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The Roman Times
All the News Romans Need to Know
5/8/450 BC
The Forum
BREAKING NEWS: 12 tables finished!
By Jessica Lee
Classical Civilizations: Rome, Don Narzo
Breaking News in the city
of ROME!
The writing of the twelve
tables is now finally
finished! These “twelve
tables” are a large body of
laws that deal with the
citizens’ rights and
protections. The twelve
tables were engraved in
stone tablets so that they
will never be erased or
ruined. On these stone
tablets, it states penalties
for the people who go
against the laws of Rome.
If you wish to view them,
they will be hung up in the forum for all to see. The forum is the central marketplace of
Rome. You can visit them throughout the week, but I recommend you to visit them as
soon as possible. If you do not know how this all happened, here is the scoop.
After the plebeians of our home, Rome, forced patricians to write a law code, the public
pressure forced the government to write down the existing laws. Ever since the
Republic was first created, we, the Roman citizens, did not feel much protection because
of how the few laws were not written down! If they were written down, we would be
able to live a more comfortable life, knowing that our rights are safe. “These laws are for
the sake of everyone’s protections and to cause less problems. For example if you get
caught stealing at night, you could be lawfully murdered,” said by one man who works
for the Senate. Many people already showed up in front of Senate saying that these laws
aren’t fair! But, the problem is, these are the final laws and there will be many more to
come after. These first twelve tablets were well thought of by the Senate and are going
to be the basis of all Roman laws yet to come. I believe that many citizens might
appreciate that these laws will finally be written down, but they will not like how the
consequences are strict. What are your opinions on these new laws? Are they too harsh?
Are we going to be able to deal with these changes? Make sure to send in your opinion
for next month’s edition!
These are some of the 12 tables that were written.
Sources: Classical Civilization: Rome, Don Nardo; ROBINSON WS (2/5/13)