This essay begins by examining a 1505 image representing the allegorical figure of Justice. In the image, Justitia holds a book in one hand (representing knowledge) and a sword in the other (representing judgment). Reflecting the text’s heavily ideological treatment of Justice as the inevitable product of beneficent legal institutions, the image shows Justitia as dispassionate, impartial, and all-seeing. Except that she does not see the two scenes behind her. These scenes—representing the Judgment of Solomon and the Justice of Trajan—are full of seething emotion, dramatic action, and spectacular violence. Such scenes (the images suggest) are where the real action of law takes place, behind Justice’s back. My essay uses the Justitia image as a starting place for exploring the representation of Justice in early modern versions of these two iconic legal narratives, which stand for contrasting kinds of judgment: judgment-as-knowledge (in Solomon’s courtroom trick) and judgment-as-execution (in Trajan’s instant verdict). It then turns to the stories’ particular meaning in English texts and performances, where Solomon and Trajan serve as antithetical models for the Tudor-Stuart monarch, offering contrasting visions of the just judge-ruler and of the relationship between sovereign prerogative and law.