Western Civilization I / Unit 6 WC1 0527 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Reading the Twelve Tables as Law Made Public
The idea
The exam may quote a provision from the Twelve Tables and ask what it shows about early Rome. The method is the one used for Hammurabi: ask who is protected, who is punished, and what the difference reveals, and add a fourth: why plebeians wanted it written. The primary text is on Fordham's Ancient History Sourcebook.
In practice
Three paraphrased provisions. A debtor who cannot pay may be chained and, after a set time, sold beyond the Tiber. Who is punished: the insolvent debtor, by bondage. What it reveals: debt as the plebeian grievance, and why banning debt slavery mattered. A father holds the power of life and death over his children. Who holds power: the father. What it reveals: the household as the state's unit. Marriage between patrician and plebeian is forbidden. Who is protected: the patrician order's exclusivity. What it reveals: the orders as legal castes, a rule the Conflict of the Orders soon overturned. The fourth question: plebeians wanted law written because unwritten law was whatever patrician magistrates said it was. Posting it in the Forum made the rules knowable, not equal.
Where people slip
The Tables are neither a constitution nor a bill of rights. They record a hierarchical society at a moment of plebeian pressure, and the exam may offer equality as a distractor. Answer with the orders, the household, and the meaning of publication.
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