INTERDICTA NELLE PROVINCE DEL VICINO ORIENTE?
INTERDICTAL PROTECTION IN THE PROVINCES OF THE NEAR EAST?

Summary/Abstract: The interdictal protection was traditionally considered to be a prerogative of the praetor’s court in Rome. Epigraphic and papyrological sources still reveal that it was applied in several provincial territories, from Cisalpine Gaul and Betica to Egypt and the Middle Euphrates area. Precisely the sources from the eastern provinces, more than those from the Hispanic territory, often represent a real enigma for the interpreter, both because of the linguistic hurdle and the complexity of political and legal history of those territories.Gaius, in the paragraph 139 of the fourth book, introduces the discussion on interdictal protection by placing the proconsul alongside the praetor as magistrates competent to issue interdicta. Again, with reference to the provincial territory, the sources seem to involve a wider range of magistrates and officials who had access to this function, probably through a delegation of general or specific jurisdiction. In the eastern provinces, such delegation was generally granted on a case-by-case basis, as was the case for the procurators of Celesiria or the epistrategos of Egypt. The purpose was probably twofold: to lighten the workload of the praeses and to meet the immediacy requirements of interdictal remedies.

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