This paper is dedicated to the institution of stipulation, which was the foundation of many institutes of Roman Law. In Roman Law there are four types of named contracts: verbal, literal real and consensual, and the stipulation as a contract was firstly verbal and then literal, and that is why this paper presents both of these contracts. To begin with, this paper gives an overview of the stipulation, conceptually and through its elements. This contract was an abstract legal act which was through the development of protection converted into the causal. Afterwards, the development through all periods of Roman legal history was shown because it was the only verbal contract that was used through all that time. Also, this paper provides an insight into numerous institutes of Roman law that were concluded in the form of stipulation and that were: suretyship, adstipulation, contractual penalty, novation and Aquillian stipulation. By reviewing these institutes as well as the institute of stipulation, it was a goal to understand the reason behing such wide application of this contract an why it is understand as the core of the Roman contract system.