Petitions, litigation, and social control in Roman Egypt
By: Benjamin Kelly
Series: Oxford studies in ancient documents; Oxford studies in ancient documents
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 427
ISBN-13: 9780199599615
Subjects: Social life and customs; Justice, Administration of (Roman law); Criminal law; Social control; Actions and defenses (Roman law); Egyptian law; History
Description: "This book examines the contribution that petitioning and litigation made to the maintenance of the social order in Roman Egypt between 30 BC and AD 284. Through the analysis of the many hundreds of documents surviving on papyrus, especially petitions, reports of court proceedings, and letters, Kelly focuses on how the legal system achieved its formal goals (that is, the resolution of disputes through judgments), and discusses in detail the contribution made by the litigation process to informal methods of social control. With particular emphasis on the roles that this process played in the transmission of political ideologies, in the maintenance of family solidarity, and in the fostering of 'private' mechanisms of dispute resolution, the book argues that although the legal system was less than successful when judged by its formal aims, it did have a real social impact by contributing indirectly to some of the informal mechanisms that ensured order in this province of the Roman Empire."--Jacket.
Notes: Note 23 on page 252 refers to a Brooklyn papyrus.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [381]-404) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Petitions and social history; title: Legal control in Roman Egypt; title: Who used the justice system?; title: Political ideologies in the legal realm; title: Hierarchy and group solidarity; title: Private dispute resolution and the shadow of the law; title: Vexatious and vexing litigation; title: Conclusions.