London, Feb. 1: Archaeologists in Britain claim to have discovered a part of an ancient Roman law code previously thought to have been lost forever.
A team, led by Simon Corcoran and Benet Salway of University College London, has made the breakthrough after piecing together 17 fragments of previously incomprehensible parchment.
The fragments were being studied at the university as part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded Project Volterra, a 10-year study of Roman law in its full social, legal and political context.
The team found that the text belonged to the Codex Gregorianus, or Gregorian Code, a collection of laws by Roman emperors from Hadrian (AD 117-138) to Diocletian (AD 284-305), which was published circa AD 300, a varsity release said. Little was known about the codex’s original form and there were, until now, no known copies in existence.
[The first major settlement where present-day London stands was founded by the Romans as Londinium after the invasion of AD 43 though the name Londinium itself may predate the Romans.]
"The fragments bear the text of a Latin work in a clear calligraphic script, perhaps dating as far back as AD 400. It uses a number of abbreviations characteristic of legal texts and the presence of writing on both sides of the fragments indicates that they belong to a page or pages from a late antique codex.
"The fragments contain a collection of responses by a series of Roman emperors to questions on legal matters submitted by members of the public. The responses are arranged chronologically and grouped into thematic chapters under highlighted headings, with corrections and readers’ annotations between the lines. The notes show that this particular copy received intensive use," Salway said.
Salway added: "The surviving fragments belong to sections on appeal procedures and the statute of limitations on an as yet unidentified matter. The content is consistent with what was already known about the Gregorian Code from quotations of it in other documents, but the fragments also contain new material that has not been seen in modern times."
Said Dr Corcoran: "These fragments are the first direct evidence of the original version of the Gregorian Code. "Our preliminary study confirms that it was the pioneer of a long tradition that has extended down into the modern era and it is ultimately from the title of this work, and its companion volume the Codex Hermogenianus, that we use the term ‘code’ in the sense of legal rulings."
According to the team, this particular manuscript may originate from Constantinople (modern Istanbul) and it is hoped that further work on the script and on the ancient annotations will illuminate more of its history. —PTI