Wiemer HU (2024)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2024
Book Volume: 17
Pages Range: 117-158
Journal Issue: 1
Jerome’s oeuvre is huge; it comprises translations and commentaries of many books of the Christian Bible, a universal history, a history of Christian litera-ture, biographies of monks, many treatises, and more than 130 letters addressed to people from the educated upper classes of the late Roman West. This article investigates what role Roman law played in Jerome’s writings, what he knew about it, and how he evaluated it. It also looks at his views on late Roman jurisdiction and collects the evidence he provides for petitions to the emperor and for imperial rescripts. The main section analyzes Jerome’s ideas about imperial legislation, his knowledge of individual laws, and the way he presented them. On this basis, it is argued that Jerome’s writings bear impressive witness to the importance of Roman law for both the social practice and the mindset of the provincial and local elites in the late Roman empire.
APA:
Wiemer, H.-U. (2024). Legal Knowledge among Late Roman Elites: The Evidence of Jerome. Journal of Late Antiquity, 17(1), 117-158. https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2024.a926283
MLA:
Wiemer, Hans-Ulrich. "Legal Knowledge among Late Roman Elites: The Evidence of Jerome." Journal of Late Antiquity 17.1 (2024): 117-158.
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