<P> The first legal text is the Law of the Twelve Tables , dating from the mid-5th century BC . The plebeian tribune , C. Terentilius Arsa , proposed that the law should be written , in order to prevent magistrates from applying the law arbitrarily . After eight years of political struggle , the plebeian social class convinced the patricians to send a delegation to Athens , to copy the Laws of Solon ; they also dispatched delegations to other Greek cities for like reason . In 451 BC , according to the traditional story ( as Livy tells it ) , ten Roman citizens were chosen to record the laws ( decemviri legibus scribundis ) . While they were performing this task , they were given supreme political power ( imperium ) , whereas the power of the magistrates was restricted . In 450 BC , the decemviri produced the laws on ten tablets ( tabulae ) , but these laws were regarded as unsatisfactory by the plebeians . A second decemvirate is said to have added two further tablets in 449 BC . The new Law of the Twelve Tables was approved by the people 's assembly . </P>
<P> The first legal text is the Law of the Twelve Tables , dating from the mid-5th century BC . The plebeian tribune , C. Terentilius Arsa , proposed that the law should be written , in order to prevent magistrates from applying the law arbitrarily . After eight years of political struggle , the plebeian social class convinced the patricians to send a delegation to Athens , to copy the Laws of Solon ; they also dispatched delegations to other Greek cities for like reason . In 451 BC , according to the traditional story ( as Livy tells it ) , ten Roman citizens were chosen to record the laws ( decemviri legibus scribundis ) . While they were performing this task , they were given supreme political power ( imperium ) , whereas the power of the magistrates was restricted . In 450 BC , the decemviri produced the laws on ten tablets ( tabulae ) , but these laws were regarded as unsatisfactory by the plebeians . A second decemvirate is said to have added two further tablets in 449 BC . The new Law of the Twelve Tables was approved by the people 's assembly . </P>
what was rome 's first set of written laws called
what was rome 's first set of written laws called
Law of the Twelve Tables
Law of the Twelve Tables