Ancient Jurists and Latin Papyri

The study of papyrus evidences can help us to a better understanding not only of the thinking of the great jurists of the first three centuries A.D., but also of those who, in the ‘dark’ centuries that followed, studied and transmitted ‘jurisprudential’ law up to Justinian and beyond. The author proposes some considerations based on two papyri. The first is POxy. 85, 5495, which contains the Greek translation and paraphrase of some rubrics of Justinian’s Digesta. In particular, the a. dwells on some lines of the so-called successio auctorum of the enchiridion of Sextus Pomponius. The other papyrus dates to the end of the 3 rd / beginning of the 4 th century AD: it is PHaun. de legatis et fideicommissis, in which the opinions of several jurists on intricate questions concerning the law of succession are recorded. The style in argumentation of the anonymous author suggests that this text may be considered an important testimony to the transition between the creative jurisprudence of the early centuries AD and the legal world of the late antiquity.