The Origins of Law in Early Rome

Abstract: This article examines the origins and early development of Roman law within the context of recent scholarship showing that early Rome was not founded as a single unified state as its literary tradition suggests, but instead was a multifocal state in which several separate, heterarchical groups gradually merged into a single state. The article argues that different groups in early Rome exercised different types of control over public affairs, and that this distribution of roles continued to exist as Roman law developed. Rather than being a single system created by a single government, therefore, Roman law was an amalgamation of different legal systems that never quite merged even into the late Republic. The expansion of the praetorship to include urban judicial responsibilities in the 3rd century b.c.e. was a critical innovation that accelerated the development of legal proceedings, but the original distribution of authority remained a unique characteristic of Roman law in the later Republic, and one that could be manipulated by politicians such as the Gracchi and Julius Caesar.