RESCRIPT OF A MAGISTRATE ON ABANDONED LAWSUITS
   
( AD 293 ? )
 
 
( Johnson, Coleman-Norton & Bourne, Ancient Roman Statutes, Austin, 1961, p. 234, n. 296 ).
 
 
      This is one of several documents preserved on a roll of papyrus, reported in 1901. It is concerned with suits undertaken in bad faith and thereafter abandoned. The defendants are given remedies at law and the governor is directed to allow them action against the false accusers. Gradenwitz (ZSS, 23, 1902, pp. 356-379) dated this document on the basis of style and diction, and his article includes many helpful parallels and suggestions.
 
 
ENGLISH TRANSLATION.
 
 
      . . . to Aurelius Severus . . . a rescript procured . . . by false assertions is clearly able to do harm, if the false testimony is cited against a defendant. The laws do not permit a suit which has been begun to be protracted for a long time. If indeed persons who have been accused in such a manner are advised to bring suit for slander by the terms of the Permanent Edict against a person who has abandoned a suit which has been begun, the governor of the province, being approached therefor, . . . a suit which has been begun or . . . has been determined repeatedly . . . concerning special courts . . . not yet an action . . .