much distorted, although these preserve in paraphrase the +purport of the provisions of a law; + +(4) Passages which present only an interpretation (or an opinion based +on interpretation) or a title or a convenient designation of a law. + +Only in very few cases do we know or can we conjecture the number of +the tablet whereon any law appeared. Consequently of the arrangement +very little is ascertainable and the attribution of some items to +certain tablets is debatable. The probable order of the fragments, +which total over 115, has been inferred from various statements and +from other indications of ancient authors. + +The amount of detail apparently varies either with the importance of +the matter or with the degree of general or particular knowledge of +the subject supposed by the commissioners to be held commonly by the +citizens. The style is characterized by such simplicity and by such +brevity that the meaning in some instances borders upon obscurity,--at +least so far as modern interpretation is concerned. + +The value of the Twelve Tables consists not in any approach to +symmetrical classification or even to terse clarity of expression, but +in the publication of the method of procedure to be adopted, +especially in civil cases, in the knowledge furnished to every Roman +of high or low degree as to what were both his legal rights and his +legal duties, in the political victory won by the plebeians, who +compelled the codification and the promulgation of what had been +largely customary law interpreted and administered by the patricians +primarily in their own interests. + + + + +THE TWELVE TABLES[5] + + +TABLE I. PROCEEDINGS PRELIMINARY TO TRIAL + +1. If he (the plaintiff) summon [the defendant] to court (_in ius_), +he (the defendant) shall go. If he (the defendant) go not, he (the +plaintiff) shall call a witness thereto. Then only he (the plaintiff) +shall take [the defendant] by force. + +2. If he (the defendant) attempt evasion or take to flight, he (the +plaintiff) shall lay hand [on the defendant]. + +3. If disease or [old] age shall be an impediment, he who shall summon +[the defendant] to court (_in ius_) shall grant [him] a conveyance; if +he (the plaintiff) shall not wish, he (the plaintiff) shall not spread +[with cushions] a covered carriage. + +4. For a freeholder (taxpayer whose fortune is valued at not less than +1,500 _asses_[6]) a freeholder shall be surety (_vindex_) [for his +appearance at trial]. For a proletary (non-taxpayer whose fortune is +rated at less than a freeholder's) any one who shall be willing shall +be surety (_vindex_). + +5. When they (the parties) come to terms, [an official] shall announce +[it].[7] + +6. If they (the parties) agree not on terms, they shall state [their] +case in the _comitium_ (meeting-place) or, in the _forum_ +(market-place) ere noon. Both (parties) shall appear in person and +shall argue the matter. + +7. [If one of the parties shall not have appeared,] after noon [the +judge] shall adjudge the case (_lis_) in favor of him present. + +8. If both (parties) be present, sunset shall be the time-limit [of +the proceedings]. + +9. [Both parties shall post] sureties (_vades_) and subsureties +(_subvades_) [for their appearance]. + + + + +TABLE II. TRIAL + +1. The legal action of solemn deposit (_sacramenti actio_) [demands +that each litigant shall wager either 500 _asses_ or 50 _asses_]: 500 +_asses_ for solemn deposit (_sacramentum_) when the subject of the +dispute [is valued at] 1,000 _asses_ or more, 50 _asses_ when +[estimated at] less [than 1,000 _asses_]. [But] if the controversy +concerns the liberty of a human being [, however valuable may be the +person], the solemn deposit (_sacramentum_) [shall be] 50 _asses_. + +2. A dangerous disease or a day appointed [for the hearing of a case] +with an alien [, when the latter is a party] ... If any of these +(circumstances) be an impediment for judge (_index_)[8] or arbitrator +(_arbiter_)[9] or party (_reus_),[10] on this account the day of trial +shall be deferred. + +3. Whoever shall have need of evidence, he shall go on every third +day[11] to cry[12] before the doorway [of the witness's house]. + + + + +TABLE III. DEBT + +1. Of debt acknowledged and for matters judged in court (_in iure_) +thirty days shall be allowed by law [for payment or for +satisfaction].[13] + +2. After that [elapse of thirty days without payment] hand shall be +laid on (_manus iniectio_) [the debtor]. He shall be brought into +court (_in ius_). + +3. Unless he (the debtor) discharge the debt or unless some one appear +in court (_in iure_) to guarantee payment for him, he (the creditor) +shall take [the debtor] with him. He shall bind [him] either with +thong or with fetters, of which the weight shall be not less than +fifteen pounds or shall be more, if he (the creditor) choose. + +4. If he (the debtor) choose, he shall live on his own [means]. If he +live not on his own [means], [the creditor,] who shall hold him in +bonds, shall give [him] a pound of bread daily; if he (the creditor) +shall so desire, he shall give [him] more. + +5. Unless they (the debtors) make a compromise, they (the debtors) +shall be held in bonds for sixty days. During those days they shall be +brought to [the magistrate] into the _comitium_ (meeting-place) on +three successive market-days and the amount for which they have been +judged liable shall be declared publicly. Moreover on the third +market-day they (the debtors) shall suffer capital punishment (_capite +poenae_) or shall be delivered for sale beyond the Tiber [River]. + +6. On the third market-day they (the creditors) shall cut pieces.[14] +If they shall have cut more or less [than their shares], it shall be +with impunity (_s[in]e fraude_). + + + + +TABLE IV. PATERNAL POWER + +1. A dreadfully deformed child shall be killed quickly. + +2. If a father thrice surrender a son for sale, the son shall be free +from the father.[15] + +3. [To repudiate his wife her husband] shall order her to mind her own +affairs, shall take [her] keys [, shall expel her]. + +4. Into a legal inheritance he who has been in the womb (_in utero_) +is admitted [, if he shall have been born].[16] + + + + +TABLE V. INHERITANCE AND GUARDIANSHIP + +1. Women shall remain under guardianship (_tutela_), even though they +shall become of full age (_perfecta aetas_)[17] ... the Vestal Virgins +are excepted [and] shall be free [from control]. + +2. The mancipable (conveyable or movable) possessions of a woman who +is under tutelage of [her] agnates[18] shall not be acquired +rightfully by usucapion (long usage or long possession), save if these +(possessions) by herself shall have been delivered with the sanction +of [her] guardian (_tutor_).[19] + +3. According as a person shall have ordered regarding his property or +the guardianship (_tutela_) of his estate, so shall be the law (_ita +ius esto_). + +4. If a person die intestate (_intestatus_) and have no self-successor +(_suus heres_), the [deceased's] nearest male agnate shall have +possession of the estate. + +5. If there be no male agnate, the [deceased's] clansmen[20] shall +have possession of the estate. + +6. To persons[21] for whom a guardian (_tutor_) shall not have been +appointed by will (_testamentum_), to them [their] agnates shall be +guardians. + +7. If a person be insane (_furiosus_), if there be not a guardian +(_custos_) for him, rightful authority over his person and over his +property shall belong to [his] agnates and [in default of these] to +[his] clansmen. If a person be a spendthrift (_prodigus_), he shall be +prohibited from [administering his own] goods and he shall be under +the guardianship (_curatio_) of [his] agnates. + +8. If a freedman (_libertus_) shall have died intestate without +self-successor, [his] patron (_patronus_) shall take the inheritance +of a Roman citizen-freedman ... from said household into said +household. + +9. Items which are in the category of debts [due to or incurred by a +deceased person] shall be divided [among his consuccessors] by mere +operation of law (_ipso iure_) [in proportion] to [their] portions of +the inheritance.[22] + +10. Apportionment of an estate (_actio familiae erciscundae_) +[occurs], when coheirs (_coheres_) wish to withdraw from common [and +equal] participation [in the inheritance].[23] + + + + +TABLE VI. OWNERSHIP AND POSSESSION + +1. When a person shall make bond (_nexum_) and conveyance +(_mancipium_), according as he has specified with [his] tongue, so +shall be the law (_ita ius esto_). + +2. Both conveyance (_mancipatio_) and surrender in court (_in iure +cessio_) are confirmed. + +3. Articles which have been sold and delivered are not acquired by the +buyer otherwise than if he has paid the price to the seller or has +satisfied him in some other way, that is, by providing a guarantor +(_expromissor_) or a security (_pignus_). + +4. It shall be sufficient to make good those [faults] which have been +named by [one's] tongue, [while] for those [flaws] which he (the +vendor) has denied expressly [, when asked about these,] he (the +vendor) shall undergo a penalty of double [damages].[24] + +5. For a loyal person and for a person restored to allegiance there +shall be the same right (_ius_) of bond (_nexum_) and of conveyance +(_mancipium_) with the Roman people.[25] + +6. Against an alien (_hostis_) title of ownership (_auctoritas_) shall +be [valid] forever.[26] + +7. A prescriptive title (_usucapio_) of movable things is completed by +one year's [possession], but [a prescriptive title] of an estate and +of buildings [is completed] by two years' [possession]. + +8. A person [who had been a slave and] who has been declared to be a +free man [in a will on some condition], if he shall have given 10,000 +[_asses_] to the heir, although he (the slave) has been alienated by +the heir, by giving the money to the purchaser shall enter into his +freedom. + +9. If any woman [not married by _confarreatio_[27] or by +_co-emptio_[28]] be unwilling to be subjected in this manner [by +_usus_ (possession)] to the hand of her husband (_in manum mariti_), +she shall be absent [from his house] for three successive nights in +every year and by this means shall interrupt the _usus_ (possession) +of each year.[29] + +10. If the (the parties) join [their] hands [on the disputed property +when pleading] in court (_in iure_), [the actual possessor shall +retain provisional possession; but, when it is a case of personal +freedom, the magistrate] shall grant the right of claim (_vindicia_) +[provisionally to the party] asserting [the person's] freedom. + +11. [If he find that another has used his timber (_tignum_)[30] in +building a house or in supporting vines,] a person shall not dislodge +from the framework the timber fixed in buildings in vineyard; [but he +shall have the right of action] for double [damages] against him who +has been convicted of fixing [such timber]. + +12. Whenever [the vines] have been pruned, until fruit shall have been +gathered [therefrom, the owner shall not recover the timber]. + + + + +TABLE VII. REAL PROPERTY + +1. [Ownership] within [a strip of] five feet [along a boundary] shall +not be acquired by long usage (_usucapio_).[31] + +2. The way round [each outer wall of a building] shall be two and +one-half feet. + +3. If they (the parties) disagree, boundaries shall be marked by three +arbitrators (_arbiter_).[32] + +4. [Regulations relating to] inclosures, inherited plots, +cottages.[33] + +5. The width of a road [extends to] eight feet on a straight +[stretch], [but it extends to] sixteen [feet] on a bend. + +6. [Neighboring] persons shall mend the roadway. If they keep it not +laid with stones, one shall drive [one's] beast vehicles [across the +land] where one shall wish. + +7. If rain-water do damage [through artificial diversion from its +natural channels, the offending owner] shall be restrained by an +arbitrator (_arbiter_). + +8. If a water-course directed through a public place shall do damage +to a private person, to the [same] private person shall be [the right +to bring] an action (_actio_), that damage shall be repaired for the +owner. + +9. Branches of a tree may be lopped all around to a height of fifteen +feet.[34] If a tree on a neighbor's farm [be bent crooked] by the wind +[and] lean over one's farm, [one can take] legal action (_agere_) for +removal of that [tree or at least of the offending part of it]. + +10. [The owner of a tree] may gather its fruit which falls upon +another's farm. + + + + +TABLE VIII. TORTS OR DELICTS + +1. If any person had sung or had composed a song,[35] which caused +slander[36] or insult to another person ... he should be clubbed to +death.[37] + +2. A person who had sung an evil spell ...[38] + +3. If a person has broken another's limb (_membrum_),[39] unless he +make agreement [for compensation] with him, there shall be retaliation +in kind (_talio_).[40] + +4. If a person has broken or has bruised a bone with hand club, he +[shall] undergo a penalty of 300 [_asses_, if] to [an injured] +freeman, [or] of 150 [_asses_,] if to [an injured] slave. + +5. If a person shall have done [simple] harm (_iniuria_) to another, +penalties shall be 25 _asses_. + +6. [If] a person shall have caused loss ... [41] + +7. If a quadruped shall be said to have caused damage (_pauperies_), +legal action (_actio_) [shall be sanctioned] either for the surrender +of the thing which made the damage[42] or for the offer of assessment +for the damage. + +8. [If a person] pasture [his] cattle [on a neighbor's land, he shall +be liable to a legal action].[43] + +9. He who has enchanted crops[44] ... nor should he decoy another's +corn ... [45] + +10. For pasturing on or for cutting secretly by night [another's] +crops acquired by tillage [shall be] in the case of an adult hanging +and death [by sacrifice] to Ceres;[46] a person under the age of +puberty (under 15 years of age) [shall] either be scourged at the +discretion [of the magistrate] or make composition by [paying] double +[damages] for the harm [done]. + +11. Who shall have destroyed by burning a building or a stack of corn +set alongside a house is ordered to be bound, scourged, burned to +death, provided that knowingly and consciously he shall have committed +this; but if this be by accident [, that is] by negligence, either he +is ordered to repair the damage or, if he be too poor to be competent +for such punishment, he shall be chastised more lightly. + +12. Any person who shall have felled wrongfully (_iniuria_) other +persons' trees shall pay 25 asses for every [tree]. + +13. If theft has been done by night, if [owner] has killed him (the +thief), he (the thief) shall be [held] killed lawfully (_iure_). + +14. It is forbidden that a thief be killed by day ... Unless he (the +thief) defend himself with a weapon, even though he (the thief) shall +have come with a weapon, unless he (the thief) shall use that weapon +and shall resist, you shall not kill him. And even if he (the thief) +resist, [you] shall shout [, that some persons may hear and +assemble].[47] + +15. In the case of all other thieves caught in the act [it is +ordained] that freemen be scourged and be adjudged [as bondsmen] to +the person against whom the theft has been committed, provided that +they had done this by day and had not defended themselves with a +weapon; that slaves caught in the act of theft be whipped with +scourges and be thrown from the rock;[48] that boys below the age of +puberty (under 15 years old) be flogged at [the magistrate's] +discretion and that damage done by them be repaired. + +16. Thefts which have been discovered through [use of] platter and +loincloth [shall be punished just as if the culprits had been caught +in the act]. For cases of stolen goods discovered (_furtum conceptum_) +[by other means than by platter and loincloth] or introduced (_furtum +oblatum_) the penalty is triple [damages].[49] + +17. If a person plead on case of theft, in which [the thief] shall not +be caught in the act, [the thief] shall compound for the loss by +[paying] double [damages].[50] + +18. A stolen thing is debarred from prescription (_usucapio_).[51] + +19. No person shall practise usury at a rate of more than +one-twelfth[52] ... [if he do,] a usurer shall be condemned for +quadruple [damages]. + +20. In a suit concerning an article deposited [with a person who has +failed to return the article] legal action (_actio_) for double +[damages is granted]. + +21. [If] guardians (_tutor et curator_) [be suspected of +mal-administration, there is] the right to accuse [them] on suspicion +... the legal action (_actio_) against guardians (tutor) [shall be] +for double [damages]. + +22. If a patron (_patronus_) shall have defrauded a client (_cliens_), +he shall be forfeited solemnly (_sacer_).[53] + +23. Whoever shall have allowed himself to be called as a witness or +shall have been a scales-bearer (_libripens_),[54] if he [as a +witness] pronounce not his testimony, he shall be dishonored and +incapable of giving evidence (_intestabilis_). + +24. The penalty for false testimonies [is] that any person +who has been convicted of speaking false witness [shall be] +precipitated from the Tarpeian Rock. + +25. If a weapon has sped from one's hand rather than [if the wielder] +has hurled [it, ... he shall atone for the accidental deed by +providing] the substitution of a ram [as a peace-offering to prevent +blood-revenge]. + +26. [For administering] a noxious drug ... + +27. No person shall hold nocturnal meetings in the city. + +28. Members of guilds have the power to make for themselves any +binding rule which they may wish, provided that they violate nothing +in accordance with public law (_publica lex_). + + + + +TABLE IX. PUBLIC LAW + +1. Laws of personal exception (_privilegium_)[55] shall not be +proposed. + +2. [Laws] concerning the person (_caput_)[56] of a citizen shall not +be passed except by the greatest assembly (_maximus comitiatus_)[57] +and through those whom they (the consuls)[58] have placed upon the +registers of the citizenry. + +3. A judge (_iudex_) or an arbitrator (_arbiter_) legally (_iure_) +appointed, who has been convicted of receiving money for declaring a +decision, shall be punished capitally (_capite_). + +4. [Provisions pertaining to] the investigators of murder (_quaestor +parricidii_) [appointed to have charge over capital cases]. + +5. Whoever shall have incited a public enemy (_hostis_) or whoever +shall have delivered a citizen (_civis_) to a public enemy shall be +punished capitally (_capite_). + +6. It is forbidden to put to death ... unconvicted any one whomsoever. + + + + +TABLE X. SACRED LAW + +1. A dead person shall not be buried or burned in the city.[59] + +2. More than this shall not be done. The funeral pyre (_rogum_) shall +not be smoothed with the axe.[60] + +3. [Expenses of a funeral shall be limited to] three [mourners +wearing] veils and one [mourner wearing] small purple tunic and ten +flute-players. + +4. Women shall not tear their cheeks or have a _lessus_ (sorrowful +outcry)[61] on account of the funeral. + +5. The bones of a dead person shall not be collected that one may make +a funeral afterward.[62] An exception is for death in battle or on +foreign soil.[63] + +6. Anointing by slaves and every kind of drinking-bout is abolished +... [there shall be] no costly sprinkling, no myrrh-spiced drink, no +long garlands, no incense-boxes. + +7. Whoever wins a crown (_corona_)[64] himself or through his +chattel[65] or by his valor, [a crown] is bestowed on him [, when he +is burned or buried] ... on him (who has won it) and on his father [it +shall be laid] with impunity (_sine fraude_). + +8. This also shall not be done: to make more than one funeral and to +spread more than one bier for one person. + +9. Gold shall not be added [to a corpse]. But him whose teeth shall +have been fastened with gold, if a person shall bury or shall burn him +with that (gold), it shall be with impunity (_sine fraude_). + +10. It is forbidden for a new pyre (_rogum_) or a burning-mound +(_bustum_) to be erected nearer than sixty feet to another person's +buildings without the owner's consent.[66] + +11. It is forbidden for a vestibule of a sepulcher (_forum_) and a +burning-mound (_bustum_)[67] to be acquired by usucapion. + + + + +TABLE XI. SUPPLEMENTARY LAWS + +1. Intermarriage (_conubium_) between plebeians and patricians shall +not occur.[68] + +2. [Regulations] concerning intercalation. + +3. [Declaration concerning] days deemed favorable for official legal +action (_dies agendi_). + + + + +TABLE XII. SUPPLEMENTARY LAWS + +1. [There shall lie] a levy of distress (_pignoris capio_)[69] against +a person who has bought an animal for sacrifice and pays not the +price; likewise against a person who makes not payment for that +yoke-beast which any one has lent for this purpose, that therefrom he +may raise money to spend on a sacred banquet (sacrifice). + +2. If a slave shall have committed theft or shall have done damage ... +with his master's knowledge ... the action for damages (_actio +noxalis_) is in the slave's name. Arising from delicts committed by +children and by slaves of a household ... actions for damages (_actio +noxalis_) shall be appointed, that the father or the master can be +allowed either to undergo assessment of the suit (_litis aestimatio_) +or to deliver [the delinquent] for punishment.[70] + +3. If a person has taken [a thing by] a false claim,[71] if he should +wish ... the magistrate shall grant three arbitrators (_arbiter_); by +their [adverse] arbitration (_arbitrium_) ... [the defendant] shall +compound for loss caused by [paying] double [damages from enjoyment of +the article].[72] + +4. It is forbidden to dedicate for consecrated use (_in sacrum_) any +thing of which there is a controversy [about its ownership]; otherwise +a penalty of double [the amount involved] shall be suffered.[73] + +5. Whatsoever last the people have ordained, this shall be binding and +valid (_ius ratumque_).[74] + + +UNPLACED FRAGMENTS + +There are extant about a dozen fragments of whose place in the Twelve +Tables we are ignorant. In nearly every instance these fragments +consist of only one word or phrase, which later Latin antiquarians +have preserved to illustrate an ancient spelling or to explain an +archaic usage or to point a definition. + +The longest fragment only is worth reproduction for the present +purpose: To appeal from any judgement (_inuicium_) and sentence +(_poena_) is allowed.[75] + + + + +NOTES + + +[1] The code was known under two titles: _Lex Duodecim Tabularum_ (Law +of Twelve Tables) and _Duodecim Tabulae_ (Twelve Tables). + +[2] _Ab Vrbe Condita_, III. 34. 6. This claim--that these statutes +were the source of all public and private law--is exaggerated. Rather +the code is chiefly an exposition of private law, derived from +customary law, which already existed, and contains some public and +religious law as well. + +For another estimate see Cicero, _De Oratore_, I. 44. 195, where the +advocate asserts that "the small manual of the _Twelve Tables_ by +itself surpasses the libraries of all the philosophers both in weight +of authority and in wealth of utility." + +[3] Such is the almost unanimous tradition; but one source says ivory +(_eboreas_). Since some scholars scout the use of ivory in Rome at +that time, the emendation of _eboreas_ to _roboreas_ (wooden) is +suggested. + +[4] _De Legibus_, II. 23. 59: _ut carmen necessarium_. + +[5] Words between [ ] complete the sense of a sentence. Words between +( ) are either definitions or translations. + +[6] The _as_ originally was a bar (one foot in length) of _aes_ +(copper), then a weight, then a coin weighing one pound and worth +about $.17. From time to time the _as_ was reduced in weight and was +depreciated in value, until by the provisions of the Lex Papiria in +191 B.C. the _as_ weighed one-half ounce and was valued at $.008. + +[7] Some scholars suggest that this statute should be translated thus: +"When the parties agree on preliminaries, each party shall plead." + +[8] The _index_ hears cases in which a fixed amount is to be adjudged. + +[9] The _arbiter_ hears cases in which an indefinite sum is to be +assessed. + +[10] At this time in the language _reus_ means any litigant; in later +Latin _reus_ is restricted to signify the defendant. + +[11] Perhaps "on every other day" or "on three market-days" is meant. + +[12] This means, we suppose, that the litigant requiring evidence must +proclaim his need by shouting certain legal phrases before the +residence of the person who is capable of supplying such evidence and +who thereby is summoned to court. + +[13] Some scholars suggest that the Latin represented by the words +"and for matters in court" should be omitted and that the passage +should open "For persons judged liable for acknowledged debt", thus +restricting the period of thirty days' grace only to matters of debt. +Even if this view be correct, it disproves not the probability that +the thirty days applied to various kinds of cases. + +[14] "Shall cut pieces" (_partes secanto_) is explained variously: "to +divide the debtor's functions or capabilities", "to claim shares in +the debtor's property", "to divide the price obtained for the sale of +the debtor's person", "to divide the debtor's family and goods", "to +announce to the magistrate their shares of the debtor's estate"; the +old Roman writers, however, understand by the phrase that the +creditors can cut their several shares of the debtor's body! + +[15] In primitive times a father can sell his son into slavery. If the +buyer free the son, the son reenters his father's control (_patria +potestas_). + +Here apparently we have an old _formula_ surviving in a sham triple +sale, whereby a descendant is liberated from the authority of an +ascendant, or after a triple transfer and a triple manumission the son +is freed from his father and stands in his own right (_sui iuris_). + +[16] Otherwise (an interpretation probably, perhaps not a paraphrase): +"After ten months from [the father's] death a child born shall not be +admitted into a legal inheritance." + +[17] "Full age" for females is 25 years. For keeping women of full age +under a guardian almost no reason of any worth can be urged. The +common belief, that because of the levity of their disposition +(_propter animi levitatem_) they often are deceived and therefore may +be guided by a guardian, seems more plausible than true. + +According to Roman Law of this period a woman never has legal +independence: if she be not under the power (_potestas_) of her +father, she is dependent on the control (_manus_) of her husband or, +unmarried and fatherless, she is subject to the governance (_tutela_) +of her guardian. + +[18] Agnates (_agnati_) are relatives by blood or through adoption on +male side only; cognates (_cognati_) are blood-relatives on either +male or female side. The family of the _ius civile_ is the agnatic +family; the family of the _ius gentium_ is the cognatic family. + +[19] Beside a guardian (_tutor_) for a child of certain age (sixth +statute of this Table; cf. p. 7, n. 21) there is provided also a +guardian (_custos_, later _curator_) for a lunatic and for a prodigal +(seventh statute of this Table). + +[20] Clansmen (_gentiles_) are persons all belonging to the same clan +(_gens_) as the deceased and of course include agnates, when these +exist. + +[21] Boys between the ages of 7 and 15, girls between the ages of 7 +and 13, women neither under paternal power (_patria potestas_) nor +under marital control (_in manu mariti_). + +[22] Another version of this provision reads thus: "Debts bequeathed +by inheritance shall be divided by automatic liability (_ipso iure_) +proportionally [among the heirs], after the details shall have been +investigated." + +[23] That is, the judicial division of an estate by a _iudex_ among +the disagreeing coheirs. + +[24] That is, double the proportionate part of the price or of the +things transferred. + +[25] This statute is set in Table I by some scholars. + +[26] This probably means that a foreigner resident in Roman territory +never can obtain rights over any property simply by long possession +(_usu-capio_) thereof; but the meaning of _auctoritas_ in this clause +is disputed. At any rate _usucapio_ is peculiar to Roman citizens. + +This provision sometimes is placed in Table III by scholars. + +[27] This is an exclusively patrician type of wedding, wherein is made +a mutual offering of bread in the presence of a priest and ten +witnesses. + +[28] This type of wedlock, used originally by plebeians, is a +fictitious sale, by which a woman is freed from either _patria +potestas_ or _tutela_. It comes perhaps from the primitive custom of +bride-purchase. + +[29] This method explains how a wife can remain married to a husband +without remaining in his _manus_ (rights of possession). If the _usus_ +be interrupted, the time of the _usus_ must begin afresh, because the +previous possession (_usus_) is considered as cancelled. + +[30] Apparently _tignum_, as "timber" in English covers material for +construction, includes every kind of material used in buildings and in +vine-yards. + +[31] This strip is reserved as a path between any two estates +belonging to different owners. Both owners can walk on the whole +space, but neither owner can claim possession of the strip through +continued usage. + +[32] In view of the ancient tradition that the decemvirs sent to +Athens a committee to study the laws written by Solon (c. 639 B.C.--c. +559 B.C.) for the Athenians (Livy, _op. cit_., III. 33. 5), it may not +be out of place to record what Gaius (_ob. c_. 180 A.D.) reports about +marking boundaries (_Digesta_, X. 1. 13): "We must remember in an +action for marking boundaries (_actio finium regundorum_) that we must +not overlook that old provision which was written in a manner after +the pattern of the law which at Athens Solon is said to have given. +For there it is thus: 'If any man erect a rough wall alongside another +man's estate, he must not overstep the boundary; if he build a massive +wall, he must leave one foot to spare; a building, two feet; if he dig +a trench or a hole, he must leave a space equal or about equal in +breadth to depth: if a well, six feet; an olive tree or a fig tree he +must plant nine feet from the other man's property and any other trees +five feet.'" + +While there is no evidence whatever that any enactment of the Twelve +Tables reproduced in any form the terms of the Athenian statute here +quoted, still the Twelve Tables may have contained some such +provisions. + +[33] What were these conditions we know not; all that we have from +this item are the unbracketed words, which are quoted as examples of +how words change their meanings and which are assigned to the Twelve +Tables. + +[34] Some scholars suppose that only branches over fifteen feet above +ground are meant. In any case the idea is that shade from the tree may +not damage a neighboring estate. + +[35] We know that this item was interpreted to include prose as well +as verse. + +[36] Slander and libel are not distinguished from each other in Roman +Law. + +[37] The severity of the penalty indicates that the Romans viewed +offence not as a private delict but as a breach of the public peace. + +[38] Apparently an incantation against a person, for the ninth statute +in this Table treats such practice against property. + +[39] The penalty points to an incurable maim or break, because the +next statute seems to provide for injuries which can be mended. + +[40] Thus the injured person or his next of kin may maim or break limb +for limb. Cf. the Mosaic _lex talionis_ recorded in _Leviticus_, 24. +17-21. + +[41] Most scholars connect this fragment with damage to property and +conjecture that the rest of it must have been concerned with +compensation for accidental damage. + +[42] That is, the animal which committed the damage may be surrendered +to the aggrieved person. + +[43] From the context, wherein the unbracketed words are preserved, we +can reconstruct the sense of this statute. + +[44] Not apparently into one's own fields, but to destroy these where +these were. + +[45] Apparently into one's own fields by means of magical incantation. + +[46] Properly the goddess of creation, occasionally (by extension) the +goddess of marriage, usually the goddess of agriculture, especially +the goddess of cultivation of grain and of growth of fruits in +general. + +Ceres is represented commonly as a matronly woman, always clad in full +attire of flowing draperies, crowned either with a simple ribband or +with ears of grain holding in her hand sometimes a poppy, sometimes a +scepter, sometimes a sickle, sometimes a sheaf of grain, sometimes a +torch, sometimes a basket full of fruits or of flowers, seated or +standing in a chariot drawn by dragons or by horses. + +[47] That is, the slayer must call aloud, lest he be considered a +murderer trying to hide his own act. + +Our sources leave it uncertain whether the law forbids that a thief be +killed by day, unless he defend himself, with a weapon, or the law +permits that a thief be killed, if he so defend himself. + +[48] A southern spur of the Capitoline Hill, which overlooks the +Forum, and named after Tarpeia, a legendary traitress, who, tempted by +golden ornaments of besieging Sabines, opened to them the gate of the +citadel, of which her father was a governor during the regal period. +As they entered, the enemy by their shields crushed her to death: +Tarpeia was buried on the Capitoline Hill, whereon stood the citadel, +and her memory was preserved by the name of the Tarpeian Rock (Rupes +Tarpeia), whence certain classes of condemned criminals, in later +times, were thrown to their death. + +[49] Our sources tell us that a person who searched for stolen +property on the premises of another searched alone and naked, lest he +be deemed later to have brought concealed in his clothing any article, +which he might pretend then to have found in the house, save for a +loincloth and a platter, on the latter of which he probably placed the +stolen articles when found. We hear also that a man could institute a +search in normal dress, but only in the presence of witnesses. If in +the latter case stolen goods were discovered, the thief on conviction +was condemned to pay thrice their value for _furtum conceptum_ +(detected theft). But in either case, if the accused householder could +prove that a person other than himself for any reason had placed the +stolen articles in his house, he could obtain from that person on +conviction damages of thrice their value for _furtum oblatum_ +("planted" theft). Search by platter and loincloth (_lanx et licium_) +became obsolete; search with witnesses present survived. + +[50] The ancient commentators take this statute to mean "double in +kind" not in value: for example, two cows surrendered for one cow +stolen. + +[51] That is, neither a thief nor a receiver of stolen goods, whether +acquired through purchase or by other method, can acquire title to +property in stolen goods through long possession of such. + +[52] The uncia (whence our "ounce") is the unit of division of the as +and is used also as one-twelfth of anything. One-twelfth of the +principal paid yearly as interest equals 8-1/3%. + +[53] This originally is a religious penalty, whereby the person is +sacrificed. But sacer comes to mean "a person disgraced and outlawed +and deprived of his property." + +[54] At a sale (_mancipium_ or _mancipatio_) the buyer in the presence +of five adult citizens had his money weighed by another adult citizen +who held scales for this purpose. + +This practice obtained originally ere the introduction of coinage. + +[55] That is, enactments referring to a single citizen, whether or not +in his favor. + +[56] Caput includes also privileges of citizenship (_civitas_). + +[57] Commonly known as the _comitia centuriata_, an assembly which +comprised all citizens. To this assembly a citizen convicted in court +on a capital charge had the right of appeal (_ius provocationis_) at +least as early as the passage of the Lex Valeria in 509 B.C., for +Cicero claims that the pontifical as well as the augural books state +that the right of appeal from the regal sentences had been recognized +(De Re Publica, 11. 31. 54). + +[58] This statute is quoted by Cicero (De Legibus, III. 4. 11), who +inserts censores (censors) as the subject of the last verb _locassint_ +(have placed). But the last clause must have been "modernized" either +by Cicero or in his source, because the promulgation of the Twelve +Tables in 449 B.C. antedated the creation of the censorship, which can +not be traced higher than 443 B.C., if we can believe Livy's account +of its institution (op. cit., IV. 8. 2-7). Before that time the +consuls superintended the lists of citizens. + +[59] The first provision doubtlessly descends from a primitive tribal +tabu. Cicero supposes that the second provision is due to danger from +fire (De Legibus, II. 23. 58). + +[60] In view of the simplicity enjoined in some of the following +statutes of this Table, for the decemvirs apparently took a dim view +of extravagant funerals, this statute seems to mean that a rough-hewn +pyre without elaborate smoothness of its wooden material suffices for +the cremation-couch of a citizen. + +[61] Cicero says that some older interpreters suspected that some kind +of mourning-garment was meant by _lessus_, but that he inclines to the +interpretation that it signifies a sort of sorrowful wailing (De +Legibus, II.23.59) + +[62] This provision is aimed at the common custom of prolonging +mourning by gathering and preserving unburied some part of the corpse. +When this part (_os resectum_) later had been buried, then only +mourning ceased. It is possible that some Romans may have thought that +cremation might be wrong or that its ceremony was inadequate. + +[63] That is, in such a case a limb could be carried to Rome and then +buried. + +[64] That is, a garland or a chaplet or a wreath as a prize of +achievement. + +[65] A chattel, for example, is a slave or a horse who wins a wreath +for the owner. + +[66] Cicero says that this statute seems to suggest fear of disastrous +fire (_De Legibus_, II. 24. 61). + +[67] In the burning-mound also ashes were buried. + +[68] This statute proved so unpopular that it soon was repealed by the +Lex Canuleia in 445 B.C. + +[69] This process of "taking a pledge" is the seizure and the +detention of a debtor's property or part thereof to induce the debtor +to pay the debt before any other legal action will be taken. + +It will be noticed that the two instances given in this statute +concern Sacred Law, with which by anticipation the fourth statute of +this Table likewise is concerned. Modern scholars place these two +provisions among the Supplementary Laws despite the temptation to set +these among the statutes of Table X, of which all but one item come +from Cicero's discussion of Sacred Law in his _De Legibus_, II. 23. +58-24. 61, in the concluding portion of which Cicero seems to speak +with some finality that he has given all the regulations regarding +religion found in the Twelve Tables. Moreover these two rules come +from Gaius, who flourished more than two centuries after Cicero. But +if every Supplementary Law resembling the subject-matter of Tables I-X +should be advanced to the appropriate position forward, few would be +the statutes left in Tables XI-XII. It is merely coincidental that +some of the statutes among the Supplementary Laws should concern +topics already treated, for from the Romans we must not remove the +faculty of aftersight. + +[70] Some scholars seek to place this provision in Table VIII, where +it seems properly to belong, despite its traditional position here. + +This dislocation, coupled with that of the preceding provision, well +illustrates how hopeless is our reconstruction of the order of the +regulations of the Twelve Tables. + +[71] That is, apparently, if a person with or without fraudulent +intent had held and claimed as his a thing which a judicial court now +decided belonged to another party. + +[72] Retention of the article is deemed to have brought the defendant +some profit; therefore he must pay double this profit. + +[73] Cf. second paragraph in note [69] _supra_. + +[74] That is, the most recent law repeals all previous laws which are +inconsistent with it. + +[75] Cicero says that many laws in the Twelve Tables exhibit this rule +(_De Re Publica_, II. 31. 54). + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Twelve Tables, by Anonymous + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWELVE TABLES *** + +***** This file should be named 14783.txt or 14783.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/7/8/14783/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Project Manager, Keith M. Eckrich, +Post-Processor and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/14783.zip b/old/14783.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..41f3ffb --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14783.zip |