CONCLUSION

The very existence of the puzzles of legal pluralism and legal integration in the Roman Empire are also signs of how the concept of a unified Roman Empire still reigns. The fundamental problem is that regional variations in time and place are so great as to render the whole exercise of saying something about the Roman empire useless.

But only with a holistic view of all the material can a balance between the sources from the centre and the sources from the periphery be achieved. Stolte has outlined the effect of Roman law in a dossier of Euphrates papyri as follows: Roman law was never consciously introduced at all levels of newly acquired provinces and thus what we see in the provinces is an imitation of Roman law. The Roman elements of law in the provinces coexisted with local law, and the law of the papyri is an attempt to delineate the mixed system of Roman and indigenous rules. The understanding of Roman law and its appliĀ­cation varied with time and place and it is difficult to see what was actually Roman law and what was an attempt at defining an agreement under indigĀ­enous law under Roman terms. Stolte sees in the penetration of Roman law to the provinces a beginning of a ius commune.^[102] Arjava has derived a similar interpretation from his studies in the Egyptian material and the penetration of Roman family law in it. Egypt was not a special case but rather a part of the general legal development of the Roman Empire, in which rules made in the centre were used and recognised.^[103]

It is too early to say whether the latest transformation is going to change permanently the way we see the Roman Empire, but there is a marked transition in the role of the provinces. The concept of acculturation, when understood as a process in which the provincials are active participants, has challenged the centralised continental model of empire.

Rustum Beg of Kolazai - slightly backward Native State -

Lusted for a C.S.I. - so began to sanitate.

Built a Gaol and Hospital - nearly built a City drain -

Till his faithful subjects all thought their ruler was insane.

Strange departures made he then ā€” yea, Departments stranger still:

Half a dozen Englishmen helped the Rajah with a will,

'Talked of noble aims and high, hinted at a future fine

For the State of Kolazai, on a Strictly Western line.^[104]

At the end of the poem, Beg's attempt to impress the viceroy fails and he receives just a minor honour. Disappointed, he reverts to his old habits and the traditional way of administration. The historical image of the Roman Empire has begun to show a similar tendency to accept regional variation and the effects of sometimes coincidental forces and events. The separation of normative and factual realities, what ought to have happened and what did happen, is just the first step towards a more historically accurate vision of legal integration in the Roman Empire.

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