The Sources of Roman Law: Problems and Methods for Ancient Historians by O. F. Robinson

Author:O. F. Robinson [Robinson, O. F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Ancient, General
ISBN: 9781134877775
Google: W8aIAgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 1445394
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1996-12-05T00:00:00+00:00

OTHER SOURCES: INSCRIPTIONS, PAPYRI, ETC.86

A vast number of inscriptions have survived87 – not surprisingly, in that stone and bronze are durable materials, but even so most of them are damaged. Inscriptions of all sorts are recorded in the massive Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum and Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, which aim to be complete collections. There are also the still very useful selections of Dessau and Dittenberger. A useful, if dated, work of reference is de Ruggiero’s Dizionario Epigrafico. Current finds are recorded or published in the journals L’Année Epigraphique, IURA, and Studia et Documenta Historiae Iuris. Much legislation, leges of the assemblies,88 resolutions of the Senate, imperial edicts, was published in this form because of its permanence. Of the 108 legislative documents in FIRA i (that is, excluding the Leges regiae and the Twelve Tables) thirteen are from manuscripts and thirteen from papyri; all the rest are inscriptions. We have mentioned the SC de Bacchanalibus of 186 BC and the lex Irnitana as particularly interesting examples of legislation recorded in this way.

There are many regulatory inscriptions. Some are simple, for example the boundary stones defining public areas such as the Campus Martius (put up by Augustus) or the banks of the Tiber (put up in 8 BC by the consuls on the authority of the Senate).89 Others are more elaborate, such as the dedication of a sacred grove around 240 BC:

In this grove no person shall tip out dung nor cast down a dead body nor honour his deceased ancestors. If anyone acts contrary to this, against him let whosoever wishes raise an action in the law by the laying on of a hand – just as against someone judicially condemned – for the sum of 50 coins. Or it is permitted for a magistrate to fine him if he wishes.90

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