Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-5wvtr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T19:22:48.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Tabula Contrebiensis: Roman Law in Spain in the Early First Century B.C.*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

J. S. Richardson
J. S. Richardson
Affiliation:
St. Salvator's College, St. Andrews
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In December 1979, a Latin inscription on bronze came into the hands of Professor Guillermo Fatás of the department of Ancient History in the University of Zaragoza. It had been found by an unauthorized excavator on the site of the excavations on the hill known as Cabezo de las Minas, just outside the village of Botorrita, some 20 kilometres south of Zaragoza, on the banks of the river Huerva. The tablet, 438 mm. from side to side and 208 mm. from top to bottom, had clearly been attached to a wall or some other substantial object by means of six holes, three along the upper and three along the lower edge, and has been preserved in its entirety. However, the bronze is badly warped, and although the back of the tablet is quite smooth, the inscribed face has suffered considerable damage, apparently from fire and corrosion. After preliminary cleaning, Fatás published, with exemplary speed, a notice of the find in the Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia CLXXVI (1979), 421–38, and then, after further treatment by the archaeological laboratory in the Museo Arqueologico de Barcelona, a monograph on the inscription in 1980.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 73 , November 1983 , pp. 33 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © J. S. Richardson 1983. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Fatás, G., Contrebia Belaisca II: Tabula Contrebiensis (Zaragoza 1980)Google Scholar. Other bibliography on the inscription includes: D'Ors, A., Las formulas procesales del ‘Bronce de Contrebia’, Anuario de Historia de Derecho Español 50 (1980), 1–20Google Scholar; S. Mariner, Il bronzo di Contrebia: studio linguistico, Cuadernos de trabajos de la Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología en Roma 15 (1981), 67–94Google Scholar; Torrent, A., Consideraciones juridicas sobre el Bronce de Contrebia, ibid.95–104Google Scholar; Fatás, G., Romanos y celtiberos citeriores en el siglo I antes de Cristo, Caesaraugusta 53–4 (1981), 195–234Google Scholar; id., The tabula Contrebiensis, Antiquity 57 (1983), 12–18. For a report on more recent excavations at the site, and the Celtiberian bronze discovered there in 1970, see Beltrán, A. and Tovar, A., Contrebia Belaisca I: el bronce con alfabeto ‘iberico’ de Botorrita (Zaragoza 1982)Google Scholar.

2 Antiquity 57 (1983), 13Google Scholar.

3 Fatás (1980), 46 ff.; id. (1981), 217–19; Tovar, , in Beltrán and Tovar (1982), 76–81Google Scholar.

4 Pliny, NH 3. 3. 24; Fatás (1980), 57 ff. For the inscription recording Pompeius Strabo's grant, ILLRP no. 515.

5 Fatás (1980), 63 ff.

6 M. Kaser, ZSS 62 (1942), 1–26. On ager publicus in Italy, Gabba, E. and Pasquinucci, M., Strutture agrarie e allevamento transumante nell'Italia romana (III–I sec. a.C) (Pisa 1979), 17–29Google Scholar.

7 Buckland, W. W., A textbook of Roman law3 (Cambridge 1963), 625–30Google Scholar; Kaser, M., Das römische Zivilprozessrecht (München 1966), 107–16Google Scholar.

8 Festus 262 L, cf. Probus, de notis 6. 11Google Scholar (SP—si parret), 6. 12 (SNPA—si non parret, absolvito); S. Mariner (1981), 81–2 and n. 41.

9 Gaius 4. 41 and 44.

10 Lenel, O., Das Edictum Perpetuum3 (Leipzig 1927), 311–12Google Scholar.

11 Gaius 3. 123. I owe this observation to Dr. Rodger.

12 W. W. Buckland, op. cit. 659.

13 Gaius 4. 3–4; cf. Buckland, op. cit. 677.

14 OLD s.v. tum (5b); Gaius 4. 34 ff.

15 As in Gaius 4. 32–8; I owe this very important point to Professor Birks and Dr. Rodger. Note that on my view the ‘turn sei parret’ in l. 10 takes up the ‘tum’ in l. 6, summarizing the long intentio of ll. 6–10.

16 D'Ors (1980), 10; Fatás (1980), 76.

17 Compare the procedure in lex rep. (FIRA 1, no. 7), ll. 58 ff.; also D. 6. 1. 46.

18 Cic. pro Balb. 24. 55.

19 D'Ors (1980), 17–20; Torrent (1981), 90–100 argues against this position.

20 So already Fatás (1981), 198–9.

21 As in Gaius 4. 32.

22 OLD s.v. publice (1). The meaning ‘publicly, openly’ does not occur until the second century A.D., and at this date ‘palam’ is used for this meaning (e.g. lex Lat. Bant. (FIRA 1, no. 6), ll. 17 and 24).

23 For instance SIG 3 683; and in general, Tod, M. N., International arbitration amongst the Greeks (Oxford 1913)Google Scholar; id., Sidelights on Greek History (Oxford 1932), ch. 2. For the lex Rupilia, see Cic. II Verr. 2. 13. 32, though these cases are of disputes between an individual and a state.

24 cf. Livy 1. 38. 2. Fatás (1980), 72–5 argues that this may have been the relationship between the Sosinestani and the Allavonenses.

25 Fatás (1980), 108–9.; id. (1981), 202–3; cf. Way, R. and Simmons, M.A Geography of Spain and Portugal (London 1962), 24–7, 289–95Google Scholar.

26 See especially Fatás (1980), chs. VI, VIII (by Fatás and F. Marco) and x; id. (1981), 205–10, 212–25, 228–34.

27 Above n. 4.

28 The bronze was found in the vicinity of a remarkable two-storey building with a columned portico (Beltrán and Tovar (1982), 22–33). On the Celtiberian inscription, ibid. 33–84.

29 Appian, Ib. 100. 437.

30 Fatás (1980), 114–16.

31 Garnius Licinianus 36 (pp. 31–2 F). Cicero describes him when in Gaul four years after the date of this inscription as ‘C. Flaccum, qui tunc erat in provincia’ (i.e. Gallia) (pro Quinct. 6. 28). On the remarkable career of Flaccus, see Badian, E., Studies in Greek and Roman History (Oxford 1963), 88–96Google Scholar; Fatás (1980), 111–23.

32 Cic. II Verr. 2. 13. 32–4; A. J.Marshall, CQ 61 (1967), 408–13; Mellano, L. D., Sui rapporti tra governatore provinciale e giudici locali alla luce delle Verrine (Milano 1977)Google Scholar.