Preface

This book attempts to look at Roman law in its social and economic context. To do so is to court criticism from both historians and lawyers.

Second, in the last thirty yeees oÓeye evye dem exteoeedmeryfinds of new evidence, especiallyinscriptions, and there have been remarkable developments in Roman social and economic history A book which took proper account of all of this would be a good one. Unfortunately, t^^:s is not that book. To reflect all the new material would require a much longer treatment, and manyyears of painstaking composition.

This book therefore presents onlya sketch, which mayperhaps conjure up a faint image of what would be possible if the final work itself were ever to be executed. The book is aimed at historians rather than lawyers, and the choice of topics, emphasis in discussion, and biblio­graphical references all reflect that. The topic of commercial law is dis­cussed more fullythan the rest, partlybecause of its intrinsic interest and partlybecause it (unlike familylaw) has apparentlynot yet been much absorbed into the consciousness of historians.

For many cgnstπsctive (ommenils aind suggestjons I am most graiteful to Peter Garncey and IShiI   Ose ^dig^^s ff Ose series m whcti this

book appears. The book would never have been finished had I not been able to enjoy the gasss of ns-inqiiillhy that is tde Robbins CoVecgon at tde Law School in Berkeley For their bospilnlily and hodp I am glad to be able here to thank its staff and particularly hs director, Ieu i isnt Maeali.

October 1998