original form or in its copies exists.

The surviving fragments of the Twelve Tables come from the writings of
late Latin writers and fall into these four types:

(1) Fragments which seem to contain the original words (or nearly so)
of a law, "modernized" in spelling and to some extent in formation;

(2) Fragments which are fused with the context of the quoter, but
which otherwise exhibit little distortion;

(3) Fragments which not only are fused with the sentences of the citer
but also are much distorted, although these preserve in paraphrase the
purport of the provisions of a law;

(4) Passages which present only an interpretation (or an opinion based
on interpretation) or a title or a convenient designation of a law.

Only in very few cases do we know or can we conjecture the number of
the tablet whereon any law appeared. Consequently of the arrangement
very little is ascertainable and the attribution of some items to
certain tablets is debatable. The probable order of the fragments,
which total over 115, has been inferred from various statements and
from other indications of ancient authors.

The amount of detail apparently varies either with the importance of
the matter or with the degree of general or particular knowledge of
the subject supposed by the commissioners to be held commonly by the
citizens. The style is characterized by such simplicity and by such
brevity that the meaning in some instances borders upon obscurity,--at
least so far as modern interpretation is concerned.

The value of the Twelve Tables consists not in any approach to
symmetrical classification or even to terse clarity of expression, but
in the publication of the method of procedure to be adopted,
especially in civil cases, in the knowledge furnished to every Roman
of high or low degree as to what were both his legal rights and his
legal duties, in the political victory won by the plebeians, who
compelled the codification and the promulgation of what had been
largely customary law interpreted and administered by the patricians
primarily in their own interests.

THE TWELVE TABLES[5]

TABLE I. PROCEEDINGS PRELIMINARY TO TRIAL

1. If he (the plaintiff) summon [the defendant] to court (_in ius_),
he (the defendant) shall go. If he (the defendant) go not, he (the
plaintiff) shall call a witness thereto. Then only he (the plaintiff)
shall take [the defendant] by force.

2. If he (the defendant) attempt evasion or take to f