Edictum de decurionibus coërcendis ( English translation )

EDICT OF CARACALLA ON EGYPTIAN SENATORS

( AD 213-217 )

( Johnson, Coleman-Norton & Bourne, Ancient Roman Statutes, Austin, 1961, p. 228, n. 281 ).

The grant of a senate to the capitals of Egyptian nomes by Septimius Severus (193-211 A.D.) had not yet conferred on the new senators the dignity that their status demanded. This edict of Caracalla (211-217 A.D.) is designed to improve their standing.
The edict is on a papyrus reported from Egypt in 1916.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION.

      Emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Parthicus Maximus Britannicus Maximus Germanicus Maximus Pius Augustus proclaims :
      If a senator strikes a prytanis or a senator or reviles him in the senate, the senator shall be removed from the senate and shall be degraded to a dishonorable status.
      Published at Babylo in the Public Colonnade, in the archonship of Aurelius Alexander of Heliopolis.