<論説>ローマ帝政前期における請願・回答制度と法の形成 : 農村社会の事例から

Abstract

本稿は、ローマ帝政前期の農村社会に関する請願・回答制度の運用を記録した法文、パピルス、碑文を分析し、ローマ帝国における法形成のあり方を問うことを目的とするものである。史料分析に際しては、請願と回答において、請願者たちと皇帝たちがどのような根拠に言及しているかを中心に史料を読み解いた。まず、『学説彙纂』と『ユスティニアヌス法典』および、碑文に見られる皇帝たちの回答を検討し、皇帝たちが属州における個別的な法の形成を重視していた点に注自する。そして、パピルス、碑文として現存する、臣民からの請願において、請願者たちが皇帝たちに訴えかけるに際して、皇帝や属州総督の定めた法律に言及していることに基づいて、請願・回答制度を通じた、属州の帝国民による法の形成という主張を提示する。結論部では、本稿での史料分析の結果を、帝政後期における法の形成と比較検討して今後の展望を示す。

Roman emperors engaged in local matters of the provinces through the Petition and Response System. In the Roman Empire, subjects involved in disputes could submit petitions to emperors and receive a reply. We can assume that the Petition and Response System played an important role for the formation of the law in the Roman Empire because petitions enabled subjects to refer to specific laws; on the other hand, responses of the emperors were also considered as one of the sources of the law. This article discusses the characteristics and significance of the process of the formation of the law through the Petition and Response System in the Roman Empire from the 1st to 3rd century. In the first section, I explain the procedures of the Petition and Response System as seen in previous studies. First, an individual or a community would send a petition (libellus) to the emperor directly or through his representatives. Second, officials charged with treating of petitions prepare responses (rescriptum, subscriptio) and emperors undersigned them. Lastly, responses were posted in prominent buildings in the cities where emperors were residing and petitioners would make copies of them People in provinces remote from emperors could not submit petitions easily, but they could petition their governors instead and get responses. Recent studies have offered views on the significance of the Petition and Response System. I have tried to construct my position in conformity with the views of some while refuting others. In the second section, I survey responses of emperors during the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The primary sources for this chapter have been preserved in Digesta Codex Justinianus and inscriptions. I confirm that responses tended to convey decisions of emperors that depended solely on their sense of justice or simply to affirm rules that were cited by the petitioners. In the responses, law enforcement was entrusted to officials working in the provinces. This means that emperors preferred to maintain local individuality in the formation of the law rather than to force their will on their subjects. Therefore, in subsequent sections, I try to clarify the formation of the law by petitioners through a study of petitions preserved in papyri and inscriptions. The third section of this article studies papyri from the 1st through 3rd centuries to ascertain how petitioners employed the Petition and Response System. Most papyri of the Roman Period were discovered in Egypt. Roman Egypt had had the tradition of the Petition and Response System since at least the Ptolemaic dynasty, But, I take note of the factors that authority of the Roman Empire provided the subjects of Roman Egypt. Provincials in Egypt petitioned to governors, epistrategoi and strategoi etc. Petitioners complained about theft, violence, debt land ownership, tax payment and liturgy. Petitioners often referred not only to unwritten rules but also to edicts or orders of Roman emperors and governors to obtain help from officials. In my opinion, this referring to statutes by subjects played a part in the formation of the law in the Roman Empire. In the fourth section, I study inscriptions to discuss broader areas of the Roman Empire beyond Egypt. In 1998, T. Hauken published a monograph contributing to the study of petitions and responses. In the monograph, Hauken collected inscriptions form A.D. 181 to 249.I survey the inscriptions offered by Hauken and an inscription published after his monograph. These inscriptions include petitioners from North Africa, Asia Minor, the Balkans and Spain. On the basis of the research in this chapter, it is certain that petitioners in inscriptions referred to the statutes of the emperors as the law. This fact means that petitioners could engage in the process of the formation of the law in their local societies. In conclusion, I argue that the subjects of the Roman Empire played an important role in the formation of the law in the various societies of the provinces through the Petition and Response System. I propose this was a chief characteristic and the significance of the process of the formation of the law through the Petition and Response System.