The main subject of this impressive collection is the enigmatic Constitutio Antoniniana of a.d. 212 through which most free inhabitants of the Roman Empire were given Roman citizenship. The work consists of an introduction (Ando) and afterword (Pagden), which bookend ten chapters on a diverse range of topics. These may be roughly divided into two categories. The first four are concerned with the CA in its Roman context and cover such important topics as the nature and purpose of the text (Bryen); the impact of the CA on the survival of local law in Asia Minor (Kantor); its effect on Roman conceptions of the res publica (Moatti); as well as Christian perspectives on Roman citizenship (Inglebert). These four chapters should be read together with the introduction by Ando in which he sets out the historiography of the CA with great erudition and explains why this topic has acquired central importance in modern studies of law in the Roman Empire. The first four chapters contain a veritable wealth of information and set out the latest research on the CA in its Roman context(s). Anyone working on the interaction between Roman and local law in the Roman Empire, before or after a.d. 212, should take note of these. As is to be expected, for all the apparent clarity with which the scope and effect of this Imperial constitution are presented in modern works on Roman (legal) history, much remains unclear. It would do the richness of the collection a disservice to pick out particular chapters, but I personally found the chapters by Kantor, in which he explains with great skill whether the enactment of the CA affected local law in Asia Minor, and by Moatti, in which she deals with the spatial and temporal extensions of the concept of the res publica after the enactment of the CA, quite fascinating. Collectively, these chapters demonstrate a number of important points that should be borne in mind when dealing with ancient law, namely that an official legal document such as the CA can be read both from the perspective of the state issuing it, and also from the perspective of the citizen subjected to it (Bryen); that legal change brought about by the state does not occur universally in all parts of the Empire and certainly not at the same speed (Kantor); and finally, that the perspectives of smaller ‘minority’ groups within an empire can often provide valuable information concerning legal change (Inglebert).

The second part of this volume contains some thought-provoking chapters dealing with the reception of the idea of the CA from the early modern period to 1900. These chapters cover early modern (Lee) and Napoleonic France (Lacchè); colonial Portugal (Hespanha as well as Nogueira da Silva); nineteenth-century Spain (Fradera); as well as reflections on Soviet Russia (Schaub). There are some fascinating insights in these chapters, and I found the one by Lee, using the early modern French jurist Jean Bodin and his conceptions of citizenship, compelling. The two chapters on Portugal are also well worth reading. What these collectively show is not only the growth of the idea of citizenship from the early modern period in Europe onwards but also the pervasive impact of the CA as a historical keystone in discussions surrounding citizenship and nationhood in the formation of European consciousness. This is a particularly important discussion, especially in light of the change from ‘personality of law’, prevalent in the medieval and to some extent still in the early modern conceptions of the state, to the ‘territorial’ notions of state and citizen that arose during the latter part of the early modern period and continue into modernity. It also neatly demonstrates the value of the ‘classical tradition’ in contemporary scholarship, especially in the area of citizenship.

The volume ends with a thought-provoking Afterword by Pagden in which he draws various lines together and ends with rather prophetic words concerning the European project and the idea of citizenship in Europe. The volume is well put together and carefully edited. In summary, this is a significant contribution, not only to the debates about the CA in its Roman contexts but also concerning the historiography of it in the European consciousness and its contribution to fundamental issues concerning statehood and citizenship. As such, it deserves a place in any serious library collection.