Benjamin Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199599615
- eISBN:
- 9780191731525
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199599615.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter argues that the structural features and ideological context of the legal system of Roman Egypt made it unlikely that many petitions would have ended in firm judgments which were then ...
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This chapter argues that the structural features and ideological context of the legal system of Roman Egypt made it unlikely that many petitions would have ended in firm judgments which were then successfully enforced. This was the consequence of an overly complicated legal system, which had a large number of adjudicative officials with substantially overlapping jurisdictions. The system was prone to delays and open to abuse and obfuscation by litigants who wanted to delay the progress of a case. As far as we can tell, individual officials mostly discharged their duties at any given stage with efficiency and in accordance with the bureaucratic ideology of the province, which stressed diligence, propriety, and rationality. But this ideology slowed the processing of cases.Less
This chapter argues that the structural features and ideological context of the legal system of Roman Egypt made it unlikely that many petitions would have ended in firm judgments which were then successfully enforced. This was the consequence of an overly complicated legal system, which had a large number of adjudicative officials with substantially overlapping jurisdictions. The system was prone to delays and open to abuse and obfuscation by litigants who wanted to delay the progress of a case. As far as we can tell, individual officials mostly discharged their duties at any given stage with efficiency and in accordance with the bureaucratic ideology of the province, which stressed diligence, propriety, and rationality. But this ideology slowed the processing of cases.
Thea S. Thorsen
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- February 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198829430
- eISBN:
- 9780191867958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198829430.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, European History: BCE to 500CE
A number of issues obstruct our vision of Sappho and her ancient reception. This chapter revisits such obstructions as the loss of Sappho’s poetry, the difficulty of accessing information regarding ...
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A number of issues obstruct our vision of Sappho and her ancient reception. This chapter revisits such obstructions as the loss of Sappho’s poetry, the difficulty of accessing information regarding e.g. Chamaeleon’s treatise on Sappho, the attestation of the Athenian sculptor Silanion’s portrait of Sappho at Rome, and the significance of the poem variously known as Ovid’s Heroides 15 and Epistula Sapphus, as well as most of the testimonies for Sappho’s alleged ugliness and association with prostitution. Finally, conflicting images of Sappho are measured against the consistently erotic depiction of her figure and poetry at Rome, where she becomes particularly closely linked with a Roman brand of the metapoetics of love poetry, dubbed erotopoetics in this volume.Less
A number of issues obstruct our vision of Sappho and her ancient reception. This chapter revisits such obstructions as the loss of Sappho’s poetry, the difficulty of accessing information regarding e.g. Chamaeleon’s treatise on Sappho, the attestation of the Athenian sculptor Silanion’s portrait of Sappho at Rome, and the significance of the poem variously known as Ovid’s Heroides 15 and Epistula Sapphus, as well as most of the testimonies for Sappho’s alleged ugliness and association with prostitution. Finally, conflicting images of Sappho are measured against the consistently erotic depiction of her figure and poetry at Rome, where she becomes particularly closely linked with a Roman brand of the metapoetics of love poetry, dubbed erotopoetics in this volume.
