The Law of the Twelve Tables (Latin: Leges Duodecim Tabularum or Duodecim Tabulae) was the legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. The Tables consolidated earlier traditions into an enduring set of laws.[1][2]
Displayed in the Forum, "The Twelve Tables" stated the rights and duties of the Roman citizen. Their formulation was the result of considerable agitation by the plebeian class, who had hitherto been excluded from the higher benefits of the Republic. The law had previously been unwritten and exclusively interpreted by upper-class priests, the pontifices. Something of the regard with which later Romans came to view the Twelve Tables is captured in the remark of Cicero (106–43 BC) that the "Twelve Tables...seems to me, assuredly to surpass the libraries of all the philosophers, both in weight of authority, and in plenitude of utility". Cicero scarcely exaggerated; the Twelve Tables formed the basis of Roman law for a thousand years.[3]
The Twelve Tables are sufficiently comprehensive that their substance has been described as a 'code',[4] although modern scholars consider this characterization exaggerated.[2] The Tables were a sequence of definitions of various private rights and procedures. They generally took for granted such things as the institutions of the family and various rituals for formal transactions. The provisions were often highly specific and diverse.[5]
Franklin Roosevelt gave a radio address to Americans on the same day, deploring the commencement of war while laying the blame on Nazi aggression. However, on November 4 of 1939, Congress renewed the “cash and carry” provision in a new Neutrality Act ending the arms embargo with nations fighting Nazi Germany.
During the late 1800s, there were three main causes of the Spanish-American War, each one pushing the U.S to declare war. These causes are Cuba wanting their independence from Spain . The growing American imperialism and the sinking of the battleship the Maine were also cause of the war.
