Edict of M. Petronius Mamertinus on illegal requisitions — edition Μᾶρκος Πετρώνιος Μαμερτῖνος ἔπαρχος Αἰγύπτου λέγει· ἐπέγνων πολλοὺς τῶν στρατιωτῶν ἄνευ διπλῆς διὰ τῆς χώρας πορευομένους πλοῖα καὶ κτήνη καὶ ἀνθρώπους αἰτεῖν παρὰ τὸ προσῆκον, τὰ μὲν αὐ- τοὺς πρὸς βίαν ἀποσπῶντας, τὰ δὲ καὶ κατὰ χάριν ἢ θαραπείαν παρὰ τῶν στρατηγῶν λαμβάνοντας, ἐξ οὗ τοῖς μὲν ἰδιώταις ὕβρις τε καὶ ἐπηρείας γείνε- σθαι, τὸ δὲ στρατιωτικὸν ἐπὶ πλεονεξίᾳ καὶ ἀδικίᾳ διαβάλλεσθαι συνβέβηκε. παρανγέλλω δὴ τοῖς στρα- τηγοῖς καὶ βασιλικοῖς ἁπαξαπλῶς μηδενὶ παρέ- χιν ἄνευ διπλῆς μηθὲ ἓν τῶν ἰς παραπομπὴν διδομένων μήτε πλέοντι μήτε πεζῇ βαδίζον- τι, ὡς ἐμοῦ κολάσοντος ἐρρωμένως ἐάν τις ἁλῷ μετὰ τοῦτο τὸ διάταγμα λαμβάνων ἢ διδούς τι τῶν προειρημένων. ἔτους Ἁδριανοῦ Καίσαρος τοῦ κυρίου,

Edict of M. Petronius Mamertinus on illegal requisitions — translation

Edict of M. Petronius Mamertinus on illegal requisitions — commentary

The edict opens with the bare protocol of a prefect’s proclamation: the issuer’s name, his title — prefect of Egypt, the equestrian governor of the province — and the verb λέγει, ‘declares’.

Then the grievance, in the prefect’s own voice: ‘I have learned’ (ἐπέγνων) that soldiers crossing Egypt without a warrant are seizing boats, pack-animals and men ‘beyond what is proper’. The abuse is precisely the one the edict of Sotidius Strabo had attacked a century earlier — the requisition of transport turned, by those entitled to use it, into plunder.

The prefect distinguishes two modes of the abuse, and they are equally telling. Some soldiers simply seize by force (πρὸς βίαν); others take what they want ‘as a favour or in deference’ from the strategoi — the local officials, who hand over the province’s resources to keep the soldiery content.

The cost is stated as a double injury. Private persons suffer ‘outrage and abuse’; and — the prefect adds — the army itself is ‘reproached for greed and injustice’. The edict frames the reform not only as protection of the governed but as a defence of the army’s good name: discipline and justice are presented as the same thing.

The remedy is an absolute prohibition aimed not at the soldiers but at the suppliers. The prefect orders the strategoi and the royal scribes to furnish ‘by no means … any single one’ of the things provided for transport to anyone without a warrant — by water or by land. Cut off the supply, and the abuse ends.

The penalty is the prefect’s own: he will punish ‘vigorously’ (ἐρρωμένως) anyone caught, after this edict, taking or giving. The closing line dates the text by the regnal year of Hadrian; the year-figure is lost, fixing the edict only to AD 133/137.

Critical apparatus Μᾶρκος Πετρώνιος Μαμερτῖνος — Marcus Petronius Mamertinus, equestrian prefect of Egypt under Hadrian (in office c. AD 133–137). The edict gives only his name, title and the verb λέγει — the standard protocol of a prefect's edict. ἄνευ διπλῆς — διπλῆ, literally 'the double [document]', is the Greek for the Latin diploma — the travel-warrant. Soldiers moving 'without a warrant' had no right to requisition; the phrase recurs at line 12 as the pivot of the whole rule. θαραπείαν — The papyrus writes θαραπείαν for θεραπείαν, 'deference, attendance'; the non-standard vowel is kept verbatim. The soldiers extract transport 'as a favour or in deference' from the strategoi. ὕβρις — The papyrus writes ὕβρις for the accusative plural ὕβρεις, 'outrages' — an itacistic spelling, kept verbatim, as also ἰς for εἰς (line 12) and παρέχιν for παρέχειν (lines 11–12). διαβά[λλ]εσθαι — The reading adopted (per Berichtigungsliste I 399): the soldiery 'comes to be reproached' (διαβάλλεσθαι) for greed and injustice. The papyrus's traces were earlier read λαμβάνεσθαι; διαβάλλεσθαι gives the better sense and is now standard. μηθὲ ἓν … ἰς παραπομπὴν — μηθέ for μηδέ, 'nor even'; ἰς for εἰς. The prohibition is absolute — 'not any single one' of the things furnished εἰς παραπομπήν, 'for transport'. [ἔτους ...] Ἁδριανοῦ Καίσαρος τοῦ κυρίου — The dating clause, by the regnal year of Hadrian — 'Hadrian Caesar the lord'. The year-figure and the month-and-day are lost, fixing the edict only within Mamertinus's prefecture, AD 133/137.

Editions and commentary Papiri greci e latini V (Florence 1917), no. 446 (editio princeps). A. S. Hunt & C. C. Edgar, Select Papyri II (Loeb, 1934), no. 221. Bourne, Coleman-Norton & Johnson, Ancient Roman Statutes, Austin 1961, no. 247. J. B. Campbell, The Roman Army, 31 BC – AD 337: A Sourcebook, London 1994, no. 293. Berichtigungsliste der griechischen Papyrusurkunden I 399 (the reading διαβάλλεσθαι at line 10). Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri, psi.5.446 (Trismegistos / HGV 19292; the machine-readable text followed here).