C. DOCUMENTS

§33 In addition to the legal and literary texts which have come down to us, a mass of documentary material with legal connotation has been discovered throughout the territorial extent of the Roman empire.

At times, scholars distinguish public documents from private instruments, though the dividing line is sometimes hard to draw. Most often, the material upon which the document was written determines whether it first came to the attention of the epigrapher or of the papyrologist. The discussion here, then, is of inscriptions, and of papyri.

The Latin and Greek inscriptions have been collected, edited and pub­lished in the great collections of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum and a number of regional corpora;’ and in the Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, Inscriptiones Graecae plus a number of regional collections? There are se­lections containing the most important texts, Dessau for the Latin and Dit- tenberger for the Greek.^} The most significant legal inscriptions arc included in Bruns, FIRA and the new edition of Girard? A few special collections may

1.

2. Most of these are post-classical fragments of the writings of the jurists, attention to which has been called earlier (§§ 13-14, 17-19).

3. Brief bibliography, Reynolds, s.v, Epigraphy, Latin, OCD 398-99.

4. Brief bibliography, Tod, s.v. Epigraphy, Greek, OCD 396-97.

5. Dessau, inscriptiones Latinae Selectae (abbrev. ILS) (1892-1916); Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum (abbrev. SIG) (2nd ed., 1915-24), and Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae (abbrev. OGIS) (1903-15, reprinted i960).

6. Bruns, Fontes (pars prior); FIRA I and III; Girard, Textes II.

also be noted? A number of surveys of newly discovered inscriptions and the current secondary literature are available to keep up to date.¹ Several spe­cial chapters or articles serve as an introduction to the role of inscriptions in the law? There is, lastly, an epigraphical encyclopedia, in progress, devoted to all possible subjects that may fall within the compass of the field.^{[233] [234] [235] [236] [237]}

In contrast to inscriptions, private documents upon papyri far outnumber instruments of a public nature. And further, Latin papyri are relatively rare;¹* for each Latin papyrus, fifty in Greek have been unearthed. Some thousands of Greek papyri from Egypt during the period of Roman rule give insight into the private lives of the inhabitants of that province, and business papers of every desciption abound. The greater portion of the latter reflect institutions within the sphere of Greco-Egyptian law, but there was sufficient impact upon this legal system resulting from Roman administration to war­rant consideration by thestudentof Romanlaw.^{[238] [239]Indecd,thepapyriofEgypt constitute the major source materials in the consideration of the problem of 'empire law' vis-a-vis local or provincial law (infra, chap.}

There are several good introductions to the study of papyrology, among which the books of Schubart and Turner may be specially noted.^,J The tools for research have been provided, dictionaries, indices, current listings of texts and comment, many of which are noted infra (chap. HI, 36-38). At this point, attention need only be called to special discussions of legal pa­pyrology, in course lectures or monographs.*⁴ There are two important collections of legal papyri, with comment, by Mittcis and by P.M. Meyer,^{[240] [241] [242] [243] [244] [245]} together with a selection of private and official documents in text and English translations, by Hunt and Edgar.'⁴ Public and private instruments on papyri relating to Roman law are included within the collection of Bruns, FIRA and Girard.” Surveys by leading Romanists have been devoted to the discussion of newly published legal papyri and secondary literature since the earliest days of papyrology;¹¹ those of Seidl, Modrzejewski and Wolff are current.¹* A bibliography of studies in legal papyrology is provided in Modrzejewski’s bibliographical introduction to the Hellenistic world;^{[246] [247]the current bibliog­raphy is found in the annual ‘Rassegna Bibliografica* in Iura.u}