Скачать или смотреть TeTra | Serena Causo "Scribal Practices and the Representation of Power in Roman Egypt"

TeTra Research Seminar paper | November 21, 2022.

Serena Causo (UGent)
•Use and Transmission of Legal Sources in Petitions from Roman Egypt: Scribal Practices and the Representation of Power•

Using attachments in administrative and legal papyri was a common practice in Roman Egypt. For the writing of petitions, attachments were of particular significance, as they served as a valuable tool for legal sources such as edicts, rescripts or court proceedings, with the aim of supporting a request and achieving a favorable judgement. In order to cite a legal source, scribes in charge of producing petitions followed several general rules that had implications both on written formulas and on the layout of the document. The observation of several petitions reveals that, depending on the type of legal source, they were designed differently by the scribe. A compelling example of this practice is the use of imperial subscriptiones – responses of the emperor to previous petitions – as legal sources. They are abundantly attested in petitions dated after Severus and Caracalla’s imperial visits of Egypt in 199-200 CE, which display an unusual layout, not found anywhere else in the documentation. This investigation aims at analyzing the visual rhetoric of these petitions and shedding some light on the professional context of the scribes who produced them.

research.flw.ugent.be/en/serena.causo
ugent.academia.edu/SerenaCauso