CHAPTER GLIMPSES: TWO LAMB-LIKE HORNS ON THE FIRST BEAST

It is true for individuals as for nations that self strife, correctly waged, always begets the best of self. Not all was so rosy with the young and fledgling Roman republic, but with all its intestinal conflicts, two aspects shine out from that early period which we shall agitate as markers for her future glory. Edward Gibbon well taught us that without artificial help, human memory soon dissipates or corrupts the ideas entrusted to her charge. This artificial help, said he, was none other than the art of writing, which in all history has always clearly delineated Barbarian races from the Civilized. This art allows for the expression of thought in far more sophisticated ways than speech, ennobling the faculties with the privilege and power for precise reflection. This power has many sons, one of whom goes by the name of Progress. In this regard, the state of law at Rome was a woeful mess, heavily favoring the rich ruling Patrician families and doubtlessly oppressing the Plebs. Such injustice was among the grievances laid out during the secession of the Plebs and which was not adequately catered for by the concessions made thereafter. A new generation had come of age and demanded further protection from the ever present danger of Patrician tyranny.

At the time, no one knew exactly what the law of Rome was since it was gigantic mass of oral and written tradition. This new Plebian agitation would eventually lead to the establishment of a set code of Roman law famously known as the twelve tables. Not until coins were first introduced in 451bc as a medium of exchange, and the following economic crash as a result threatened to burgeon Plebian concerns into Plebian revolt, that the Patrician senate decided to act on the matter. It was decided that the consular power for the next year would be transferred to a body of ten men, called the Decemvirate, whose main task will be to collect and condense Roman law into a single code which shall be published on bronze tablets and in the forum for all to see. Unfortunately the contents of the twelve tables have been lost to history and all we can work with are occasional references from later Roman authors. From this queer and antique piece of literature we find codified for the first time, many of the principles enshrined in the laws of modern democratic and free societies. For example in the ninth table we find specific prohibition against the passage of laws against individuals, while the the first table establishes the sanctity of the subpoena, the requirement to appear before a court. The tables covered a whole range of matters and its tedious writ showed just how scrupulous the Roman mind could be with regard to law.

A most interesting law was however hidden somewhere in the ninth table, which stated that no Patrician was allowed to marry a Plebian. This of course was wildly unpopular since only Patricians could become senators and thereby had access to the riches of provinces and to power at Rome. This effectively capped on any social mobility for majority of the population and would prove to be the undoing of the Roman republic 350 yrs later when Caesar rises to power.