[advocacy-discuss] OT - Open Source 450 BC and at a time more ancient than that....

[Sivasubramanian Muthusamy]

Hello,


> According to traditional, semi-legendary historical accounts preserved in
> Livy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livy>, during the earliest period of
> the [Romane] Republic the laws were kept secret by the *pontifices<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontifex_Maximus>
> * and other representatives of the patrician<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrician>class, and were enforced with untoward severity, especially against the
> plebeian <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plebeian> class. A plebeian named
> Terentilius <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terentilius> proposed in 462 BC<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/462_BC>that an official legal
> code <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_%28law%29> should be published, so
> that plebeians could not be surprised and would know the law.
>
> Patricians long opposed this request, but in ca. 450 BC<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/450_BC>,
> a Decemvirate <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decemviri>, or board of ten
> men, was appointed to draw up a code. ...
>
> The first Decemvirate <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decemvirate> completed
> the first ten codes in 450 BC <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/450_BC>. Here
> is how Livy describes their creation, "...every citizen should quietly
> consider each point, then talk it over with his friends, and, finally, bring
> forward for public discussion any additions or subtractions which seemed
> desirable." In 449 BC <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/449_BC>, the second
> Decemvirate completed the last two codes, and after a secessio plebis<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secessio_plebis>to force the Senate to consider them, the
> *Law of the Twelve Tables* was formally promulgated. The Twelve Tables
> were literally drawn up on twelve ivory tablets (Livy says bronze<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze>)
> which were posted in the Roman Forum<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Forum>so that all Romans could read and know them. -
>
from Twelve Tables <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Tables>, Wikipedia

*Shouldn't this be considered the origin of Open Source ?*

-- Sivasubramanian Muthusamy
Turiya
-- http://www.linkedin.com/in/sivasubramanianmuthusamy

First posted at Bangalore Open Solaris group and Frank.Hofmann from
sun.comresponded as below:

Indeed, not quite sure whether "legal code" and "computer code" are
related. It's a case for -advocacy mailing lists, I guess.

But even then, the Roman law is far from the first one made public. There
are things more than a millenium older than that:

       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi

(Enjoy the discussion elsewhere - advovacy-discuss at opensolaris.org is
suggested :)
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