But it appears that dentistry had begun to be practised in Rome prior to the coming of Archagathus, that is, long before the medical profession existed. We have the clear proof of this in the Law of the Twelve Tables, wherein we find mention made of teeth bound with gold. The Law of the Twelve Tables was written in Rome 450 years before Christ, by a body of ten magistrates (_decemviri_) expressly named for that purpose, as up to that time no written law had existed. As gold was at that time somewhat scarce, and fears were entertained that it would become still scarcer (to the great damage of the State) by reason of the custom that prevailed among the wealthy of burning or burying gold articles with the corpses to honor the memory of the deceased, or, rather, to satisfy the pride of the survivors, it was thought necessary to prohibit this abuse by a special disposition of the law referring to funeral pomps. This disposition was thus formulated: “_Neve aurum addito, ast quoi auro dentes iuncti escunt (sunt) im cum illo sepelirei vrive sine fraude esto_;”[109] that is, “Neither shall gold be added thereto (to the corpse); but it shall not be unlawful to bury or to burn it with the gold with which the teeth may perchance be bound together.” From this it results that at the time when the Law of the Twelve Tables was written, that is, four centuries and a half before the Christian era, there were already individuals in Rome who practised dental operations. And these individuals cannot have been medical men, as at that epoch (corresponding pretty nearly with the date of Hippocrates’ birth) Rome had as yet no doctors. The inquiry naturally suggests itself whether the gold mentioned in the legal dispositions above cited was used for fixing artificial teeth or simply for strengthening unsteady natural teeth. Some authors, Serre among them,[110] have pronounced in favor of the first hypothesis, others, as, for example, Geist-Jacobi,[111] are rather disposed to accept the second. In truth, however, we do not possess sufficient historical data to definitely resolve this problem. I myself am rather of opinion that artificial teeth were already in use in Rome, as they were, even before this time, among the Etruscans. Indeed, if we take into consideration the priority of the Etruscan civilization to the Roman and the relations of vicinity existing between Etruria and the Roman State, of which it afterward became a part, it is even possible that dental prosthesis was first practised in Rome by Etruscans.