The traditional date of these laws is 450 B.C.E. Legend has it that, when they were being drafted, an embassy was sent to Athens to study the laws of Solon. The Romans' laws were posted on wooden tables (and apparently, later, on bronze tablets) in the forum. Later Romans looked to these laws as foundational of Roman culture. The following fragment concerns ceremonial laws associated with rituals for the dead.

[One] must not bury or cremate a dead man within the city . . . [one] must not do more than this; [one] must not smooth the pyre with an axe . . . three shawls, one small purple tunic, ten oboe-players . . . Women must not tear their cheeks nor raise a lament because of a funeral. One must not gather the bones of a dead man in order to hold a...