There is no other published book in English studying the constitution of the Roman Republic as a whole. Yet the Greek historian Polybius believed that the constitution was a fundamental cause of the exponential growth of Rome's empire. Knowledge of Rome's political institutions is essential both for ancient historians and for those who study the contribution of Rome to the republican tradition of political thought from the Middle Ages to the revolutions inspired by the Enlightenment.

Twelve fragments of bronze were found near Urbino in the late fifteenth century, engraved with Roman laws - on one side a law concerning extortion, on the other an agrarian law. Dating as they do from the time of the Gracchi and of Marius in the later years of the Roman Republic, the laws are of considerable interest to Roman historians and are important evidence for the understanding of the revolutionary period that led to the overthrow of the Republic. In this volume, Dr Lintott offers a complete re-edition of these complicated and fragmentary texts, including a revision of the relationship...