Introduction: The fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of constitutional thought
Part I: Inchoate constitutionalism in the late Roman Republic
1. "Not some piece of legislation" : the Roman concept of constitution
2. Infinite Power? : emergencies and extraordinary powers in constitutional argument
3. "The sole bulwark of liberty" : constitutional rights at Rome
Part II. A hierarchy of laws : Roman constitutional thought
4. Cicero and the legitimacy of political authority
5. Greek vs. Roman constitutional thought
Part III. The limits of virtue : the Roman contribution to political thought
6. The Roman Republic as a constitutional order from the Principate to the Renaissance
7. Neo-Roman interlude : Machiavelli and the anti-constitutional tradition
8. Jean Bodin and the fall of the Roman Republic
Epilogue : Constitutional republicanism, the "Cant-Word" virtue and the American founding.