Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- List of Abbreviations
- Dedication
- DEBATES AND CONTEXTS
- LAW AND EMPIRE
- 2 Legal Pluralism and the Roman Empires
- 3 Diplomatics, Law and Romanisation in the Documents from the Judaean Desert
- LAW CODES AND CODIFICATION
- DEATH, ECONOMICS AND SUCCESSION
- COMMERCE AND LAW
- PROCEDURE
- Index
2 - Legal Pluralism and the Roman Empires
from LAW AND EMPIRE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- List of Abbreviations
- Dedication
- DEBATES AND CONTEXTS
- LAW AND EMPIRE
- 2 Legal Pluralism and the Roman Empires
- 3 Diplomatics, Law and Romanisation in the Documents from the Judaean Desert
- LAW CODES AND CODIFICATION
- DEATH, ECONOMICS AND SUCCESSION
- COMMERCE AND LAW
- PROCEDURE
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Absurd as it may sound, during the last few decades the image of the Roman Empire has undergone a noticeable change. The unitary model of the Roman Empire, in which laws issued by the emperor were followed equally from Egypt to Spain after AD 212, has been crumbling. Instead of this model of a quasi-modern state, historical studies based on sources found in the provinces offer a model of a heterogeneous empire, in which local rules and customs are more prominent. This chapter seeks to offer some insights into the implication of this development, proceeding from a juxtaposition of contemporary studies through the concepts of centre and periphery, universalism and particularism. These concepts are then applied to the debate over the Constitutio Antoniniana, as is fitting to any discussion on the legal unification of the Roman Empire. Finally, I shall explore the contradictory tendencies of centralisation and disintegration apparent in the historical scholarship today.
The context of this chapter is the historical image of ancient Rome, or the Rome of scholarship. It is an imaginary place where we as historians of ancient Rome wander alongside people like Gaius, Ulpian and Mommsen. In the Rome of scholarship it is sometimes difficult to discern the difference between ancient Romans and dead Germans. As Elizabeth Meyer has correctly stated, Romanists have tended to see Rome as an orderly Mommsenian commonwealth with the rule of law, a Rechtsstaat. This tendency has, in effect, modernised the Rome of scholarship.
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- Beyond DogmaticsLaw and Society in the Roman World, pp. 39 - 52Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2007