Bringing together a team of international experts from different subject areas – including law, history, archaeology and anthropology – this book re-evaluates the traditional narratives surrounding the origins of Roman law before the enactment of the Twelve Tables. Much is now known about the archaic period, relevant evidence from later periods continues to emerge and new methodologies bring the promise of interpretive inroads. This book explores whether, in light of recent developments in these fields, the earliest history of Roman law should be reconsidered. Drawing on the critical axioms of contemporary sociological and anthropological theory, the contributors yield new insights and offer new perspectives on Rome’s early legal history. In doing so, they seek to revise our understanding of Roman legal history as well as to enrich our appreciation of its culture as a whole.

Sinclair W. Bell is Professor of Art History at Northern Illinois University. His research interests include art and archaeology of the Etruscans, spectacles in the Roman imperial period and the visual representation of slaves and foreigners in Roman imperial art. Sinclair currently the Editor of the Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. He is co-editor of 12 books, including Companion to the Etruscans (Wiley, 2016) and Free at Last: The Impact of Freed Slaves on the Roman Empire (Bloomsbury, 2012). Paul J. du Plessis is Professor of Roman Law at the University of Edinburgh