ALLE ORIGINI DELLA SCIENTIA IURIS: L’INTERPRETATIO SACERDOTALE IN ROMA ANTICA. CONCEZIONI E PERCORSI METODOLOGICI

The research concerns the interpretatio made by the priests in ancient Rome, which represents the origin of today’s jurisprudential activity. The paper opens with a reflection on the ancient conceptions underlying the action of the Roman sacerdotes (orthopraxis, obsessive attention to the ritual aimed at preserving the pax deorum), underlining the persistence of the priestly interpretatio within the Roman juridical experience in the context of the emerging phenomenon of “secularization”. After an overview of the fragmentary nature of what remains of the priestly documents, we proceed to reconstruct the main elements of the work of the sacerdotes populi Romani with extensive recourse, by way of example, to the dictates of ancient testimonies. The analysis of the fragments revealed a priestly aptitude for creating definitions and classifications. As regards the externalization of what was elaborated by the priests, the well-known respondent activity and the issuing of decrees binding the entire Roman people emerge as well as spontaneous utterances and indications on the subject of ius sacrum: actions that certainly cannot be explained in the light of modern state-based conceptions.