This chapter is entitled “Sources of Roman Law” in contrast to the next chapter on “Sources for Roman Law.” The difference is that this chapter takes an ancient point of view. If you were an ancient Roman, where did the laws you had to live by come from? As the previous chapter noted, the Romans did not have a Congress or state legislatures or city councils to pass laws. Nor, for much of their history, did they have a king or other single dictator who could just issue decrees. How then were laws made? The next chapter will take up a modern perspective. How can we find out today what the law was then? Historians today must sort through often obscure, ambiguous, and contradictory evidence to answer almost any question about the ancient world. Where in particular do we need to look to find out about Roman law?

THE PRINCIPAL SOURCES OF LAW

Although Roman political institutions were different from those of the modern United States, the sources of law in both systems can be put into the same three general categories: “statute” law (law enacted by a legislative body), administrative rules, and judicial interpretation. This section will outline the Roman versions of these three types, noting changes in them tied to the transformations of the Roman government. I will point out similarities to and differences from modern practice. The next section will look at how the different sources interacted with each other.