Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part One THE WORLD OF BELIEF
- Chapter 1 The use and value of Greek legal documents
- Chapter 2 Roman perceptions of Roman tablets: aspects and associations
- Chapter 3 The Roman tablet: style and language
- Chapter 4 Recitation from tablets
- Chapter 5 Tablets and efficacy
- Part Two THE EVOLUTION OF PRACTICE
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
Chapter 2 - Roman perceptions of Roman tablets: aspects and associations
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
- Chapter 1 The use and value of Greek legal documents
- Chapter 2 Roman perceptions of Roman tablets: aspects and associations
- Chapter 3 The Roman tablet: style and language
- Chapter 4 Recitation from tablets
- Chapter 5 Tablets and efficacy
- Part Two THE EVOLUTION OF PRACTICE
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
Summary
Aeschines and Demosthenes saw Athenian legal documents as the physical consequences of human suspicion, and treated them accordingly. In striking contrast, it was at first rare (although not unknown) for a breath of suspicion to touch a Roman legal document, as it was at first rare (although eventually much better known) for suspicion of corruption to touch the Romans themselves. In legal and financial transactions, the Romans were considered astonishingly trustworthy, at least by a Greek observer. As Polybius in the second century BC said, with some admiration, “Among the Greeks, public men, if entrusted with a single talent, though protected by ten copyists, as many seals, and twice as many witnesses, cannot keep faith; but among the Romans, in their magistracies and embassies, men having the handling of a great amount of money do what is right because of the trust pledged by their oath.” Documents (with officials, seals, and witnesses) could not prevent Greek misbehavior, but were not even mentioned in an assessment of Roman good behavior, where the absolute quality of Roman fides struck the observer first. Yet at Rome these documents existed. Their uses there were different, for they were generated for entirely different purposes and through an entirely different, complex, and formal process. What they were was very important: attention was paid to their physical appearance (this chapter), and their style – form and phrasing – was notably different from that of any comparable Greek documents, as well as from everyday Latin (chapter 3).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Legitimacy and Law in the Roman WorldTabulae in Roman Belief and Practice, pp. 21 - 43Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004