Papers by Anna Dolganov
Babusiaux, U. and Kolb, A. (eds.) Das römische Testament: Funktion, Archivierung und Tradition, 2026
This study investigates Roman archival practice and the archiving of wills. The first part examin... more This study investigates Roman archival practice and the archiving of wills. The first part examines the institutions of Roman archiving, at Rome and in the provinces; the second part analyzes the archival procedures applied to Roman and provincial wills and the organization of notarial practice. Contrary to broadly accepted scholarly opinion, this study demonstrates that wills were systematically archived by the Roman administration and that the administrative procedures applicable to Roman and provincial wills were fundamentally the same. This study also reexamines the practices of Roman testation and shows that Roman wills were not produced and stored in primarily private contexts, as widely believed, but were mostly drafted by professional notaries and frequently secured through double-drafting and archival registration. Overall, the results of this study showcase testation and inheritance as a domain of Roman state interest, subject to detailed regulation and administrative documentation, and underscore the importance of Roman archival institutions in creating centralized, publicly accessible and retrievable records, thereby making wills trusted instruments for the disposition of property and other legal acts throughout the Roman empire.
Archival Science, 2025
Rich evidence from Egypt as a province of the Roman Empire documents a curious story of local pub... more Rich evidence from Egypt as a province of the Roman Empire documents a curious story of local public archives being mismanaged over a period of several decades after their creation by the Roman state in the mid-first century CE. The events involved the destruction of records by pests and through a failure to catalogue and index them. Precisely why this happened remains a mystery. Was this a case of subaltern resistance by local elites tasked with maintaining Roman state archives, a targeted aim of which was to generate administrative knowledge about private wealth? Or had local liturgists misunderstood or been overwhelmed by the demands imposed by the Roman imperial administration? This story will be compared with other evidence of the destruction of public records in the Roman Empire, which underscores how invasive Roman record-keeping institutions were perceived to be.
Tyche, 2024
The first edition of an exciting new papyrus documenting a criminal court case in the Roman provi... more The first edition of an exciting new papyrus documenting a criminal court case in the Roman provinces of Iudaea and Arabia shortly before the outbreak of the Bar Kokhba revolt.
Chiron, 2024
A new edition and analysis of an important inscription documenting the judicial system of Tauric ... more A new edition and analysis of an important inscription documenting the judicial system of Tauric Chersonesus, with far-reaching implications for Roman legal history and the contested question of the Roman institutional impact on Greek cities. The inscription also sheds new light on the Roman presence in the northern Black Sea and the reach of the imperial state into the periphery of the empire.
Tyche, 2024
Three new editions of important and well-known judicial records from the Roman empire, which illu... more Three new editions of important and well-known judicial records from the Roman empire, which illustrate the performative nature of legal practice in Roman imperial courts. It is no coincidence that socially prominent litigants are represented by elite orators, whereas more humble individuals receive less qualified legal assistance.
Declaration on Oath to the Prefect of Egypt Mentioning a Shipment of Crocodile Leather
Papyri in Honor of Bernhard Palme (P.Palme), De Gruyter, 2023
This intriguing papyrus from the early fourth century refers to what appears to be a shipment of ... more This intriguing papyrus from the early fourth century refers to what appears to be a shipment of crocodile skins for the fashioning of upper-body garments (pectoralia) for the Roman army. This is corroborated by material evidence for Roman military-style garments fashioned from crocodile leather, including an impressive corselet and headpiece in the British Museum collection. It therefore appears that the decline of traditional crocodile cults in the fourth century coincided with the repurposing of farmed crocodiles for decorative military garb. The verso of the document contains a cessio bonorum, possibly but not necessarily related to the sworn declaration on the recto.
Medicine and the Law under the Roman Empire, Oxford University Press, 2023
This article analyses the performative dimension of adjudication and legal practice within the as... more This article analyses the performative dimension of adjudication and legal practice within the assize system of the Roman empire and its implications for the dynamics and outcomes of trials in Roman imperial courts. The evidence suggests, for example, that trials in the highest courts of the empire tended to be mediated by elite legal practitioners in the entourage of officials and dramatised as spectacles of Roman justice. The discussion examines a number of trials from the Roman provinces of Sicily, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Syria, spanning the Republic and Principate, and offers emended texts and translations of the relevant ancient documents in an Appendix.
Klio, 656-692, 2022
This article examines the aims and impact of Augustan social legislation from the perspective of ... more This article examines the aims and impact of Augustan social legislation from the perspective of documentary evidence from Roman Egypt. The extensive presence of the laws in an epitome of an Augustan rulebook for a fiscal procurator in Egypt (the so-called Gnomon of the Idios Logos, BGU V 1210, P. Oxy. XLII 3014), where their application extends to citizens of Greek cities, speaks for the Augustan marriage and manumission laws being part of a broader vision of social order in the Roman empire.
Journal of Late Antiquity, 177-212, 2021
An article published in this journal in 2019 proposes to identify a fragmentary papyrus containin... more An article published in this journal in 2019 proposes to identify a fragmentary papyrus containing a Greek record of court proceedings from Roman Egypt (P.Mil.Vogl. VI 287) as the only known authentic transcript of a trial of Christians by a Roman governor. The present article reassesses the problem from the perspective of Christian sources and papyrological evidence and presents a revised text and new interpretation of the papyrus in question.
Archiv für Papyrusforschung, 354-391, 2021
This article offers a new edition of an intriguing petition from the archive of Ptolemaios, son o... more This article offers a new edition of an intriguing petition from the archive of Ptolemaios, son of Diodoros alias Dioskoros reporting an act of violence. In the current understanding of this text, violence has been committed against a high-ranking administrator (στρατηγός) of the Arsinoite nome. A re-examination of the papyrus reveals that the στρατηγός in question was not the victim but the official in charge of the perpetrator and was himself being summoned for trial before the governor. P.Wisc. I 33 thereby attests to the most high-profile prosecution of an official in Roman Egypt for which documentary evidence survives.
Chiron, 167-185, 2020
Redating the Oxyrhynchite epitome of the Gnomon of the Idios Logos from the first century to the ... more Redating the Oxyrhynchite epitome of the Gnomon of the Idios Logos from the first century to the Antonine period lays the groundwork for a new interpretation of this important document, with far-reaching implications for Roman legal and administrative history.
Ando, C. and Lavan, M. (eds) Roman and Local Citizenship in the Long Second Century, Oxford University Press, 185-228, 2021
In the story of the apostle Paul, a Hellenized Jew traveling far from his home province makes cla... more In the story of the apostle Paul, a Hellenized Jew traveling far from his home province makes claims of Roman citizenship that are accepted, apparently without question, by Roman authorities. To what extent was the Roman state capable of determining and verifying the civic and legal status of individuals? This article offers a detailed examination of Roman state documentation practices with regard to Roman citizenship (and civic and legal status more generally) before the Constitutio Antoniniana.
Czajkowski, K. and Eckhardt, B. (eds) Law in the Roman Provinces, Oxford University Press, 358-416, 2020
An examination of the rise of Roman forensic culture in the provinces through a case study of Rom... more An examination of the rise of Roman forensic culture in the provinces through a case study of Roman North Africa. In particular, the article sets out to explain why epigraphic evidence for legal practice (in North Africa and elsewhere in the Empire) does not begin until the late second century and then surges in the Severan age.
Records and archives in Roman Egypt as a key perspective on the development of the Roman imperial... more Records and archives in Roman Egypt as a key perspective on the development of the Roman imperial state
Christians and Roman imperial religion in the Severan age
Tyche, 27-60, 2019
A perspective on the nature of the Roman legal order in the provinces and the status of local law... more A perspective on the nature of the Roman legal order in the provinces and the status of local laws and practices under Roman rule. These questions are explored through a series of case studies from Roman Egypt, including the well-known petition of Dionysia (P. Oxy. II 237).
Greece and Rome, 2008
Atticus: Lucus quidem ille et haec Arpinatium quercus agnoscitur, saepe a me lectus in Mario. Sin... more Atticus: Lucus quidem ille et haec Arpinatium quercus agnoscitur, saepe a me lectus in Mario. Sin manet illa quercus, haec est profecto; etenim est sane uetus. Qvintus: Manet uero, Attice noster, et semper manebit. Sata est enim ingenio; nullius autem agricolae cultu stirps tam diuturna quam poetae uersu seminari potest.
Book Reviews by Anna Dolganov
Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2024
My response to Riggsby's queries concerning my review of his book, Mosaics of knowledge, aims to ... more My response to Riggsby's queries concerning my review of his book, Mosaics of knowledge, aims to bring clarity to an important subject for scholars of the Roman world. As noted in my review, my main problems with the book are its selective and often misleading treatment of sources and the omission of large amounts of documentary evidence that falsifies some of the author's central hypotheses. I will address specific points raised by the author and comment on general issues.
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Papers by Anna Dolganov
Book Reviews by Anna Dolganov