Introduction
In the first two chapters, we have seen the context in which the law operated and developed. In Chapter 1, we saw the roles and powers of the various institutions and office-holders that formed part of the Roman constitution.
In Chapter 2, we saw the procedures by which legal rights and remedies were declared and enforced. In this chapter, we consider where that law came from and how it developed over the centuries.We begin with the earliest period of Roman law (part B), before looking at how it developed through the Republic and Empire. Next we look at the state's role in creating law, through legislation of the citizen assemblies[164] (part C) and the actions of magistrates (part D), and finally how this changed in the Empire (part E). In part F, we consider the work of the jurists, legal writers whose ideas were a major source of legal development. Finally, we look at the post-classical period (part G), culminating in the work of the emperorJustinian (part H), to which we owe almost all of our knowledge of Roman law. In the next chapter, we will see how that work came to influence later law.
We are concerned here and in the rest of the book almost entirely with private law[165] rather than public law.[166] The reason for this is straightforward. Thejurists had, broadly speaking, much greater interest in private law than in public law. As their writings form the bulk of the Roman law that has come down to us, it is in private law that Roman law has primarily influenced later law.
B.