Landlords and Tenants in Imperial Rome

By examining a portion of private law in imperial Rome as a functioning element in social life, this book constitutes an important contribution to the sociological understanding of law in premodern societies. Using archaeological data as well as literary and legal texts, Bruce Frier shows that members of the upper class, including senatorial families, lived in rented apartments and that the Roman law of urban lease was designed mainly for them, not for the lower class.

Originally published i...