Professor Eva Jakab: Roman law in the provinces. Trial about a fugitive slave (P.Cair.Preis.2 1)
[Centre for Legal History]
Abstract:
1895–6 Grenfell and Hunt (two Oxford men) excavated a tiny piece of papyrus in Fayum, the text of which later Preisigke, Coles and Salomons completed (P.Cair.Preis.2 1). It reports on a court proceeding about a fugitive slave in the 2nd century AD. It is challenging to try to reconstruct the reasoning of the parties and the possible legal framework of the trial. Before court, the advocates who represent the parties recite previous decisions of iuridici, high officials in the Roman provincial administration, and an epistula of the prefect Honoratus. Which arguments did the parties line up and what law did they want to be applied? There are also further issues on the case – as the ,principle of the personality of the lawʻ and the relationship between Roman law and indigenous laws in the provinces.