Fifty fragments preserved in the Penn Museum’s collection have been assembled into a double-sided page from a previously unknown Roman law book dating to the later fourth century, according to reporting from Phys.org Archaeology.
Matthijs Wibier, an assistant professor of Classics at the University of Cincinnati, reconstructed the page from seven of the largest pieces. The fragments, made from animal skin, had been held by the museum since 1911, when they were acquired from an antiquities dealer in Egypt. Wibier edited and translated the surviving Latin text with the museum’s assistance.
The page appears to have belonged to a small compilation of imperial laws. Wibier said the work may have been intended for officials responsible for enforcing regulations, or for wealthy taxpayers and their legal representatives. Unlike most surviving fragmentary Roman legal texts, it does not correspond to any known imperial legal code. Wibier suggested that it could have been a portable reference book rather than a large, comprehensive collection.
The laws refer to the public road system and taxation used to maintain public infrastructure. Wibier also said one passage may have required wealthy citizens to help maintain roads and provide grain for the food supply. Another appears to warn against treating public buildings as private property. These interpretations remain based on the fragmentary text rather than a complete surviving book.
The material itself helped Wibier determine how the page was arranged. One side contains three red-ink markings that appear to emphasize important passages. Differences between the marked and unmarked sides, together with the imperial decrees discussed, helped establish the page’s orientation. The contrasting textures of the animal skin also indicated which side originally faced the right or left when the book was opened. Ultraviolet light helped reveal differences in the ink during the recovery and translation of the Latin.
The text concerns laws issued under Constantius II and Julian, who ruled between 337 and 363. Wibier’s work is discussed in a chapter for the forthcoming book “Il Codice Teodosiano,” scheduled for publication this year by Pavia University Press.
The discovery also underscores the research potential of museum collections containing unpublished manuscripts. Penn Museum curator Jennifer Houser Wegner said the institution holds hundreds of Egyptian manuscripts, many surviving only in fragments and written on materials including papyrus, vellum and animal skin.
