Meyer, Elizabeth A. <br/><br/>
Legitimacy and Law in the Roman World   <I>Tabulae</I> in Roman Belief and Practice /  [electronic resource] : 
Elizabeth A. Meyer. 
 - Cambridge :  Cambridge University Press,  2004 
 - 1 online resource (372 p.) :  digital, PDF file(s). 
<br/><br/> Title from publishers bibliographic system (viewed on 12 Jul 2012). 
<br/><br/>List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. The World of Belief: 1. The use and value of Greek legal documents; 2. Roman perceptions of Roman tablets: aspects and associations; 3. The Roman tablet: style and language; 4. Recitation from tablets; 5. Tablets and efficacy; Part II. The Evolution of Practice: 6. Roman tablets in Italy (AD 15-79); 7. Roman tablets and related forms in the Roman provinces (30 BC-AD 260); 8. Tablets and other documents in court to AD 400; 9. Documents, jurists, the emperor, and the law (AD 200-AD 535); Conclusion; References; Index. 
<br/><br/> The Romans wrote solemn religious, public, and legal documents on wooden tablets often coated with wax. This book investigates the historical significance of this resonant form of writing and its power to make documents efficacious. It traces its role in court, its spread to the provinces (an aspect of Romanization) and its influence on the evolution of Roman law. Elizabeth Meyer reveals how Roman legal documents on tablets are the ancestors of today's dispositive legal documents--the document as the act itself. In a world where knowledge of Roman law was scarce (and enforcers scarcer), Roman law drew its authority from a wider world of belief. 
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<br/><br/><br/>Mode of access: World Wide Web. 
<br/><br/><label>ISBN: </label>9780511482861 (ebook) 9780521497015 (hardback) 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Legal documents (Roman law)<br/>Roman law.<br/>Wooden tablets--Rome.