The creation of the Twelve Tables was certainly not the great plebeian victory that later Roman tradition claimed it to be, and the patrician elite continued to dominate the higher offices of government. Nor did the new laws demand, even on the face of it, equality among citizens, or general relief from debt. Still, they came to seem foundational to later Roman writers, probably because the laws promised, even if they could not guarantee, the right of every citizen to be treated fairly.
