ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses six sources of law as listed by both Gaius and Justinian are: leges, plebiscita, senatusconsulta, constitutiones principis, magistratuum edicta, and responsa prudentium in the context of the development of law-making as part of the constitution of ancient Rome. It deals with the republican period and the next two with the centuries of imperial government. The verifiable history of Roman law in the ancient world begins and ends with a text. Finally, in the systematic treatment of the law by jurists, Roman law began to be seen as a system, capable of rational and scientific presentation. By the end of the last century of the republic, Roman law had developed many of the features which remain hallmarks of the civil law systems. The jurists also commenced that important relationship between legal learning, practice and education which was to prove of lasting importance in the future of civil law.
