ABSTRACT
The sources of Roman law include several different kinds of legal text: constitutions of Roman emperors (both general laws and responses to individual cases), and writings of legal experts called jurists. Virtually all the texts found in Roman legal sources were written in Latin, the language of Roman law and administration. The selections in this book cover the period from the reign of Augustus (31 B.C.E.–14 C.E.) to the fall of the last Roman emperor in the western Empire in 476 C.E., spanning in legal terms both the “classical” and “late antique” periods of Roman law. The “classical” period is generally defined as running from the early first century B.C.E. to 235 C.E.; the “late antique” is often seen as extending from the early fourth through the sixth centuries. The last two-thirds of the third century occupy a liminal area, both historically and legally. This period is usually considered the beginning of late antiquity, a time of intense social and political change, but the law of the later third century adhered to classical principles despite a rapid turnover in emperors and almost continual military crises.1 In distributing the sources in this book, I have therefore included the imperial rescripts of the post-Severan emperors in the sections on “classical” law, and have begun “late antique” source material with the reign of Constantine (307-337).
