This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A Roman law expert at the University of Cincinnati edited and translated a Latin legal text he pieced together from fragments that surprisingly survived in the Egyptian sands for more than 1,600 years. UC Assistant Professor of Classics Matthijs Wibier translated the double-sided page, which does not appear in other known books from ancient Rome.
He said the text likely came from a small compilation of imperial laws from the late fourth century that was distributed for official use by tax officials or private use by landowners or their attorneys. "We don't have a book like this that we know of, which makes it the first of its kind," Wibier said. "I don't think it contained thousands of laws like most of the Roman codes we know.
I think it was a book that traveling officials could put in their pocket." Made from animal skin, the 50 fragments come from a collection of other Egyptian antiquities at the Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The museum obtained the fragments from an antiquities dealer in Egypt in 1911. With the help of the museum, Wibier pieced together the page like a puzzle from the seven largest tattered fragments, which together resemble an archipelago.
These pieces add to our understanding of imperial law under two emperors, Constantius II and Julian the Apostate, who ruled between 337 and 363, Wibier said. Translating even fragmentary texts is extremely valuable because precious few books from that period survive intact. Scholars must rely on damaged or partial manuscripts to recreate them.
And these laws, in turn, tell scholars about daily life, society and the economy in ancient Rome, from the priorities of the government to how private conflicts were resolved. Wibier said one side of the page has three examples of red ink that were added to highlight something important. From clues such as the absence of these highlights on the reverse side of the page, along with the imperial decrees discussed, Wibier was able to determine which way the pages faced in the book.
One side of animal skin is smooth, while the other is more textured. The textured side of the page came first, representing the odd-numbered page that sits on the right side of the book when opened. This means the opposite side of the animal skin appeared on the left side of the opened book.
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