Undergraduate Course: Law and Life of Rome (ANHI10058)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course offers an introduction to the study of the relationship between law and life in Roman society. Whilst the legal debates and decisions of ancient (esp. imperial) Rome have produced the single largest body of textual evidence from Roman antiquity ('Roman law'), students of ancient history are only rarely exposed to this rich source material, made up primarily of compilations and handbooks produced in the mid to late Roman Empire (e.g. the Digest, Justinian's Institutes, Gaius' Institutes, etc.). Next to the study of topics that are crucial for our understanding of Roman society (e.g. aspects of slavery, gender relations), the course aims in particular to investigate the interrelationship between law and life, and with this the question as to how the legal evidence available for study today may be used to understand better ancient Roman society. |
| Course description |
The course offers focussed study of ancient Roman law in its social context. Students will study a range of legal evidence to understand better the relationship between society ('life') and its legal frameworks ('law').
A typical class schedule may look like this:
W1: Introduction: The development of Roman legal writing
W2: Men, women, and the law
W3: Slave and free in Roman law
W4: The family in Roman law
W5: Private property and legal protection
W6: Revision and formative coursework writing week
W7: Orators and jurists
W8: Insult, libel and Roman virtues
W9: 'Thou shall love thy neighbour'
W10: The strange case of the rainwater pipe in Roman law
W11: Conclusion: From legal texts to law and/or ancient history?
The course is by definition interdisciplinary in outlook as it combines historical with legal study.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | A Pass in Ancient History 2A (ANHI08014) AND Ancient History 2B (ANHI08013) are usually required; or at the Course Organiser's discretion. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting Students should usually have at least 3 History courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this) for entry to this course. We will only consider University/College level courses. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate in written coursework, as well as room discussion, knowledge and understanding of a sizeable amount and variety of the Roman legal evidence
- demonstrate in written coursework, as well as room discussion, knowledge and understanding of the different types of questions asked by historians of this type of evidence
- demonstrate in written coursework, as well as room discussion, knowledge and understanding of the different types of questions asked by lawyers of this type of evidence
- demonstrate in written coursework, as well as room discussion, knowledge and understanding of the location (or locations) of the Roman legal sources in the Roman 'evidential' landscape
- demonstrate in written coursework, as well as room discussion, knowledge and understanding of the relatedness of the study of ancient law with the study of other aspects of the ancient (Roman) world
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Reading List
Alexander: The Case for the Prosecution in the Ciceronian Era (2002)
Birks: New light on the Roman legal system: the appointment of judges 1988 Cambridge LJ 36-60
Birks: A new argument for a narrow view of litem suam facere 1984 TvR 373-387.
Brennan: The Praetorship in the Roman Republic (2000)
Buckland: The Roman Law of Slavery (1908)
Cairns and Du Plessis: Beyond Dogmatics. Law and Society in the Roman World (2007)
Cifferi: Cicero¿s conception of iurisprudentia 1991 RIDA 103-119
Crook: Legal Advocacy in the Roman World (1995)
Daube: The peregrine praetor 1951 JRS 66-70
Du Plessis: Borkowski's Textbook on Roman Law (2010)
Du Plessis: The slave in the window, in Roth (ed.) By the Sweat of Your Brow. Roman Slavery in its Socio-Economic Setting (2010) 49-60
Du Plessis: The creation of legal principle 2008 RLT 46-69
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
In addition to the ILOs described above, students will also demonstrate a number of transferable
skills, such as
reading skills of a high volume (i.e. the digestion of large quantities of textual material)
general analytical skills
written and verbal communication skills
oral presentation and discussion skills
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| Special Arrangements |
In order for a student from outwith Classics to be enrolled, contact must be made with a Course Secretary on 50 3580 in order for approval to be obtained. |
| Keywords | Law |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Ulrike Roth
Tel: (0131 6)50 3586
Email: |
Course secretary | Mr Chris Giles
Tel: (0131 6)51 4423
Email: chris.giles@ed.ac.uk |
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