Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

justified by, among other things, the fact that the early emper ors were hesitant to admit publicly that they were monarchs. For present purposes, however, we can avoid most of these dif ficulties. Compared to the period covered by this book (much less the whole scope of Roman history), the transition does not seem such a long one after all. And even if the emperor’s power did not rest primarily on legalities, the effect of the new impe rial system on the law is clearer. Instead of creating a distinctive new government or even an office of “emperor,” Augustus and his immediate successors left much of the Republican order in place, at least formally. One of the ways they changed its actual function was to hold many of its offices by themselves simultaneously. The emperor also controlled (directly or indirectly) the choice of most of the other officeholders. The assemblies were not immediately abol ished, but they had ceased both legislative and electoral activi ties by roughly the end of Augustus’ reign. The more subtle change was to transform most of the old offices into largely honorary positions and to move the actual power to other loca tions in the government. One new locus of authority, at least in the first century or two of the Empire, was the Senate. After hundreds of years as an advisory body, the Senate was given power to elect magistrates, pass binding laws, and even act as a court (at least for its own members). Of course, this “power” was in large part a formality. The emperors transferred these functions to the Senate presumably because a relatively small group of relatively well-known men was easier to control than the assemblies. In addition to the Senate, power came into the

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