Matthijs Wibier

My research interests lie in the political, social, and intellectual culture of the Roman Empire (with forays into Late Antiquity). I am fascinated by how texts and information circulated and what people did with them. I am equally interested in studying intellectual traditions, the materiality of texts, and the interactions of texts and society. I have worked mostly on Roman legal culture and legal literature, but my interests span ancient scholarship and philosophy, reading culture and education, Latin and Greek prose, administration and imperialism, the experiences of individuals other than the male elite, as well as papyrology, textual criticism, and epigraphy. 

I am currently in the final stages of a monograph on Roman legal scholarship in the Early Empire and, with Professor Dario Mantovani (Collège de France), a large collaborative volume that traces the circulation, use, and reception of Roman legal literature in Late Antiquity. This latter volume is based on the ERC-funded project REDHIS.

I am also in the early stages of a project “Epistulae: The Correspondence of the Roman Emperors”, with Professors Serena Connolly (Rutgers University), Elsemieke Daalder (University of Münster), and Zachary Herz (University of Colorado). This project, which will lead to an Open Access online database, has received funding from Rutgers University and the NEH.

PhD: University of St Andrews

MA: University of Leiden

2018 -2023 Lecturer in Ancient History, University of Kent, Canterbury,

2015 -2018 European Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pavia,

2013 -2015 Lecturer in Classical and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, Pennsylvania State University,

Peer Reviewed Publications

Wibier, M. (2020. ) “The so-called Appendices to the Lex Romana Visigothorum: Compilation and Transmission of Three Late Roman Private Legal Collections” . Athenaeum, , 108 (1 ) ,150-180 More Information

Wibier, M. (2020. ) “The Breviary Part of MS Berlin lat. fol. 270 Was Copied from MS Ivrea XXXV (17)” . Athenaeum, , 108 (1 ) ,225-228 More Information

Wibier, M. (2019. ) “Orenius / Erennius / Herennius Modestinus in a Lost Manuscript of Isidore: A Reappraisal of the Problem”. Philologus, , 163 (2 ) ,320-330 More Information

Wibier, M. (2018. ) “Gaius on Pedantry and Erudition: The Quaestio Lance et Licio at Institutes 3.193”. Classical Philology, , 113 (4 ) ,485-494 More Information

Book Chapter

D'Ottone Rambach, A. and M. Wibier (2024 ) “Visigothic Law and Canon Law in al-Andalus: Reconsidering the Leiden Glossary and the Vocabulista in Arabico“. In: Canon Law and Christian Societies Between Christianity and Islam. An Arabic Canon Collection from al-Andalus and its Transcultural Contexts, ed. M. Maser, J. Lorenzo Jiménez and G. Martin .(pp. 203-246).Turnhout, Brepols (digital version)

Wibier, M. (2022 ) “Marcus Antistius Labeo and the Idea of Legal Literature”. In: Roman Law and Latin Literature, ed. I. Ziogas and E. Bexley .(pp. 125-144). London, Bloomsbury (digital version)

Wibier, M. (2020 ) “On Homer and the Invention of Money: The Jurist Gaius in Servius’ Georgics Commentary (3.306-7)”. In: Le Istituzioni di Gaio: avventure di un bestseller, ed. U. Babusiaux and D. Mantovani .(pp. 513-529). Pavia, Pavia University Press (digital version OA)

Wibier, M. (2020 ) “Legal Education and Legal Culture in Gaul during the Principate”. In: Law in the Roman Provinces, ed. K. Czajkowski, B. Eckhardt and M. Strothmann .(pp. 462-485). Oxford, Oxford University Press (digital version)

Wibier, M. (2019 ) “Legal Education, Realpolitik, and the Propagation of the Emperor’s Justice”. In: The Impact of Justice on the Roman Empire. Proceedings of the Thirteenth Workshop of the International Network Impact of Empire (Gent, June 21-24, 2017), ed. O. Hekster and K. Verboven .(pp. 86-102). Leiden, Brill (digitial version OA)

Wibier, M. (2016 ) “Cicero’s Reception in the Juristic Tradition of the Early Empire”. In: Cicero’s Law: Rethinking Law in the Late Republic, ed. P. du Plessis .(pp. 100-122). Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press (digital version OA)

Wibier, M. (2014 ) “Transmitting Legal Knowledge: From Question-and-Answer Format to Handbook in Gaius’ Institutes”. In: Between Orality and Literacy: Communication and Adaptation in Antiquity, ed. R. Scodel .(pp. 356-373). Leiden, Brill (digital version)

Wibier, M. (2014 ) “The Topography of the Law Book: Common Structures and Modes of Reading”. In: The Roman Paratext: Frame, Texts, Readers, ed. L. Jansen .(pp. 58-72). Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (digital version)

Wibier, M. (2024 ) “Antistius Labeo, Marcus”. In: Oxford Classical Dictionary Online . Oxford, Oxford University Press

Wibier, M. (2024 ) “Legal Writing, Its Forms, and Influence”. In: The Cambridge History of Later Latin Literature, ed. A. Pelttari and G. Kelly . Cambridge, Cambridge University Press

Wibier, M. (2024 ) "The View from the Margins: The Antiquarian Annotations of the Lex Romana Visigothorum in Five Medieval Manuscripts". In: Rechtshandschriften des 8. und 9. Jahrhunderts, ed. D. Leyendecker and D. Trump . Ostfildern, Jan Thorbecke Verlag (including an edition and translation of 330 shared annotations)

Technical Reports

Wibier, M. (2023. ) Review: “Römisches Recht im Karolingerreich. Studien zur Überlieferungs- und Rezeptionsgeschichte der Epitome Aegidii. By Dominik Trump. Ostfildern: Jan Thorbecke Verlag. 2021”. Early Medieval Europe, 31 (2) ,345-347More Information

Wibier, M. (2022. ) Review: “Law and Philosophy in the Late Roman Republic”. Bryn Mawr Classical Review, More Information

Wibier, M. (2021. ) Review: “Peter Riedlberger, Prolegomena zu den spätantiken Konstitutionen”. Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Romanistische Abteilung, 138 (1) ,771-776More Information

Wibier, M. (2019. ) Review: “Diocletianus: de interessantste keizer van Rome”. Kleio: Tijdschrift voor Oude Talen en Antieke Cultuur, More Information

Wibier, M. (2015. ) Review: “‘Eclecticism’ as Productive Thinking, not a Branch of Stoicism”. The Classical Review, 65 (1) ,81-83More Information