Matthijs joins David to talk about his work on Roman law, and how it gives us a window into life in the ancient world. Roman laws were issued to deal with problems that arose in people's everyday lives, but how were they communicated across the provinces? How do you stop 'fake' laws circulating? Where were they stored so people could access them?

Matthijs also discusses his experiences at universities in the Netherlands, the US, Italy, and the UK, and why it wasn't until his PhD that he got serious about the history of the Roman Empire, rather than just concepts that surrounded it. Additionally, he explains why he thinks scholars need to start looking beyond the world of Greek and Latin to languages such as Syriac and Ethiopian.

Matthijs Wibier is a lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Kent

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