Judea, 2nd century AD. In the turbulent atmosphere of the Roman province, a trial was held against Gaddaliah and Saul, accused of fraud and tax evasion. The trial was reported on a 133-line paper in Greek (pictured). Thinking that it was a Nabataean document, the papyrus was forgotten. But in 2014, researcher Hannah Cotton became aware of the importance of the document she had in her hands – that’s why it’s called Cotton Papyrus – and has recently reported on her detailed research in Tyche magazine.

Gandalias was the son of a notary, probably a Roman citizen. He had previously had a lot of accusations of violence, extortion and falsification of documents, always according to the papyrus. Saulos was an accomplice of Gandalias and, according to the judges, he was the one who prepared the plan to avoid taxes by using false documents: through falsification, the slaves were allegedly bought secretly and subsequently released so as not to pay the taxes corresponding to these activities.

Roman law severely punished corruption, fraud and counterfeiting, to the point of imposing the death penalty in some cases. The document contains the preparatory work of the prosecutor and various testimonies, but we do not know what punishment was finally imposed on the defendants. In addition, they are also accused of other crimes in the papyrus, such as the organization of acts of rebellion during the visit of Emperor Hadrian to the province in 129.

The atmosphere in Judea was very turbulent at the time; the rebellion in Bar Kokhba was about to break out. In addition, the purchase and release of slaves has never been a profitable business; by avoiding taxes, at most, they would have managed to reduce their losses.

So, in addition to explaining how the administration and the courts worked in the Roman provinces, what does Papyrus Cotton bring us? Is this a detailed and clear example of the Roman law’s stance against fraud? Or, as would happen so many times later, was tax fraud a mere pretext for punishing anti-imperial activity?