The Overlooked Greek Foundations of Roman Law [View all]

By
Nick Kampouris
May 3, 2025

Many people know the fundamentals of Roman law, which became the foundation of most modern-day legal systems across the world. However, not many people are familiar with the fact that the core elements of Roman law can be directly traced back to the ancient Greek world.

The Romans, a pragmatic civilization, looked to their Greek neighbors for inspiration in developing their own legal framework, as they did for many other aspects of their lives. This influence is pretty evident in some of the earliest Roman legal codes. An example of this was the Twelve Tables.

The Twelve Tables were a set of laws inscribed on 12 bronze tablets in ancient Rome around 451 to 450 BC. As we can understand, this was the very beginning of Rome as a powerful entity. These laws were created by a commission of ten men, known as the decemviri, to address the demands of the ordinary people of Rome for a written code of laws.



The 12 Tables

An infographic illustrating The Laws of the Twelve Tables, which was a set of ancient Roman laws put together and displayed in public around 450 BC. These laws formed the core of the Roman legal system. Credit: Simeon Netchev, World History Encyclopedia, CC BY-NC SA-4.0


Displayed in the Roman Forum upon completion, they covered various aspects of Roman life. The primary element of these laws was that they established the principle of equality before the law for all citizens. This formed a crucial foundation for later Roman law that took the form and shape of the law as we know it today.

More:
https://greekreporter.com/2025/05/03/overlooked-greek-foundations-roman-law/