A. Finding and Citing Roman Sources

Any study of Roman law that goes beyond a very basic level will require work­ing directly with the primary sources of Roman law, the legal texts produced by the Romans themselves.

The purpose of this appendix is twofold. First, it explains how the main Roman sources are found and cited. Second, it lists all of the Roman legal sources referred to in the book, together with where they are found in the book. This will allow those with an interest in a particular Roman text to find any passages in the book where it is discussed.

To explain the standard system of citation for Roman texts, let us take an exam­ple. Suppose we see the following on the page: ‘D.7.1.68.2’. What is this referring to? First, the letter at the beginning shows which work is being referred to. In this case, the letter ‘D’ indicates that we need to look at the work called the Digest of Jus­tinian. Other works are indicated by other letters. References to Justinian’s Institutes begin J’ (or sometimes ‘Inst’ or J Inst’). References toJustinian’s Codex begin ‘C’, and references to the Novels begin ‘Nov’. Where the reference begins ‘G’, this is a reference to Gaius’ Institutes. ‘C.Th.’ is a reference to the Codex Theodosianus.

After the initial letter or letters, there will be one or more numbers. These indicate where exactly in the work there is to be found the passage referred to. We have seen that D.7.1.68.2 is in the Digest. The Digest is divided into fifty books, and the first number shows that this passage is from book 7. Each book is further divided into one or more titles, and this is the next number.^[2775] In this case, then, the passage is from book 7, title 1.

As we saw in Chapter 3,^[2776] each title of the Digest is made up of a number of extracts from different Roman jurists. These extracts are called leges (singular lex), and each is numbered. Each lex, except for very short ones, is further subdivided into numbered paragraphs. These are the final two numbers.

Taking all this together, D.7.1.68.2 can then be found by looking up book 7, title 1, lex 68, paragraph 2.

There is a final complication to mention in this system. The first paragraph in a lex has no number. Instead, it is marked with pr (for principium, ‘beginning’). The first paragraph in D. 7.1.68 is, therefore, D.7.1.68pr.³ D.7.1.68.2 is the third paragraph, not the second.

References to other Roman legal literature work on essentially this system, though some have fewer numbers. For example, Justinian’s Institutes lack the divi­sion of titles into leges, so a reference to a passage in the Institutes will have at most three numbers. In Gaius’ Institutes, there is no division into titles. There is only a division into book and paragraph, so a reference to Gaius’ Institutes will have at most two numbers.