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Rome’s Twelve Tables could only be consulted by those who read – very few, especially among plebeians – and make no reference to specific forms of redress or legal definitions. Thus, final interpretation of these written laws left in the hands of the learned and powerful, an important compromise favoring the city’s patricians.
In king-less Rome, it was praetors, the magistrates ranking just below consuls, who typically acted as judges, and they – like consuls – were almost always patricians at this point in Roman history. This uncoupling of judicial from executive power helped develop Rome’s complex legal system to a degree unseen anywhere else.
In the end, Roman upper classes, like those in most Greek poleis, used a form of democracy to secure the allegiance of the lower classes, before they turned to a tyrant like Herdonius to settle scores for them. Aspirants to single-man rule were even given a religious penalty: they could be declared “sacer,” that is, dedicated to the gods, and killed by anyone with no retribution.
In many Greek poleis, Roman-style attempts at establishing moderate oligarchic governments with multiple restraints had failed because of the rise of a powerful, new-money merchant class that had backed radical demagogues. These had then stripped old-money families from their vested privileges and used democratic arrangements to draw support from the common citizenry, especially in Greek poleis with suitable locations for medium- and long-distance trade.
However, no Latin town had similar geographic conditions, and in any case they were all very much alike, placed along the same peninsula, producing similar goods that were rarely ideal to trade by sea or river, the cheapest way then as it is now. Agrarian Rome, lacking a sea-port[1], of course had no powerful merchants to oppose the oligarchs.
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