Specifically, what sort of official records (census data, tax rolls, and so on) would there likely have been on an individual living out in the provinces during the 1st century C.E.? Also, what sort of records would be kept of the proceedings of local courts or the actions of provincial governors? Note that I’m not necessarily talking only about records that have survived to modern times, but also records that have been lost or destroyed since then.
(Yes, this question is a spin off from something in Great Debates; I’m sure y’all can figure out just who it is we’ve been talking about.)
Fairly good ones, if Egypt is any indication. Birth and marriage data, ages, social status (citizen, free, slave), a few other odds and ends. Crucial to establishing a tax base and drafting armies or corvee.
Honestly, it’s not terribly different from modern record keeping. Only probability theory is missing in that respect. Hit any academic library and look up “papyrus” or “Roman Egypt”, and you’ll get buried. I relied pretty heavily on Bagnall and Frier’s The Demography of roman Egypt, and its bibliography should get you going. I’d extrapolate from Egypt that the other provinces were as well documented before the Fall.
In general, the Romans kept pretty good records. The temple of Vesta was a fairly large depository for wills, they kept laws, tax records, etc. In theory, every citizen that was born had to be registered with the state, so there would be records of that. Every male citizen who turned 18 was supposed to serve in the army, and there would be records of that. Marriages were supposed to be recorded, even though some forms of marriages, like the equivalent of modern common-law marriages, probably slipped through the cracks. Trial records were kept, etc. The Roman state was fairly interested in the lives of its citizens. However, that’s an important caveat, because Rome didn’t tend to pay attention to non-citizens. So, to answer your question, if you were a citizen out in the provinces, there would be pretty good records. If you were just a native, the records wouldn’t be as good, because non-citizens, as a general rule didn’t serve in the legions (except as auxilliaries), couldn’t be legally married, weren’t entitled to trial, etc.
Tremendous records. Our greatest source of papyrological record of course comes from Egypt, where the climate has been conducive to their preservation.
As an example, any time the Senate (or the emperor) would pass a law regarding a provincial governor, since all laws were only binding on the specific governor who received them, a copy was sent to the governor himself and stored in Rome. We have copies of literally thousands of Roman laws, many of which are specifically reacting to administrative successes or failures of provincial governors. This is one of the best ways to determine exactly what these guys were up to.
Thousands of receipts, wills, property transfer authorizations, and the like have been found in governmental papyrus dumps in Egypt. I second don Jaime’s suggestion of Bagnall. He, by the way, was one of my teachers. His works are extremely thorough, to say the least.
I’m not sure about the records themselves, but I remember learning that Arabian countries kept the records while the rest of Europe was in the Dark Ages.
