"Wronged even by relatives": Petitions Against
Family Members in Roman Egypt

Judith A. Evans-Grubbs (Washington University)

"To be wronged by strangers is difficult, but to be wronged even by relatives is most difficult." So begins a petition to the prefect from Aurelia Didyme, who claims that her mother's brothers have cheated her of her maternal inheritance [P.Oxy. XXXIV.2713, dated 297]. This paper looks at petitions in Roman Egypt by young people seeking help against abuses (financial and sometimes also physical) from their own relatives. These documents not only shed light on the dynamics of (dysfunctional) family relationships, but also reveal how the socially disadvantaged (orphaned minors, especially women) sought redress for private wrongs from public authorities in a Roman province.

Aurelia Didyme's situation was not unique: several other orphaned young women from the same time period also complain of being defrauded by their paternal or maternal uncles [P.Oxy. XVI.2133; P.Mich.XV.723; P.Cair.Isid. 63 and 64; cf. P.Cair.Isid. 77, where a woman petitions on behalf of her sister's daughters against their paternal uncles]. Uncles were the natural choice of guardian for orphaned minors, and therefore there was a greater possibility of conflict over the right to property left by the deceased parent. Stepmothers also could be the target of complaints, for much the same reason [P.Cair.Isid. 62; P.Turner 34]. Young men might even complain that their own mothers were plotting to deprive them of their paternal inheritance [P.Oxy.VI.898; P.Ryl. II.116; cf. P.Sakaon 40, against a paternal great-aunt]. Such petitions almost always are sent by minors whose father is dead; it was less common for children to bring a complaint against their own father. A famous exception is the long petition to the prefect from Dionysia daughter of Chaeremon, who was contesting her father's right to divorce her from her husband [P.Oxy. II.237, dated 186]. Dionysia's petition is especially valuable because she cites earlier cases where daughters challenged their father's power to divorce them.

I will conclude my paper by comparing the intra-family disputes found in the petitions with evidence in contemporary Roman law, particularly the imperial rescripts in the Codex Justinianus. Rescripts (replies to petitions) from second and third century emperors show that young people were bringing the same type of complaints against family members to the highest authority in the Empire. Many imperial rescripts respond to complaints against malfeasant guardians (including, of course, uncles), and at least two Antonine emperors made rulings regarding a father's right to force his children to divorce. Comparison of the papyrological and legal sources points up the (rather banal) similarity of inter-generational family conflicts in Egypt and elsewhere in the Empire. More importantly, it can shed light on the relationship between Roman law and provincial practice. All of the petitioners in Egypt after 212 were Roman citizens, and thus were supposed to be subject to Roman law. Even before 212, Roman authorities in the provinces (particularly the prefect, who was always a Roman) might make decisions in disputes between provincials which drew on Roman legal principles rather than local custom. This appears to have happened in the cases cited by Dionysia. But this was not simply a "top-down" process of imposing Roman law on powerless provincials. In fact, I will argue, the petitions of provincials to Roman authorities (governors or emperors) could ultilmately lead to changes in Roman family law.