Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part One THE WORLD OF BELIEF
- Part Two THE EVOLUTION OF PRACTICE
- Chapter 6 Roman tablets in Italy (AD 15–79)
- Chapter 7 Roman tablets and related forms in the Roman provinces (30 BC–AD 260)
- Chapter 8 Tablets and other documents in court to AD 400
- Chapter 9 Documents, jurists, the emperor, and the law (AD 200–AD 535)
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
Chapter 9 - Documents, jurists, the emperor, and the law (AD 200–AD 535)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part One THE WORLD OF BELIEF
- Part Two THE EVOLUTION OF PRACTICE
- Chapter 6 Roman tablets in Italy (AD 15–79)
- Chapter 7 Roman tablets and related forms in the Roman provinces (30 BC–AD 260)
- Chapter 8 Tablets and other documents in court to AD 400
- Chapter 9 Documents, jurists, the emperor, and the law (AD 200–AD 535)
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
Summary
In the centuries from the late Republic to the reign of the emperor Septimius Severus, Romans – as far as we know – laid down no written rules for themselves about what did or did not prove an act had taken place, nor any strict guidelines for judges or juries to follow when evaluating evidence in court. One of the great benefits of such a system, or such an absence of system, was that it permitted fides to make its case unconstrained by rigid and petty matters of proof, which if codified might be applied with no concern for the quality of the participants. Yet within this freedom, it was nonetheless possible to see paradigms for the proper weighting of fides and the authoritative use of tabulae. Together they made their own kind of system, one that melded a traditional belief in the efficacy of ceremony with the social certainties that privilege imparted to the privileged. The marriage of fides and formality in a free system of proof constructed not just a new and improved tabula but also a new kind of legitimacy, one much like the old because based in its traditions, but also glitteringly and solidly appropriate for its day, appealing to fundamentals that all Romans of the Right Sort would understand and that others could learn, even if sometimes the hard way.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Legitimacy and Law in the Roman WorldTabulae in Roman Belief and Practice, pp. 250 - 293Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004