Kaius Tuori, The Emperor of Law: The Emergence of Roman Imperial Adjudication
Author | |
DOI | 10.3366/elr.2019.0590 |
Published date | 01 September 2019 |
Date | 01 September 2019 |
Pages | 459-461 |
The role of the
I should begin by saying that this is a very impressive work. It is written with pace and verve, and provides an almost encyclopaedic understanding of the Roman political and legislative history. It provides a persuasive reassessment of the role of emperor and the legal fabric of the ancient world. Although it belongs to a wider field of Roman legal history (with echoes of Millar, Bleiken, Kely, Jones and Honoré), in another sense it also feels distinctly separate to those others’ works, a pathfinder for a new way of looking at Roman legislation. Tuori draws upon a vast body of scholarly literature, and behind each of his observations there rests a subtle and reasoned engagement with prevalent scholarly perspectives. So fluently is this work written, that it is not until the final pages of each chapter that the reader is reminded of how new and important some of these ideas really are, and how different the conclusion he reaches is when placed against the prevailing interpretations. This is a deeply impressive work, and one that offers an important (and in parts entirely persuasive)...
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