laws of the twelve table

LAWS OF THE TWELVE TABLES. Laws of ancient Rome composed in part from those 
of Solon, and other Greek legislators, and in part from the unwritten laws 
or customs of the Romans. These laws first appeared in the year of Rome 303, 
inscribed on ten plates of brass. The following year two others were added, 
and the entire code bore the name of the Laws of the Twelve Tables. The 
principles they contained became the source of all the Roman law, and serve 
to this day as the foundation of the jurisprudence of the greatest part of 
Europe. 
     See a fragment of the Law of the twelve Tables in Coop. Justinian, 656; 
Gibbon's Rome, c. 44.