from the introduction...
This is not quite a book about Roman Law, on which there already exist any number of excellent treatises. Neither is it quite a book about Roman social and economic lif; that subject too, is already illuminated by massive works of scholarship.
It is about Roman law in its social context, an attempt to strengthen the bridge between two spheres of discourse about ancient Rome by using the institutions of the law to enlarge understanding of the society and bringing the evidence of the social and economic facts to bear on the rules of law....