Books by Callie Williamson
~ FROM 350 TO 44, hundreds of public lawInKing assemblies-whether ing with issues urgently import... more ~ FROM 350 TO 44, hundreds of public lawInKing assemblies-whether ing with issues urgently important or to modllll observers seemingly unimpor tant, commlll1itywide in scope or narrowly rocusdon an individual or group--were held in Rome on an apparently infrequent anJ irregular basis. Culminating a process that was at all times cumbersome andime-consuming, from our twen tieth-century perspective, that invariably demaJded from its participants knowl edge of the most intricate details of Roman pilcedures and customs, and that regularly involved participants from members lithe citizenry on all levels, publawmaking assemblies endured throughout de rapidly changing circumstances of the Roman Republic. Only the Romans fu~!< understood the circumstances that called for a political leader to convene the people in a public lawmaking assembly. That each generation had a different;ense of the appropriate circum stances attests to the resiliency and depth of the process in Roman society. The range of individuals with the authority to call ~blic lawmaking a'iSemblies, the range of groups involved in determining the Oulcome, and the number of occa sitms during the public lawmaking process in Rome on which participants had an opportunity to influence the outcome under~ore importance of lawmak ing in Roman society for hundreds of years.
The Laws of the Roman People, 2005
Voting in Roman legislative assemblies. Preprint copy of chapter published in Laws of the Roman P... more Voting in Roman legislative assemblies. Preprint copy of chapter published in Laws of the Roman People
Papers by Callie Williamson
Classical Philology, 1990
Acta Colloquii Epigraphici Latini, 1995
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome , 2010
A Companion to Greek Democracy and the Roman Republic , 2014
Paul J. du Plessis, Clifford Ando, and Kaius Tuori eds., Oxford Handbook of Roman Law and Society. Oxford, 2016.
During most of the Republic, the Romans viewed only perduellio as a threat to state security that... more During most of the Republic, the Romans viewed only perduellio as a threat to state security that rose to the level of a crime. Other threats were dealt with on an ad hoc basis through institutionalized mechanisms of stability in Rome’s political structure, above all the public lawmaking assemblies. Only when the political system wavered in the late Republic did the Romans, in a series of statutes culminating in the lex Iulia maiestatis of Caesar or Augustus, criminalize “diminishing the superiority of the Roman people,” maiestas populi Romani minuta (maiestas). Henceforth maiestas was the chief crime against the state. Inherent in maiestas is the authority of the Roman people to negotiate consensus through the public lawmaking process in which the people voiced their commands. During the Empire, when the emperor embodied the superiority of the Roman people and through him, as the chief lawmaker of Rome, were channeled the commands of the people, the scope of maiestas was altered or expanded to adapt to changing ideas of the state. Even so the idea that maiestas constituted the chief crime against the state persisted. By the late second and third century CE the lex Julia became all-encompassing, and now included perduellio. Religious matters were sometimes brought within its scope even when Christianity became the state religion. The lex Iulia was eventually included in Justinian’s Digests. That maiestas endured so long makes it one of the significant criminal law constructs of ancient Rome.
Paul J. du Plessis, Clifford Ando, and Kaius Tuori eds., Oxford Handbook of Roman Law and Society. Oxford, 2016
This is a pre-publication draft. Any citations should refer to the final, published version.)
Book Reviews by Callie Williamson
Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2013
Bryn Mawr Classical Review 03.03.07
Dictionary Articles by Callie Williamson
Dissertation by Callie Williamson
PhD Diss., UCL, Univ. of London, 1983
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Books by Callie Williamson
Papers by Callie Williamson
Book Reviews by Callie Williamson
Dictionary Articles by Callie Williamson
Dissertation by Callie Williamson