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The Twelve Tables contained the “whole body of Roman law” (corpus omnis Romani juris),[398] not in the sense that they were a complete and detailed system, but in the sense that they pronounced on all important or disputed points in all departments of law, private, criminal, and public.

The ordinances of private law embraced regulations as to marriage and family relations, testamentary disposition, inheritance, debt, and usury. The marriage recognised was the consensual contract of the Plebeians strengthened by usus. Emancipation was recognised as a consequence of the threefold sale of a son, and a form of adoption, probably already in use in the plebeian community, was thus made universal.[399] The law also facilitated the emancipation of slaves who had purchased their freedom and so helped to create the wealthy freedman class.[400] Perfect freedom of testamentary disposition, in accordance with the plebeian form of testament per aes et libram, was recognised; while in intestate inheritance and in guardianship the rights of the agnati, common to the Plebeians, were recognised as prior to those of the gentiles; sometimes peculiar to the Patricians.[401] The freedom of contract, guaranteed by the Tables, implied the old harsh law of debt; but the penalty was defined, the procedure carefully described, and every loophole of escape offered to the debtor.[402] At the same time usury was severely punished; ten per cent (unciarium fenus) was recognised as the legal rate of interest, and the usurer who exceeded it was punished more severely than the thief and compelled to restore fourfold.[403] The rules of procedure for all civil actions were laid down, such as the summons of parties and witnesses and the length of the trial. But the law did not reveal the forms of action; these were still hidden with the pontiffs.