There are several fragments of laws said to belong to the regal period, but they have been so modernised as to be of but slight value for the purpose of philological illustration. One or two primitive forms, however, remain. In a law of Romulus, we read _Si nurus ... plorassit ... sacra divis parendum estod_, where the full form of the imperative occurs, the only instance in the whole range of the language. [16] A somewhat similar law, attributed to Numa, contains some interesting forms: "Si parentem puer verberit asi ole plorasit, puer divis parentum verberat? ille ploraverit diis sacer esto." Much more interesting are the scanty remains of the Laws of the Twelve Tables (451, 450 B.C.). It is true we do not possess the text in its original form. The great destruction of monuments by the Gauls probably extended to these important witnesses of national progress. Livy, indeed, tells us that they were recovered, but it was probably a copy that was found, and not the original brass tables, since we never hear of these latter being subsequently exhibited in the sight of the people. Their style is bold and often obscure, owing to the omission of distinctive pronouns, though doubtless this obscurity would be greatly lessened if we had the entire text. Connecting particles are also frequently omitted, and the interdependence of the moods is less developed than in any extant literary Latin. For instance, the imperative mood is used in all cases, permissive as well as jussive, _Si nolet arceram ne sternito_, "If he does not choose, he need not procure a covered car." The subjunctive is never used even in conditionals, but only in final clauses. Those which seem to be subjunctives are either present indicatives (_e.g. escit, vindicit_) or second futures (_e.g. faxit, rupsit_.). The ablative absolute, so strongly characteristic of classical Latin, is never found, or only in one doubtful instance. The word _igitur_ occurs frequently in the sense of "after that," "in that case," a meaning which it has almost lost in the literary dialect. Some portion of each Table is extant. We subjoin an extract from the first. "1. Si in ius vocat, ito. Ni it, antestamino: igitur em capito. Si calvitur antestetur postea eum frustratur pedemve struit, manum endo iacito iniicito 2. Rem ubi pacunt orato. Ni pacunt, in comitio aut in foro ante pagunt (cf. pacisci) meridiem caussam coiciunto. Com peroranto ambo praesentes. Una Post meridiem praesenti litem addicito. Si ambo praesentes, Sol occasus suprema tempestas esto."