Law and Latinization in Rome’s Western Provinces

Abstract

Abstract Under what legal circumstances did inhabitants of Rome’s western provinces find themselves encouraged or subjected to incentives to learn Latin? This chapter argues that, because Latin and Roman status were prestigious and Roman citizenship could provide access to forms of the ius civile that protected property and inheritance, provincial elites were strongly pulled towards acquiring both. The possibility of appearing in a Roman court where Latin was spoken was also an incentive that probably worked more forcefully on the rich, although people from all ranks of society could in theory be summoned to appear before a Roman judge. This possibility of court therefore appears as a kind of push towards learning Latin as a form of legal self-defence. Finally, redress for wrongs suffered that could not be prosecuted in a court both pushed and pulled provincials towards Latin, since Latin had rapidly become the (written) language of cursing in the western provinces (particularly well attested in Britannia). Curse tablets embody an extra-legal form of self-help and were particularly employed, with urgency and emotion, to punish theft, which was a civil-law delict under Roman law for which an action was not available to non-citizens. For them, Latin was not about the law but was certainly about justice.