Laying Down the Law: A Study of the Theodosian Code.

At the outset of Laying Down the Law, John Matthews states that his book will attempt to provide âan understanding of the nature of the [Theodosian] Code and how it was producedâ, and that it will be âabout the Code itself and not about the Roman Empire portrayed in its pagesâ (vii). The nervous reader might anticipate dry exegesis of legalistic minutiae, particularly when M. goes on to express the concern that this will be his âleast âpopularâ bookâ (xi). Neither M. nor the nervous reader should be concerned. Laying Down the Law is quintessentially a Matthewsian book, sharing many of the virtues and much of the style of his Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court AD 364-425 (1975) and The Roman Empire of Ammianus (1989