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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Aug 20

Me on Monday:

‘Good afternoon! My name is Zach Herz, I’m your Roman Civilization professor this fall, and Ethel Cain hated my Instagram post’

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Reposted by Zach Herz

Paul du Plessis @sententiaepauli.bsky.social · Jul 27

#RomanLaw

Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Jul 21

Fun fact—the formal pub date is 7/31, but apparently CUP is now live with my book, if you’re logging in thru an institution: accordingly, book 🧵 incoming. (1/)

www.cambridge.org/core/books/g...

The God and the Bureaucrat

Cambridge Core - Ancient History - The God and the Bureaucrat

www.cambridge.org

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Jul 21

Thank you Mitra! I’ll be drinking to it in Detroit…

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Jul 21

Check’s in the mail 🫡

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Jul 21

Listen to the man!!

Carlos Noreña @carlosfnorena.bsky.social · Jul 21

*The God and the Bureaucrat* is a remarkable work. Its blend of legal history, political history, and cultural history is simply dazzling. The smaller and larger arguments persuade. And even though the material is often complex, the prose is consistently snappy and stylish. What a first book!

Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Jul 21

Fun fact—the formal pub date is 7/31, but apparently CUP is now live with my book, if you’re logging in thru an institution: accordingly, book 🧵 incoming. (1/)

www.cambridge.org/core/books/g...

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Reposted by Zach Herz

Paul du Plessis @sententiaepauli.bsky.social · Jul 21

#RomanLaw

Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Jul 21

Fun fact—the formal pub date is 7/31, but apparently CUP is now live with my book, if you’re logging in thru an institution: accordingly, book 🧵 incoming. (1/)

www.cambridge.org/core/books/g...

The God and the Bureaucrat

Cambridge Core - Ancient History - The God and the Bureaucrat

www.cambridge.org

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Jul 21

Reading Roman law in this way doesn’t just make sense of its nonsensical features, but also reveals the humanity and affective texture of, let’s be honest, some of the most boring texts in the Latin corpus. I hope you enjoy the book, and let me know if you have questions about it! (fin)

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Jul 21

Later Roman rulers looked to Classical law to understand how the state should be run, and post-imperial Europe took ‘Roman law’ as an inspiration for their own legalizing projects. We can understand Roman legal writing, then, as a dream of order that eventually came true. (6/)

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Jul 21

Different actors told different stories for different reasons, but all of them were trying to stay alive and get what they wanted in a world that made those things hard. What is special about legal stories, though, is what later readers did with them. (5/)

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Jul 21

We can see petitioners, bureaucrats, scholars, and emperors as misdescribing their world, but I think it’s more useful to imagine them as telling stories about their world: imagining their state as something more predictable, rational, and fair. (4/)

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Jul 21

I argue that Roman law functions more like a sophisticated ideal theory than a set of rules—our archives record different subjects, with different relationships to Roman power, using ‘law talk’ to try and imagine that power in terms they found simpatico. (3/)

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Jul 21

Basically, the book is trying to figure out why Roman law looks so little like Roman life. Most imperial historians know that ‘law on the ground’ has an awkward relationship to codified law in the period—the question is, if Roman law isn’t governing outcomes what is it doing instead? (2/)

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Jul 21

Fun fact—the formal pub date is 7/31, but apparently CUP is now live with my book, if you’re logging in thru an institution: accordingly, book 🧵 incoming. (1/)

www.cambridge.org/core/books/g...

The God and the Bureaucrat

Cambridge Core - Ancient History - The God and the Bureaucrat

www.cambridge.org

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Jul 1

2013-2025

Moose died this morning. He declined quickly, but with enough warning for me to come home, and we were able to give him a sendoff that was painless and dignified.

He got very old, very fast, and decided he was done. It was a good death. I just thought we would have so much more time.

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Dec 17

Quote from a final (posted with permission):

“Without a doubt, Rome fell when Broadway began.”

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Dec 10

Call for papers is out from the American Society for Legal History! This is my favorite conference to present at, by far: wonderful audiences, who engage closely without tearing anybody down, and they love ancient law! Hit me up with questions and then SUBMIT.

aslh.confex.com/aslh/2025/cf...

Call for Papers

aslh.confex.com

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Dec 5

Quiz time: in order to get Moose to pose like this, you have to hold up

A) a treat
B) page proofs for Cambridge’s forthcoming translation of the Theodosian code; or
C) all of the above

#romanlaw #boyaremyarmstired

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Nov 20

(Also, hi to all of my new followers! I know you think this is an ancient legal history account, and you’re not wrong, but seriously I am worried for our divas.)

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Nov 20

Finally heard a Tate MacRae song, and I no longer understand gay men. Why do we stan this woman

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Nov 5

After si, nisi, num, and ne

Psycho killer, qu’est-ce que c’est

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Nov 5

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Oct 18

Legal historiography pupdate:

Moose is under contract with Cambridge University Press Studies in Legal History! The God and the Bureaucrat: Roman Law, Imperial Sovereignty, and Other Stories should be coming out in ‘25.

Hopefully they get his name right.

#romanlaw #undercontract #getit

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Oct 2

I really want someone to photoshop a yarmulke onto Farfetch’d

Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Oct 2

You’re welcome, Schmaltzy

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Zach Herz @zacharyherz.bsky.social · Oct 2

High Holeekdays

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