BOOK: Ari Z. BRYEN, The Judgment of the Provinces: The Roman Empire and the Origins of Law and Society [Studies in Legal History, eds. Lisa FORD, Thomas McSWEENEY& Reuel SCHILLER] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2026), 450 p., ISBN 978-1-009-73037-2

 

(image source: CUP)

Abstract:

Roman law is justly famous, but what was its relationship to governing an empire? In this book, Ari Z. Bryen argues that law, as the learned practice that we know today, emerged from the challenge of governing a diverse and fractious set of imperial subjects. Through analysis of these subjects' political and legal ideologies, Bryen reveals how law became the central topic of political contest in the Roman Empire. Law offered a means of testing legitimacy and evaluating government, as well as a language for asking fundamental political questions. But these political claims did not go unchallenged. Elites resisted them, and jurists, in collaboration with emperors, reimagined law as a system that excluded the voices of the governed. The result was to separate, for the first time, 'law' from 'society' more broadly, and to define law as a primarily literate and learned practice, rather than the stuff of everyday life.

On the author:

Ari Z. Bryen, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee

Table of contents:

The Rhetoric of Inclusion
     Part 1: Law as Documents
          2. Becoming the Roman Provinces
          3. Arguing from Archives
     Part 2: Law as Dialogue
          4. Criminal Justice and the Challenge of Logos
          5. Law among the Degraded
The Practices of Exclusion
     Part 3: Law as Ecstasy
          6. The Transcendent Body Politic
          7. The Politics of Amazement
     Part 4: Law as Books
          8. Writing about Governance, from Cicero to Ulpian
          9. Radical Bureaucracy 
Epilogue: Why Premodernity?

Find more on CUP.  

COURSE: XVI Collegio di Diritto Romano / Collegium of Roman Law - CEDANT 2024: 'Taxation in Rome, from City to Empire: History, Economy and Law' [DEADLINE 16 October 2023]

(Source: Fondazione Ghislieri)

CEDANT - Center for Studies and Research of Ancient Law, University of Pavia, organizes the XVI Collegium of Roman Law on: Taxation in Rome, from City to Empire: History, Economy and Law (III sec. BCE - III sec. CE). The activities will be held in person at Collegio Ghislieri, partner of the Center, under the direction of Jerôme France and Alberto Dalla Rosa (University of Bordeaux Montaigne) from January 8th to 26th, 2024.

Further information will soon be available at https://www.ghislieri.it/en/foundation-ghislieri/cedant/. 

To access the application form, please use the following link: https://forms.gle/w9XrvP5Ebc5jiEpr9

The DEADLINE for application is Monday, October 16th, 2023.

BOOK: Lorenzo GAGLIARDI, David KREMER. Cittadinanza e nazione della stori europea. (Milano: Giuffrè, 2020). ISBN 9788828818458. 28 EUR.

 

(Source: https://shop.giuffre.it/024208942-cittadinanza-e-nazione-nella-storia-europea-citoyennete-et-nation-dans-l-histoire-europeenne.html)

Table of contents:

Cittadinanza e nazione. Un approccio storico, di Lorenzo Gagliardi e David Kremer

David Kremer (Université Paris Descartes) Leçons romaines à l’adresse des Européens. Brèves réflexions sur la civitas Romana et son héritage

Lorenzo Gagliardi (Università degli Studi di Milano) La nazione latina al tempo della Roma dei re

Loredana Cappelletti (Universität Wien) Lo « Stato » degli Italici al tempo della guerra sociale (91-88 a.C.)

Estela García Fernández (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) La condición latina como instrumento de integración de la población provincial

Chiara Corbo (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) Constitutio Antoniniana: un’ulteriore chiave di lettura

Lorenzo Tanzini (Università degli Studi di Cagliari) Cittadinanza e appartenenza alla comunità nelle città italiane tra XIII e XIV secolo

Claire de Blois (Université Paris Descartes) L’évolution du lien entre « population » et « État » dans les dictionnaires de l’Ancien régime (1689-1789)

Thomas Branthôme (Université Paris Descartes) Le citoyen révolutionnaire

Jean-Baptiste Busaall (Université Paris Descartes) Le Citoyen espagnol de la Nation catholique dans la Constitution politique de la Monarchie espagnole de 1812 : sujet nouveau d’un ordre traditionnel

Guillaume Richard (Université Paris Descartes) Redéfinir la nation. L’application des lois sur les réparations pour dommages de guerre aux territoires intégrés après la Première Guerre mondiale (France, Italie)

Valerio Marotta (Università degli Studi di Pavia) Conclusioni

BOOK: Hans-Ulrich WIEMER and Stefan REBENICH, A Companion to Julian the Apostate (Leiden: Brill, 2020). ISBN: 978-90-04-41456-3, pp. 481, € 188.00

 

(Source: Brill)

ABOUT THE BOOK

Series: Brill's Companions to the Byzantine World, Volume: 5

Few Roman emperors enjoy such fame as Flavius Claudius Iulianus – although he was sole ruler of the Roman Empire for only eighteen months (361-363). Since his early death he has been known as Julian the Apostate – the nephew of Constantine the Great who in vain tried to reverse the transformation of the Imperium Romanum into a Christian Empire. This companion synthesizes research on Julian conducted in many languages over the last decades and develops new perspectives. The authors scrutinize the voluminous and variegated sources for Julian's life and rule and reflect on the perceptions of modern research. Since Julian is the subject of scholarly discussion in various fields, this companion offers an interdisciplinary dialogue in which experts from many countries participate. 

Contributors are Bruno Bleckmann, Scott Bradbury, Peter Heather, Arnaldo Marcone, Neil McLynn, Heinz-Günther Nesselrath, Stefan Rebenich, Christoph Riedweg, Sebastian Schmidt-Hofner, Peter van Nuffelen, Konrad Vössing, Hans-Ulrich Wiemer.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Stefan Rebenich holds the Chair of Ancient History and the Classical Tradition at the University of Bern (Switzerland). He has published widely in the field of late antiquity and the history of historiography, including Jerome (London: Routledge, 2002), and Theodor Mommsen. Eine Biographie (2nd ed, C.H. Beck 2007). Recently, he has edited a volume on Monarchische Herrschaft im Altertum (W. de Gruyter, 2017). 

Hans-Ulrich Wiemer holds the chair of Ancient History at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany). He has published monographs and many articles on Alexander the Great, Hellenistic history and historiography, on Late Roman history and on the history of the Goths, including Libanios und Julian. Studien zum Verhältnis von Rhetorik und Politik (C.H. Beck, 1995) and Theoderich der Große. König der Goten, Herrscher der Römer(C.H. Beck, 2018).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface and Acknowledgments

List of Illustrations

Abbreviations

Contributors

Introduction

 1 Introduction: Approaching Julian

 Stefan Rebenich and Hans-Ulrich Wiemer

 2 Julian’s Philosophical Writings

 Heinz-Günther Nesselrath

 3 The Gallic Wars of Julian Caesar

 Peter J. Heather

 4 From Caesar to Augustus: Julian against Constantius

 Bruno Bleckmann

 5 Reform, Routine, and Propaganda: Julian the Lawgiver

 Sebastian Schmidt-Hofner

 6 The Value of a Good Education: The School Law in Context

 Konrad Vössing

 7 Revival and Reform: The Religious Policy of Julian

 Hans-Ulrich Wiemer

 8 Anti-Christian Polemics and Pagan Onto-Theology: Julian’s Against the Galilaeans

 Christoph Riedweg

 9 Julian and the Jews

 Scott Bradbury

 10 The Persian Expedition

 Neil McLynn

 11 Pagan Reactions to Julian

 Arnaldo Marcone

 12 The Christian Reception of Julian

 Peter van Nuffelen

 13 Julian’s Afterlife. The Reception of a Roman Emperor

 Stefan Rebenich

Bibliography

Index

More information with the publisher.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Impact of Empire 13 - The Impact of "Justice" on the Roman Empire, 21-24 June 2017 (DEADLINE 1 Jul 2016)

 (image source: UGent)

We have the following announcement from prof. Koen Verboven (UGent):

The thirteenth workshop of the network Impact of Empire will take place in Ghent, 21-24 June 2017

Organizing committee: Koenraad Verboven, Olivier Hekster & Wouter Vanacker

Topics:

“There is a people on earth that fights for the freedom of others … so that there would be no unjust rule in the world and everywhere justice, and divine and human law would be strongest.” (Livy, 33,33)
‘Justice’ was the moral value that most legitimised Rome’s right to rule. It was the core political virtue that justified the power entrusted to a living emperor. Elites, city-dwellers, land-holders and peasants, from widely different cultural backgrounds, were addressed as—and millions believed themselves to be—stakeholders of a social order that was fundamentally governed by law and justice.
And yet, the violence and brutality with which Rome conquered and subdued its empire was on a scale rarely witnessed before. Its rule relied on structural violence towards slaves and indigenous people. The ‘rule of law’ that Rome imposed, cannot have been perceived as just by all inhabitants of the empire. Nonetheless, millions of them did expect justice from Roman authorities, or local authorities backed up by Rome, and arranged their lives accordingly. For centuries, the magic worked.

In this workshop we wish to focus on how law and justice affected the creation and working of the empire’s social, economic and administrative system. Our emphasis will be on the workings of legal systems within imperial societies, rather than on jurisprudence as such
Many subjects can be favourably explored, but to ensure coherence we will limit our choice of proposals to the following topics
• how the concept of justice resonated through the empire’s political culture(s) from the emperor down to local authorities (or how it was challenged by counter-cultures)
• how dominant ideologies coopted notions of justice as a means of legitimating the social power of civic and imperial elites, and of the emperor
• how the concept of justice was perceived through and influenced by cultural manifestations
• how and how far administration enforced the law
• how legal institutions—those endowed with the authority to create and those with the authority to interpret and enforce rules—functioned and changed
• how Roman law and other legal traditions (Greek, Punic, Jewish, Christian…) regulated and affected social and economic life

Proposals:

We invite both established and early career scholars interested in presenting a paper or a poster to send the provisional title, a short summary (c. 100-150 words) of their paper or poster and brief biographical note to Wouter Vanacker (Wouter.Vanacker@ugent.be). About 20 participants of the workshop will read a paper; c. 5 participants will present a poster. Speaking time: 30 minutes. Only papers which directly address the issues raised in this call for paper can be considered for selection. 

Deadline for the submission of proposals for paper / poster: 1 July, 2016.
Papers, if of sufficient quality, will be published in the proceedings of the workshop, by Brill, Leiden - Boston.

Participants are expected to cover their travel expenses, though there may be a few stipends for especially junior scholars who cannot get reimbursement from their home institutions. The organisers aim to offer accommodation and lunches to the speakers and some meals.

BOOK: "La fin de l’Empire romain d’Occident. Rome et les Wisigoths de 382 à 531" by Christine Deltaplane (Rennes, 2015)

Christine Deltaplane, La fin de l’Empire romain d’Occident. Rome et les Wisigoths de 382 à 531

all information here

Cet ouvrage propose une autre lecture des évènements politiques et militaires du Ve siècle dans l’Occident romain, longtemps résumés par les visions catastrophistes de la chute de l’Empire et des grandes invasions. Il s’intéresse tout particulièrement au devenir des Goths et parmi eux, à ceux qui vont devenir les Wisigoths du royaume de Toulouse puis de Tolède. Comment les élites romaines ont-elles affronté ces transformations radicales ? Comment les Barbares et Constantinople ont-ils conjointement mis en place le nouvel ordre en Occident ?