Roman law expert pieces together ancient legal history

UC Classics Assistant Professor Matthijs Wibier translated the double-sided page, which does not appear in other known books from ancient Rome. He said the text likely is from a small compilation of imperial laws from the later fourth century that was distributed for official use by tax officials or for private use by landowners or their attorneys.

“We don’t have a book like this that we know of, which makes it the first of its kind,” Wibier said. “I don’t think it contained thousands of laws like most of the Roman codes we know. I think it was a book that traveling officials could put in their pocket.”

From clues like the absence of these highlights on the reverse side of the page along with the imperial decrees discussed, Wibier was able to determine which way the pages faced in the book. One side of animal skin is smooth while the other is more textured. The textured side of the page came first, representing the odd-numbered page that sits on the right side of the book when opened, which means the opposite side of the animal skin appeared on the left side of the opened book.

Wibier used an ultraviolet light to help draw out the contrast in the ink for the recovery of the Latin text and its translation. His interest in Latin is what first drew him to Classics, he said.

“I love languages, Latin in particular. Working on these pieces and seeing how they fit together was tremendously gratifying,” he said.

The target audience for the book likely were Roman officials who had to enforce the laws or wealthy taxpayers and their lawyers, he said.

“To dodge the law you have to know the law,” Wibier said.

Wibier tried to match the pages to surviving texts, particularly the Codex Theodosianus, a 16-book collection of more than 2,500 imperial laws or constitutions issued between 311 and 437. Wibier argues the Penn parchment likely is not a missing part of either of two relevant books of the Theodosian Code that discussed similar topics, although he couldn’t rule it out completely.

“What makes this discovery particularly remarkable is that, unlike nearly all other fragmentary Roman law books, this text does not correspond to any known imperial legal code,” said UC Professor Daniel Markovich, head of UC’s Department of Classics.

“If I had to guess this could have been an official’s book,” Wibier said. “It was very carefully produced. The handwriting is very beautifully done. This is very high-end scriptorial writing.”

What laws did it contain?

“They spoke of the public road system and raising taxes to maintain public infrastructure,” Wibier said. “If I had to speculate, this was a law saying wealthy citizens had to keep the roads in good shape and provide grain for the food supply.

“Another law warned people to stop treating public buildings like they were private property.”

Wibier described the painstaking work that went into the translation in a chapter of the upcoming book “Il Codice Teodosiano“ edited by Detlef Liebs and Dario Mantovani scheduled to be published this year by Pavia University Press.

Ancient Rome under Constantius and Julian stretched from what is today England across the rest of Europe to Syria and Egypt. Its capital was Constantinople, today called Istanbul in Turkey.

Wibier said the emperors ruled over tens of millions of people.

“The things the empire values is keeping the population fed, particularly in cities. If there isn’t enough grain in Constantinople, people will protest, which is dangerous,” he said. “And they want to make sure the military is well provisioned. Those are very big concerns.”

Likewise, the emperors owned a majority of the land as a means of maintaining political control.

“There is a concern with having too many wealthy people that can raise their own armies,” he said. “The empire makes sure there are essential services. And people with money have to pay for that system. It’s hierarchical. But it also ensures there is no challenge to the emperor.”

The project was supported with grants from the European Research Council and the Semple Classics Fund. Wibier acknowledge the valuable assistance of the Penn Museum.

The museum preserves hundreds of manuscripts from Egypt, many surviving in fragments, said Jennifer Houser Wegner, the museum’s curator-in-charge for the Egyptian collection. The museum’s texts appear on a range of materials from papyrus to vellum to animal skin. And they are in variety of scripts from Egyptian hieroglyphs to languages ranging from Coptic to Arabic to Hebrew and Greek. But the parchment Wibier examined is the only one in the collection in Latin.

“The document is highly fragmentary; nevertheless, Wibier has skillfully deciphered the text and made a translation,” Houser Wegner said.

“Beyond its interesting content, Wibier’s research on this parchment highlights the immense potential within Museum collections that house unpublished manuscripts,” she said.

“As these fragmentary texts receive greater scholarly attention through careful study, translation, and commentary, these documents have the possibility of expanding our understanding of the ancient world.”

Featured image at top: UC College of Arts and Sciences Assistant Professor Matthijs Wibier discovered untranslated Roman laws from tattered fragments he pieced together. Photo/Connor Boyle/UC Marketing + Brand