Any classicists in the house? I need some help regarding the Twelve Tables.
First, I was wondering if anyone knew of any solid secondary literature on the Twelve Tables. I'm looking for a fairly short (preferably a single volume) history of the development of Roman law that features prominently the compilation of the Twelve Tables.
Second, I was wondering if we have complete copies of the Twelves Tables, and if so, what the standard English translation is, assuming there is one.
Mainly, I'm interested in the sections regarding universitates (I hope that's the proper plural) and capital punishment.
Thanks in advance.
We do not have a complete copy of the Twelve Tables. The standard edition of the fragments is M. H. Crawford (ed.) 1996, Roman Statutes, vol. 2 no. 40, pp. 555-721, written by M. Humbert, A. D. E. Lewis, and M. H. Crawford. This edition comes with a translation, and has a detailed commentary and discussions of the context of each fragment. The total surviving text amounts to 87 one-line quotations and paraphrases.
That's the most important piece of bibliography; here are a couple of other relevant pieces: