The Laws of the Roman People

For hundreds of years, the Roman people produced laws in popular assemblies attended by tens of thousands of voters to forge resolutions publicly to issues that might otherwise have been unmanageable. Callie Williamson's comprehensive study finds that the key to Rome's survival and growth during the most formative period of empire, roughly 350 to 44 B.C.E., lies in its hitherto enigmatic public law-making assemblies, which helped extend Roman influence and control. Williamson bases her rigorous and innovative work on the entire body of surviving laws preserved in ancient reports of proposed and enacted legislation from these public assemblies.