Roman Law in its Italic Context

Abstract

This chapter considers what can be learnt about the origins of Roman law by the examination of texts from the Italian peninsula in languages other than Latin. Through a survey of all the attested legal documents with an Italian provenance (i.e. those written in a language of the Sabellian family, in Etruscan and in other languages including Messapic) the chapter traces commonalities and differences in the language of laws, in the format of their presentation, and in the media on which they are inscribed. Although there is shown to be no single ‘origin’ of Roman law, the chapter shows that the influence of Greek law and Greek traditions of writing law have a continual influence across all the different Italian traditions.