Epigraphy tensivetextsembodyinglawsordecreesoftheSenatebegininthesecond
century..and have been collected and discussed many times.^96 There is
stillroom,however,fortreatmentsofthesetextswhichdonotaimsomuch
ateitherrestorationoflostsections(ofteninvolvingprolongedandfruitless
arguments about line lengths) or reconstructions of their political context
and purpose, as at using them as evidence for the historyof language and
(asmentionedearlierin‘‘EpigraphyandLiterature’’)atunderstandingtheir
compositionastexts.Evenmoreprofoundambiguitiesattendthequestion
of what can be considered a companion group of texts, the so-called mu-
nicipal laws of the late Republic.We owe to the late M.W. Frederiksen a
fundamentaldiscussionofthenatureofthesedocuments.Aretheyinfact
‘‘laws,’’generatedinsomewayfromthecentreofpowerinRome?Howand
fromwhatsourceswaseachtextaswehaveitputtogether?When,bywhom,
andforwhatreasonwasitinscribed?^97 Notallofthequestionswhichwere
thussoeffectuallyopeneduphaveyetbeenanswered.Itwillnotseempara-
doxical,inviewofwhathasbeensaidhere,thatasignificantproportionof
themostdetailed,clear,andexplicitrepublicandocumentsisinfactdrawn
fromtherepertoireoftheepigraphyoftheGreekcitiesandisthusavailable
tousonlyinGreektranslation.^98 Theinter-playbetweenGreekandLatinas
thevehiclesofofficialprose,inboththerepublicanandtheimperialperi-
ods,thusbecomesamajorhistoricalsubjectinitsownright.^99 Thevolume
ofthesetexts(andthedifficultyoftheproblemsassociatedwiththem)has
beenconsiderablyincreasedbythepublicationinofseveralextensive
ington,Remains of Old LatinIV:Archaic Inscriptions(Cambridge,Mass.,).Thetimehas
arrived,withmanynewdiscoveries,foraneweditionofthiswork.
. E.g.,I.Bruns,Fontes Iuris Romani Antiqui^7 ();S.Riccobono,Fontes Iuris Romani
Anteiustinianae^2 ().SeeK.Johannsen,Die lex agraria des Jahres v. Chr.: Text und Kom-
mentar(Diss.Munich,).NotenowalsoA.W.Lintott,Judicial Reform and Land Reform
in the Roman Republic(Cambridge, ), and esp. M. Crawford, ed.,Roman StatutesI–II
(London,),no..
. M.W. Frederiksen, ‘‘The Republican Municipal Laws: Errors and Drafts,’’JRS
():.
. SeeR.K.Sherk,Roman Documents from the Greek East: Senatus consulta and epistulae to
the Age of Augustus(Baltimore,).
. Note two fundamental older works, P. Viereck,Sermo Graecus(Diss. Göttingen,
);L.Hahn,Rom und Romanismus im griechisch-römischen Osten(Leipzig,).Seenow
H. J. Mason,Greek Terms for Roman Institutions: A Lexicon and Analysis(Toronto, );
M.Kaimio,The Romans and the Greek Language(Helsinki,);E.GarcíaDomingo,Lati-
nismos en la Koine(Burgos,).