CUP (h/b) 533pp £104 (ISBN 9781107163164)
This is a book in the current popular pattern designed for those who have chosen classical studies as their undergraduate course, but who do not have the facility in the Latin language to access essential source material—much of which is in any case otherwise available only in unhelpfully obscure formats. C. is Professor Emeritus of Roman History at Queen’s College Belfast and a visiting fellow of All Souls Oxford. His most recent major publication was the role of rivers in the Roman Empire.
The source material which B. has chosen to illustrate is Roman law, with examples chosen from texts composed between 31 BC and AD 235. These are drawn from literary texts (Cicero, Seneca, Tacitus etc.)—about 40 authors in total; jurists and digest compilers (Papinian, Tertullian, Ulpian etc.)—about 40 scholars in total (each individual is listed with brief biographical details); well over 200 inscriptions; nearly 100 papyri fragments; and one coin. Each entry is conveniently listed in a index.
The entries are distributed within themed sections: the participants (state, citizen & slave); public and private law in both Italy and the provinces; economic life; property; crime and punishment; appearance in court; and the Emperor’s role, introduced by a very cogent account of how Roman law developed, how it became the dominant legal system throughout the empire , who wrote about it and how to interpret the material that has survived. B. also contributes a short explanatory introduction to each section. Each example is given a running number and details of its source (and date where available). Each text is translated into English. In many cases B. concludes with some brief comments on the subject matter of the text and lists useful references for further reading. The only prompt that the reader gets that the text has moved from translation of the source to commentary is that the typeface becomes smaller for the commentary.
Supporting the texts are a list of abbreviations (essential reading before going any further), the list of contributors (referred to above), an 18-page bibliography, an Index of passages cited arranged by source and a standard index of names and topics. There are also 3 basic maps.
Given its objective, this is not a book which can readily be read from cover to cover. Like all encyclopaedias, it is designed to dip into when you know what you are looking for. As such it is a triumph. The translations (all by the author)are straightforward and intelligible, the commentaries are concise but well-judged to elucidate what are often intricate and obscure incidents. Any student needing to understand the way the Romans used the legal system should seek access to this book. The indexing and commentary give the student every chance of understanding what is going on.
But even for the more casual reader there are delights to be had, almost at random on each page, from contemplating the distinction between possession and ownership to the intricacies of inheritance; the massive inscriptions set up to witness in minute detail, e.g. the manner in which individuals were permitted to draw water off from an aqueduct into their own fields. Having learned from recent Inquiries into Covid or the Post Office how little may get past the Private Office into a Ministers in tray, we can be stunned at the detail on which at least some e,mperors were willing to spend time. You are forced to conclude that Trajan must have dictated at least the gist of many of his replies to Trajan. For a community in which only the rich could hope to achieve direct contact with the legal system, a surprisingly large section of the middle ground set great store by the scope and the reliability of the system. The quality and fairmindedness of the intellectual contribution made by the academic commentators suggest that they believed that their work was not in vain.
Unfortunately I fear that the price will deter many regular CfA readers from taking the plunge. This is a shame, given the excellence of the product.
Roger Barnes