Legal and Economic Practice in the Roman World, Volume I

This edited volume examines the legal and economic world of the Romans through concepts, structures, and objects that reveal practices of standardization and localism. It explores the myriad ways in which the Roman Empire became an integrated political, social and economic system.  

Split across two volumes, the collection addresses the dynamic interaction between Rome and its provinces in developing institutions crucial to societal and economic development.  It challenges notions of uniformity, demonstrating how tensions between imperial standardization and local cultures could both drive innovative legal and economic practices and hinder empire-wide integration. The chapters explore broad questions from various disciplinary perspectives, including ancient economic history, law, papyrology, epigraphy and archaeology. Contributions cover diverse topics such as weights, measures, and coinage, legal practices, taxation, and cultural symbols. Each chapter investigates how, even as local communities adopted practices associated with Rome as a ruling power, local customs could, in turn, influence practices across the Empire. 

By illuminating these reciprocal relationships, this book recontextualizes Roman standardization—not merely as a tool of imperial domination but as evidence of diverse socioeconomic practices and cross-cultural exchanges. It will be a valuable resource for scholars of ancient economic history, classical archaeology, and ancient law, as well as anyone interested in the economy and culture of Ancient Rome.

Emilia Mataix Ferrándiz is a Ramón y Cajal tenure track lecturer at the International university of Catalonia (Barcelona). Previously, she has hold postdoctoral positions at the Universities of the Basque Country (Spain), Ghent, Helsinki and the Käte Hamburger kolleg Münster. She has a PhD in Roman law and a second PhD in roman archaeology. She has published extensively on Roman law and its maritime and commercial focus.

Koenraad Verboven is professor of Ancient History at the University of Ghent.  He specializes in ancient social and economic history, and has a particular interest in monetary history and numismatics, friendship and patronage based networks, professional associations(collegia), and the application of economic theories in historical research.