Ancient Law and Society

Catalog description

This course introduces students to laws, lawmaking, and the formation of legal cultures, theories, and procedures in the ancient world. The societies under consideration will be those of the Near East, Greece, and Rome, and the final stages of the course will extend to the later Roman empire and its legal corpora (most notably the Theodosian Code and Justinian’s Code). Key areas of study will be: violence and punishment; property, inheritance, and labor; variations in legal procedures; the roles of experts and non-experts; gender and sexuality; legal training; the relationship between Roman law and provincial legal systems.