For the first time, a systematic analysis of the legal-administrative procedures that governed the petitions for justice filed by the less affluent classes in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt will be conducted at theUniversity of Turin. The project, supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and Compagnia di San Paolo with two grants totaling half a million euros and awarded the Seal of Excellence from the European Commission, will be led by Lavinia Ferretti (PhD, Universität Basel) under the supervision of Christian Vassallo (University of Turin).
The initiative aims to reconstruct the development of the legal mechanisms related to so-called petitions, i.e., the documents with which the poorer sections of the population demanded protection and justice. A central aspect of the project will be the enhancement of the important documentary heritage of the Egyptian Museum of Turin, with particular reference to one of the best-preserved papyri in the Turin papyrological collection (PTorChoach. 12, inv. Cat. 2147), belonging to the famous Coachite Archive. This will be the subject of a new critical edition and detailed commentary. However, the project will also involve numerous other papyri from papyrological collections in Europe and the United States.
The results expected at the end of the three years of research will offer concrete data on how legal procedures were conducted in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, paving the way for future insights concerning the social impact of the ancient legal-administrative system. In particular, the comparison between the Ptolemaic and Roman ages will allow for a scientific assessment of the consequences of imperialistic policies, in this case the influence of the Roman conquest on provincial administrative and legal systems and on the processes of forced integration into an empire characterized by a widespread administrative and military organization.
The Papyrology Chair of the University of Turin (Department of Historical Studies) has already been the protagonist of the important ERC-Consolidator Grant APATHES, dedicated to Herculaneum Papyrology and the History of Ancient Philosophy. That project recently paved the way for revolutionary new editions of the fragments of the exponents of ancient Stoicism, more than 120 years after the last collection edited by German philologist Hans von Arnim.
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| University of Turin, first study to be conducted on petitions from the lower classes in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt |
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