Legal Engagement: The Reception of Roman Law and Tribunals by Jews and Other Inhabitants of the Empire

A central feature of the Roman empire was its robust ideology of law – citizenship named the privilege of falling under Roman jurisdiction, legal expertise was cultural capital, faith in the emperor’s intimate concern for justice helped to bind Romans and provincials to the state. The essays in this volume explore the impact of Roman law, both in the tribunal and in the broader culture. Unique to this anthology is attention to legal professionals and cultural intermediaries operating at the empire’s periphery, from Gauls and Brittons to Egyptians and Jews. Attention to the ways local peoples creatively navigated their legal realities illuminates the space between laws and legal ideas; between ethnic, especially Jewish, law and the structures of Roman might; between the depiction of law and its actual workings; and helps decode the pageantry of the legal tribunal as well as the imperatives and corruptions of power differentials. This volume is unusual in bringing Jewish sources and perspectives together with Roman, Greek, and Christian ones. This is the result of its being part of the research program JUDAISM AND ROME (ERC Grant Agreement no. 614 424), dedicated to the study of the impact of the Roman empire upon ancient Judaism.