Resumen de Reconstruction of the lex Aquilia as an example of a textual reconstruction of ancient leges
The aim of this article is to show that there can be problems with ancient legal sources and with their meaning, and also to give some proposals as to how to deal with them. The first part introduces the methods of textual criticism used by scholars in reconstructing texts. These methods are then demonstrated by a reconstruction of the text of one of the most important Roman statutory enactments, which did not remain in extenso until our time, i.e. the lex Aquilie de damno iniuria dato. The reconstruction is based on the subsequent texts of Roman jurists, taking into consideration the ideas from modern jurisprudence and Romanist science. The paper concludes by stating some general rules and advice concerning the reconstruction on legal texts.
