Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

intended, would probably have been written in more positive terms. Total rejection of the law would perhaps make more sense as a sentiment expressed orally by the parties, rather than quickly written into the contract. Still, it is hard not to see some nervousness in the parties to this deal. On the one hand, they use a legal mechanism to exchange livestock for money, and our knowledge of the law of sale can tell us a lot about the consequences of that choice. At the same time, their faith in that mechanism is clearly not total. We can also see this in a plaque labeling a tomb access road that says “Let trickery ( dolus malus ) and civil law ( ius civile ) be away from all these.” This usage is superficially closer to the “correct” one, since a tomb is at least nearby. Yet the text really refers to the road rather than to the tomb. And the connection made between the civil law and trickery is ironic, since dolus is itself a legal term of art. So here too the writer seems to be trying to use the power of legal language to fend off the evils lurking within the legal system. The legal world of these Romans (start ing with the question of what kind of “Romans” they were) was a complicated one.

234