The Evolution of the Demotic Marital Legal Tradition

In the Roman provinces, the blending of different legal cultures was a common phenomenon, and the province of Egypt, the subject of this paper, was no exception. Preserved papyri from this region illustrate the development of legal traditions and how they influenced one another and changed over time. These sources show the complexity of legal and social life in the province and that, despite the long-term influence of Greek legal culture and the Roman conquest, certain Egyptian legal traditions remained in use. This paper examines a specific Demotic marital legal tradition and its development. The aim is to examine the tradition’s development under changing social conditions and assess whether these transformations led to its weakening or disappearance, by analyzing primary sources, secondary literature, and a comparison of the Ptolemaic and Roman legal environments. It can thus be observed that provincial inhabitants were able to preserve some Egyptian legal traditions, partly due to the favorable legal arrangements they offered, which also testifies to the Romans' tolerance for the local legal culture. The paper’s contribution is to address development of the Demotic marital legal tradition under Roman administration, which is a topic not often discussed in the Slovak academic discourse.