This is the second edition of Tony Honoré's 1982 book on the life and works of Ulpian, the early third-century lawyer from Syria who contributed two-fifths of Justinian's sixth-century Digest, which for many centuries formed the staple of European legal education. His writing has been at least as influential as that of any other lawyer, ancient or modern. As an intellectual in government he not only wrote about Roman law and administration, public and private, on a massive scale but he also played a full part in the turbulent life of the Severan dynasty (193-235), until his own murder by rebellious troops in 223 or 224 AD.

The book has been thoroughly revised in the light of recent scholarship and three new chapters added. The new edition stresses Ulpian's claim to be the first lawyer to champion human rights. He expounded Roman law to the cosmopolitan society of his time, in which citizenship was extended to all free people in the empire, as a system based on reason and equity designed for people, including slaves, who are by nature free and equal. His voluminous works, mainly composed in 213-17 AD, were dictated in a conversational style. In dealing with legal problems they argue from example and analogy and appeal to considerations of utility and equity in a way not unlike that of Anglo-American lawyers.

The book examines Ulpian's style and method of work, distinguishes genuine works from those falsely attributed to him, and examines his claim that law is the true 'philosophy'.