Two money loan chirographa in
Latin
by
the
same
debtor, Antonius Heronianus
, from
the
140
p
(PMich.
VII
438)
and 15
3
p
(PFouad
I 45)
are examined
, thanks
to
new readings
and
through
an
interdisciplinary
analysis
between
prosopography
, social status and
citizenship
of
the
contractors, Ptolemaic law and Roman law.
The first is so
far the only chirographum in
Egypt to
which is added a stipulatio / sponsio, due to the fact
that
the creditor, Julius Serenus, was a Roman citizen
with
good
legal knowledge,
so
much
so
that
he
was probably the
same
person
that
a few
years
later
he
entered
the Council of
the Prefect
of
Alexandria
and
Egypt. However,
the
quiritary sponsio was requested
only
for the
capital,
while the
wear
was provided exclusively in
the chirograph
without
indicating
the
interest rate.
The reason
for this seems to
be
that
they
were
exorbitant
compared
to
the legal
rate
and had probably
been
deducted
in
advance.
New decipherments of
the
text
of
PFouad I
45
allow
us
to
understand
some
anomalies in
the form
of this fictitious
mortgage
with
trust sale
of the arms
by
the
creditor
/ seller Stlaccius Antistianus, decurion
of
the
same
Dem (etrian?)
auxiliary cavalry
wing
of
the
debtor
in
the
II legion Traiana Fortis.
The
chirographum
is equipped
with
the debtor’s signature and the signatures
of two
witnesses: the
first is the keeper of
the
weapons
of the same legion
and writes in
Greek; the
second
writes in
Latin
declaring
to
have
been
present in
the
camp at the
time
of
writing
the
contract.
In
general,
the signatures
of
the
witnesses
conclude
the act,
but
is added
here
a summary in
Greek,
which
constitutes
a diplomatic
anomaly.
The new decipherment and
the relative
proposed additions allow to
explain
this anomaly: in
the handwritten subscription
the
debtor
had
failed
to
remember
the
interests
on the loan, while
the
chirographum
had
been
written in his
name
by
a Latin
scribe,
who had
foreseen
the
legal interests
with
a pactum
adiectum in
continenti. The Greek scribe
adds
a
summary, in
which
he recalls
the
agreed
interests
and
their
legal
amount
in
relation
to
the capital.
Finally,
all
the
elements
of conformity
or
discrepancy of the documents
with respect to the
formal and contractual
types of loan of
money in Roman Italy and
in the eastern
and
western provinces of
the empire in the
I-II century after Christ are examined.
Keywords: PFouad I
45, PMich. VII
438, chirographum, stipulatio, money loan
with
fiduciary sale