PREFACE
It has long been held that law serves the interests of the governing elite of a society. Recent studies, of which Cardascia’s ‘L’appari- tion dans le droit des classes d’ “Honestiores” et d’ “Humiliores” * (1950) and Kelly’s Roman Litigation (1966) are the most prominent, have illustrated the validity of this contention in the case of Roman society.
But to my knowledge no comprehensive treatment of the subject of legal privilege in the Roman judicial system has been attempted. In the present work, the techniques of discrimination used by the Romans in the administration of the law are investigated in detail. However, legal privilege was not a purely juridical phenomenon. An attempt is made to relate patterns of discrimination to the social and political forces which produced and transformed them over a period of time.This book is a revised version of a thesis submitted to the University of Oxford for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1967. In its original form, it was produced under the supervision of Dr. Fergus Millar. I owe him an enormous debt, for positive suggestions and ideas, for stimulating criticism, and for the generous encouragement and support he has given me at every stage. My thanks are due also to my examiners, Mr. F. A. Lepper and Professor A. H. M. Jones, for useful corrections and suggestions; and to Professors Sir Ronald Syme and W. A. J. Watson, who most kindly read the whole typescript, and enabled me to make a number of improvements. In addition, I gratefully acknowledge the friendly help I have received from Professor D. Daube, Mr. M. W. Frederiksen, Mr. J. F. Matthews, and Mr. G. E. M. de Ste Croix. Finally, I was able to pursue my work in Oxford by the kind favour of the Master and Fellows of University College, who elected me to the Salvesen Junior Fellowship.
P. D. A. G.
University of California
Berkeley