Introduction
- Sub-Title: Memorandum and Minutes of a Trial before a Roman Official (P.Cotton)
- Background & Acknowledgements
- This article is the product of fruitful teamwork. Hannah Cotton identified the papyrus as a Greek document wrongly labelled as Nabataean. Recognizing its unique nature and significance, Cotton asked Fritz Mitthof to participate in its edition in 2014. Anna Dolganov and Avner Ecker joined the editorial team in 2018. Mitthof and Dolganov examined the original in Jerusalem in 2017 and in 2019, respectively.
- In collaboration with Dolganov, the conservators of the Dead Sea Scrolls Laboratory executed important restoration work on the papyrus, revealing text that was previously invisible. In 2019 the editorial team met for a workshop at the University of Vienna. Mitthof contributed a large part of the transcription (esp. 17–72) in its initial phase (2014–2018). Significant progress was made after 2018 when Dolganov joined the team (esp. 28–53 and 73– 133).
- Many thanks are due to a number of scholars for their contributions at an earlier stage: Angelos Chaniotis, Werner Eck, Rudolf Haensch, Dieter Hagedorn†, Klaus Maresch, Amphilochios Papathomas and Uri Yiftach.
- Further thanks to the technical staff of the Dead Sea Scrolls Laboratory for their help in restoring the papyrus and producing high-resolution digital images.
- Finally, thanks are due to Dennis Kehoe and the anonymous reviewers of Tyche for their feedback on the final manuscript. In honor of Hannah Cotton’s discovery, we suggest that this papyrus be cited as P.Cotton.
- All dates in this article are CE unless otherwise noted.
- On the date of the revolt’s outbreak (probably in the late summer or fall of 132) and its conclusion by late 135 or early 136 see Eck 1999a; Eck and Foerster 1999; Eshel 2003, 101–105; id. 2006, 111; Eck 2007, 132–133; Eck, Holder and Pangerl 2010, 198; Horbury 2014, 283–287; Weikert 2016, 318; Eshel and Zissu 2020, 108–111. See also the new coin finds discussed in Bar-Nathan and Bijovsky 2018. See further section III 1.
- Abstract: The Greek papyrus presented here is a memorandum for a judicial hearing before a Roman official in the province of Iudaea or Arabia in the reign of Hadrian, after the emperor’s visit to the region in 129/130 CE and before the outbreak of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 132. The document also contains an informal record of the hearing in question. The trial concerns the prosecution of a number of individuals, including a certain Gadalias and Saulos, who are accused of forging documents relating to the sale and manumission of slaves in order to circumvent the imperial fiscus. The identity of the prosecutors remains unknown, but they seem likely to have been functionaries of the Roman imperial administration. The text also mentions an informer who denounced the defendants to the Roman authorities. This document offers a unique glimpse of local civic institutions and the workings of Roman provincial administration and jurisdiction in the Near East. It also sheds light on the elusive question of slave trade and ownership among Jews. At the same time, the papyrus provides insight into a cultural and intellectual environment in which Roman law, Greek rhetoric, and Jewish life meet. We present an editio princeps with a translation and commentary, while acknowledging that the study of this document is far from exhausted.
Table of Contents
- Find Context and Rediscovery
- Type of Document
- The Story: Facts and Hypotheses
- The date of the text (129–132 CE)
- The actors involved
- The location of the actors and events
- The crimes - forgery and fiscal evasion
- The scheme of fiscal evasion - fictive sale and fraudulent manumission of slaves
- The issue of complicity
- Additional crimes and rhetorical strategy
- Slave ownership by Jews
- Judge and location of the hearing
- The identity of the authors
- The Presence of Roman Juridical Terminology
- New Evidence for Xenokritai and the Assize System in Iudaea
- Physical Description, Paleography and Layout
- Text
- Translation
- Commentary
Appendix: Register of Greek Terms Corresponding to Latin Legal Terms
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Word Indices
Review Article from allthatsinteresting.com (Via MSN, 6th February 2025):
- This 1,900-Year-Old Papyrus Unearthed In Israel Records A Dramatic Criminal Trial In The Roman Empire; Story by Kaleena Fraga
- At 133 lines, the scroll is the longest Greek papyrus ever found in the Judean Desert, though several large chunks are missing.
- While looking through the archives at the Israel Antiquities Authority, an ancient scroll caught the eye of Professor Hannah Cotton Paltiel of Hebrew University. The scroll had been classified as Nabataean, an ancient Arabic dialect, but as Cotton Paltiel studied it, she realized that it was actually written in Greek — and the race began to decipher what the 1,900-year-old papyrus said.
- After studying the scroll, a team of academics was able to determine that the 133-line document contained notes about a criminal trial that took place around 131 C.E. The scroll is not only the longest Greek papyrus found in the Judean desert, but it also contains details about the best-documented trial from Roman times — aside from that of Jesus Christ.
- Rediscovering The Mislabeled Greek Papyrus: According to a statement from Hebrew University, Cotton Paltiel was organizing scrolls in Israel Antiquities Authority’s Scroll Laboratory in 2014 when one of the ancient documents stood out to her. It was labeled as Nabataean — a nomadic Arab tribe from the fourth century B.C.E. to the first century C.E. — but Cotton Paltiel could see that the label was incorrect.
- “I volunteered to ‘organize’ the papyri found in the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Scroll Laboratory, and when I saw it marked as written in ‘Nabataean,’ I burst out exclaiming, ‘It’s Greek to me!'” she recalled.
- The document was written in Greek because Greek became the administrative language of the region when it was conquered by Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C.E. When the Romans came in the first century B.C.E., they preserved it. And Cotton Paltiel set out to translate it.
- Working with an international team from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the University of Vienna, and Hebrew University, she and the others determined that the document contained prosecutors’ notes for a trial that took place before Roman officials in the second century C.E.
- The trial had two Jewish defendants, Gadalias and Saulos, and it occurred during a crucial point between two Jewish rebellions, the Jewish Diaspora revolt (115 to 117 C.E.) and the Bar Kokhba revolt (132 to 136 C.E.).
- A Fascinating Tale Of Tax Evasion, Fraud, And Rebellion: As detailed in a study published in the journal Tyche, the papyrus was written on the eve of Gadalias and Saulos’ trial before Roman officials. Written by the Roman prosecutors, the 133-line document is full of details about evidence and strategy.
- So, who were Gadalias and Saulos? The two Jewish defendants were accused of multiple crimes, including forging documents and defrauding the Roman tax authority by selling slaves under the table (or possibly simply setting them free). Gadalias, the son of a notary with a long criminal history of his own, apparently helped Saulos execute the crime.
- The two men were also accused of rebellious activities at a time when rebellions were increasingly putting the region on edge. Their trial likely took place sometime between 129 and 131 C.E., after the Jewish Diaspora revolt and just before the Bar Kokhba revolt.
- As the researchers found, the papyrus implies that Gadalias and Saulos were involved in rebellious activities during Emperor Hadrian’s visit to the region.
- Researchers were able to date the papyrus because it mentions the Roman emperor Hadrian, who visited the region between 129 and 130 C.E.
- “Whether they were indeed involved in rebellion remains an open question, but the insinuation speaks to the charged atmosphere of the time,” Dr. Anna Dolganov of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, one of the study authors, said in a Facebook post by the Israel Antiquities Authority.
- Whether or not Gadalias and Saulos were involved in the rebellion, it’s possible that the Bar Kokhba revolt interrupted their trial. Indeed, researchers suspect that the papyrus was preserved because it was taken to a hideout cave by a refugee during the rebellion — possibly by one of the prosecutors’ scribes — where it was preserved after its owner perished.
- From there, it seemingly fell into the hands of a Bedouin trader — and then made its way to the Israel Antiquities Authority archives. However it was preserved, researchers are grateful that it exists.
- “This papyrus is extraordinary because it provides direct insight into trial preparations in this part of the Roman Empire,” Dolganov remarked. Study author Avner Ecker of Hebrew University added: “This is the best-documented Roman court case from Iudaea apart from the trial of Jesus.”
Comment:
See Dolganov, Etc - Forgery and Fiscal Fraud in Iudaea and Arabia on the Eve of the Bar Kokhba Revolt.
Text Colour Conventions (see disclaimer)
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2025
- Mauve: Text by correspondent(s) or other author(s); © the author(s)