At the outset of Laying Down the Law, John Matthews states that his book will attempt to provide �an understanding of the nature of the [Theodosian] Code and how it was produced�, and that it will be �about the Code itself and not about the Roman Empire portrayed in its pages� (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 �least �popular� book� (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)