The ius gentium was therefore a Roman legal codification of the widely accepted international law of the time, and was based on the highly developed commercial law of the Greek city-states and of other maritime powers.
Ius gentium je bila svojevrsna rimska kodifikacija tadašnjeg međunarodnog prava, temeljena na tada visokorazvijenom trgovačkom pravu grčkih gradova-država i drugih pomorskih sila.