The 12 Tables- Rome’s First Laws.

When did the Roman Republic truly begin? Cicero and Cato the Elder argued that it wasn’t Brutus’ revolution, but rather the creation of the Twelve Tables—Rome’s first written law code—that marked the Republic’s functional birth.

The 12 Tables were the foundation for Roman law that lasted for millennia but this code emerged not from patrician wisdom or divine mandate, but from plebeian agitation and mass resistance and would have an enduring legacy shaping Western legal traditions.