Legal Texts. Another common type of public inscription is the legal text, whose author might be the Roman senate or, during the Principate, the emperor himself. For particularly thorny matters of public law, a provincial community might appeal to the emperor for a decision. Whether or not they accompanied their petition to Rome, the request was read out loud in a hearing. The emperor would not, from such a distance, be able to verify the facts of the case, but he would nonetheless make a decision based on stipulations concerning the true circumstances, which would be referred to the local courts. Having made his ruling, the emperor might specifically order that it be carved in stone and set up in a public place in the community in question. Such rescripts, as the replies were called, thereafter had the force of law in...