Municipal Scaevolas and Ulpians? The presupposed legal knowledge in the Roman municipal charters

Abstract

Modern scholars usually examine what the municipal charters tell us about the local administration, the legal processes etc. They are annoyed whenever the texts – using only references or ambiguous terminology – do not explain something that is not known to us. It is much rarer for them to examine whether the average inhabitant of a city was able to understand the legal topics which are obscure even for modern jurists. In this paper I try to map the knowledge necessary to understand and apply the municipal charters.