Roman-era legal drama unfolds in deciphered ancient papyrus

In 2014, a researcher from the Israel Antiquities Authority, Hannah Cotton Paltiel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discovered the longest Greek papyrus ever found. The document, previously thought to be written in Nabataean, turned out to be a Greek text describing a court case from the Roman occupation period. Together with her team, she translated it, revealing that it contains prosecution notes from a legal case in the 2nd century CE, dating back to early Roman times.

The papyrus contains notes that might have been used by the prosecutor during the trial before Roman officials under Emperor Hadrian's rule. The trial concerned two individuals, Gadalias and Saulos, who falsified documents related to slave trading to avoid paying taxes.

Forgery and tax evasion were severely punished under Roman law, which could involve hard labor or even the death penalty. The document also includes notes from the trial and the prosecutors' strategy, though missing fragments make it difficult to fully understand the case.

The papyrus provides evidence that at least one of the named Jewish families owned slaves. However, it is not clear whether those slaves were also Jewish. The trial might have been interrupted by the Bar Kokhba revolt, an armed Jewish uprising against the Roman Empire between 132 and 135 CE, which likely led to the document being discarded in the caves of the Judean Desert.

According to the Live Science portal, this discovery is one of the best-documented legal cases from Judea, aside from the trial of Jesus. Research on the papyri was conducted by Hannah Cotton of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the results were published in the journal "Tyche".