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In the days of the Roman Empire, the emperor was considered not only the ruler of the state, but also its supreme legal authority, fulfilling the multiple roles of supreme court, legislator, and administrator. 'The Emperor of Law' explores how the emperor came to assume the mantle of a judge, beginning with Augustus, the first emperor, and spanning the years leading up to Caracalla and the Severan dynasty. While earlier studies have attempted to explain this change either through legislation or behaviour, this volume undertakes a novel analysis of the gradual expansion and elaboration of the emperor's adjudication and jurisdiction: by analysing the process through historical narratives, it argues that the emergence of imperial adjudication was a discourse that involved not only the emperors, but also petitioners who sought their rulings, lawyers who aided them, the senatorial elite, and the Roman historians and commentators who described it.00 Caesar, Cicero, and the models of legal autocracy -- Augustus as judge and the relegation of Ovid -- Divine or insane : emperors as judges from Tiberius to Trajan -- Hadrian as ideal judge -- Caracalla, the Severans, and the legal interest of emperors -- Appendix : Known instances of imperial adjudication from Caesar to Severus, Alexander, and their sources
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