SURVEY OF L I T E R A T U R E 1952—1953 385
The t e x t of the Solonie laws is not yet authenticated b y means of a direct transcription f r o m the Greek original, b u t it is reprinted verbatim f r o m the copy of a work used b y Gaius in which because of the manuscript tradition the Greek t e x t seriously departed f r o m the original. The author of the work used b y Gaius had before his eyes a Hellenistic t e x t of the Solonie laws, which (without the p a r t s of t h e laws not connected with the discussed matter) was suitable for the explanation of the actio finium regundorum. This should be proved by an extensive analysis of the P a p . Halensis.
J . R a b i n o v i t z , The Legal Papyrus from 'Auja el-Hafir (reprint f r o m the Israel Exploration Society, vol. X V I I , 3—4, 1953). This papyrus published b y M. S c h w a b e , does not represent a manumission-document b u t one releasing a boy who h a d been delivered b y his f a t h e r as a pledge of a loan. The essential formula in the document under discussion is contained in 1.8, in which the b o y is granted " a u t h o r i t y over himself". This formula contains legal Aramaism. The occurence of an Aramaic legal t e r m in the formula which seems to be Greek in origin is striking. However as had already been noted b y К о s с h а к е г, the Greek formula closely resembles one found in a Babylonian document f r o m the times of the f i r s t dynasty. A formula in all respects similar to t h a t of the Babylonian document occurs in Mishna, Gittin I X , 9.
The " f r e e d o m of m o v e m e n t " granted to the boy, a feature which is common to this document and to m a n y of the Delphic inscrip-tions also has close parallels in ancient Semitic sources. The legal terminology of release f r o m the marital tie is similar to t h a t of release f r o m paramone. I t m a y well be t h a t the origin of the legal institutions of paramone is to be sought in Babylonia. The ex-pression " t o stand before someone" used in the Babylonian docu-ments, occurs a n u m b e r of times in the Bible in the sense of serving, "waiting u p o n " , and is strongly reminiscent of the Greek παραμενειν, the primary meaning of which is " s t a y beside" or "near, s t a n d b y " .
O B L I G A T I O N S
J . Ρ i r e η η e, Les contrats de vente de soi-même en Egypte à Vêpo-que saïte (Académie royale de BelgiVêpo-que, Bull, de la Classe des Lettres et des Sciences Morales et Politiques, 5e série, tome
X X X I Y, 1948).
