Appius Claudius Crassus Inregillensis (or Crassinus Regillensis) Sabinus ( 471–451 BC) was a Roman senator during the early Republic, most notable as the leading member of the ten-man board (the Decemvirate) which drew up the Twelve Tables of Roman law around 451 BC. He is also probably identical with the Appius Claudius who was consul in 471 BC. As consul in 471, Claudius is portrayed in Roman historical tradition as a violent opponent of the plebeians in matters of voting rights and military discipline. Later, as decemvir, Claudius is said to have behaved as a lustful tyrant, with his attempt to force himself on the maid Verginia resulting in the second secession of the plebs, the downfall of the Decemvirate, and Claudius's own death. These accounts are unreliable and probably ahistorical, fabricated in later times to portray the patrician clan of the Claudii as proud and arrogant aristocrats. Name and identity Claudius is supposed to have been the son of Appius Claudius Sabinus Inregillensis, the founder of the Claudia gens, who is said to have migrated to Rome with his followers in 504 BC and held the consulship in 495. Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus distinguish a Claudius who was consul in 471 BC with the decemvir in 451 BC, but the Fasti Capitolini identify the two. Modern historians accept the identification due to some inconsistencies and unlikely coincidences in Livy's narrative. Claudius had at least two sons: the elder was Appius Claudius Crassus, consular tribune in 424; the younger was named Publius. The Fasti give his full name as Appius Claudius Crassus Inregillensis Sabinus. Theodor Mommsen found the spelling Inregillensis over Regillensis ('from Regillum') peculiar, and suggested that the abbreviated form of Claudius's name on the stone, '', should be read instead as 'Crassinus Regillensis', though most sources have not followed him. Crassus, which must have been a personal cognomen, means "thick" or "stout", and could apply equally to a large man or a dullard; although if the latter were intended, it was probably given ironically, for Claudius was by all accounts a very clever schemer. Traditional accounts Consul in 471 BC According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Appius was a candidate for the consulship of 482 BC, but his election was blocked by the tribunes of the plebs. Nine years later, the patricians succeeded in electing him consul, with the goal of preventing the law proposed by the tribune