GRAECO-ROMAN CONVEYANCING. "I ""HERE have been lately on view at Bur-I- lington House in the rooms of the So ciety of Antiquaries a very interesting col lection of Graeco-Roman-Egyptian papyri. Most date from the first three centuries of the Christian era, and amongst them are a number of legal instruments, which enable us to see Roman law — or rather Roman law modified by local customs (a will, for instance, is attested by four instead of seven wit nesses) —in practice. These deeds and docu ments, once so important to their owners, are written in Greek, without breaks between the words, much less punctuation; the wills, unlike our own, are engrossed lengthways, other instruments book (or roll) wise. The signatures of the parties and witnesses are generally in a "cursive handwriting. As to the formal parts, persons are not identified so much by residences as by the names of their parents. For example, an agreement of apprenticeship begins : " Agreement be tween Tryphon, son of Dionysius, son of Tryphon, and s, daughter of Onnophorus, of the one part, and Ptolemaeus, son of Pausirion, son of Ptolemaeus, and of Ophelous, daughter of Theon, of the other part, weaver, both of Oxyrhynchus." In wills they were even more particular. That of Acusilaus, son of Dius, ends with : " I am fortyeight years of age, and have a scar on my right foot, and my seal is an image of Thonis." As Acusilaus, son of Dius, would no doubt be embalmed, his right foot with a scar on it could be produced in evidence if the will had to be proved in solemn form. Probate and land registries are, indeed, no modern inven tions, but, though we knew from Paullus (sent. 4, 6, i) that after a will was copied it "had to be sealed with an official seal and deposited in the public archives, so that if the copies of it were lost fresh ones might be had from the original," the existence of such reg istries becomes a living reality, when we read
a request to " Epimachus and Theon, guard ians of the archives," to register an inherit ance. Dates were, as a rule, given in years of the reigning emperor. " Dated," winds up the apprenticeship contract, " in the thir teenth year of Nero Claudius Caesar Augus tus Germanicus Imperator, on the 2 1 st of the month, Sebastos." Spacing of words and punctuation apart, the formal parts of a deed have changed little for the better since Acusi laus " being sane and in his right mind made his will in the street." With respect to the contents of these docu ments, some relate to matrimonial troubles. One lady addresses a petition to " Heraclides, priest, chief justice," for recovery of her dowry, and another acknowledges the receipt of "400 drachmae imperial silver " (sterling sil ver as we should say), being the dowry paid over by her divorced husband. Moneylending was, of course, frequent. A woman, Thenet Roñéis, acknowledges an advance of 1 6 drachmae from Gemellus, and agrees to work in the latter's vineyard, a certain amount being deducted from her wages until the 1 6 drachmae have been paid off. Isaac Gor don might take a leaf out of the book of Gemellus. Imagine Mr. Street one of Gor don's clerks! Perhaps, however, we are do ing Gemellus an injustice. He acknowledges at the foot of the contract that he has been paid off and has no further claim. The apprenticeship contract is in places curious. " The boy is to be fed and clothed during the whole period " (one year) " by his father, Tryphon, who is also responsible for all State imposts upon him " (were these, so to speak, the stamp duty on the articles?) "on condition of a monthly payment by Ptole maeus " (the master) " of 5 drachmae on ac count of victuals, and at the termination of the whole year of a payment of 1 2 drachmae on account of clothing. ... If ever the boy misbehaves himself, Tryphon shall produce
