Law and Empire in Late Antiquity

Erscheinungsjahr 2004
ISBN: 978-0-521-41087-8
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 245 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 559 g

This is the first systematic treatment in English by an historian of the nature, aims and efficacy of public law in late imperial Roman society from the third to the fifth century AD. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, and using the writings of lawyers and legal anthropologists, as well as those of historians, the book offers new interpretations of central questions: What was the law of late antiquity? How efficacious was late Roman law? What were contemporary attitudes to pain, and the function of punishment? Was the judicial system corrupt? How were disputes settled? Law is analysed as an evolving discipline, within a framework of principles by which even the emperor was bound. While law, through its language, was an expression of imperial power, it was also a means of communication between emperor and subject, and was used by citizens, poor as well as rich, to serve their own ends.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Harries, Jill

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Staats- und Regierungsformen, Staatslehre
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie
• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein Rechtsgeschichte, Recht der Antike

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. The law of Late Antiquity; 2. Making the law; 3. The construction of authority; 4. The efficacy of law; 5. In court; 6. Crime and the problem of pain; 7. Punishment; 8. The corrupt judge; 9. Dispute settlement I: out of court; 10. Dispute settlement II: episcopalis audientia; Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Harries, Jill
Jill Harries is Professor of Ancient History at the University of St Andrews. She is the author of Sidonius Apollinaris and the Fall of Rome (1994) and, with Brian Croke, of Religious Conflict in Fourth-Century Rome (1982). She is co-editor, with Ian Wood, of The Theodosian Code: Studies in the Imperial Law of Late Antiquity (1993) and, with Michael Austin and Christopher Smith, of Modus Operandi: Essays in Honour of Geoffrey Rickman (1998).