CONTENTS

Illustrations vii

Acknowledgments viii

Abbreviations ix

Introduction 1

1 The location of legal activities in the city of Rome 13

Courts of the praetors 14

Court of the emperor 34

Courts of other magistrates 39

Overview of locations 48

2 Reconstruction of the Roman courtroom 51

Types of people present 52

Physical arrangement of the participants 53

Physical arrangement of the audience 57

The distinction between types of courts 59

The centumviral court 61

3 The litigant 71

Identity of litigants 72

Motivation 77

Choosing an advocate 81

The litigant in the courtroom 81

CONTENTS

4 The judge 89

An overview of judges at Rome 91

Album iudicum 92

Unus iudex 101

The stress of judging 103

Favoritism in the rulings of the judge 108

Judicial service: honor or duty? 110

The judge in the courtroom 116

5 The audience 120

The identity of the audience 121

Audience participation 133

Clientelae and the claque 136

6 The advocate 141

Status, pay, the “decline of oratory”, and terminology 141

The cases of advocates 150

Factors in the selection of cases 158

Factors in the refusal of cases 165

Provincial and out-of-town advocates 167

7 The advocate’s role outside and in the courtroom 170

Time investment and workload 170

The advocate in the courtroom 186

Conclusions 199

Notes 205

Bibliography

253

264

279

Index locorum

Subject index

ILLUSTRATIONS