The Contribution of CLTP to the Study of Roman Justice

This chapter discusses the use of Greek in the Roman judicial system. First, it considers the general question of the role of Latin as an official language of the judicial administration and the permission given to judges to deliver officially their sentences in Greek, at least from the end of the fourth century CE. Secondly, it uses papyrological sources (mostly records of court proceedings on papyrus) to examine traces of the use of Greek in trials before 396 CE. To shed more light on this issue, two reports on papyrus from Kellis are examined: these fourth-century documents provide further evidence of the use of official translations in the judicial system and the fees charged for their production. Furthermore, the analysis of a court record from the Viennese collection may offer additional elements to our knowledge of the subject.