Album

1 Album GEORGY KANTOR Album (Latin “whitened board”) was a form of publication of official lists, calendars, and regulations in Rome from the republican to the late imperial period. The text was written on white-washed wooden boards in black ink (in atramento), with the section-headings in red, whence the term rubrica (Mayor 1886–8 on Juvenal 14.192–3; Nappo 1989: 88 n. 14). The term is commonly used in modern historiography to denote any Roman official list. The earliest publications on whitened boards (in albo or in tabula dealbata) mentioned in Roman historical tradition were the disclosure of the forms of legis actiones and of the civil calendar by Gnaeus Flavius in 304 BCE (Livy 9.46.5) and annual display of the ANNALES MAXIMI in the Middle Republican period (Cic. De or. 2.52; Servius ad Aen. 1.373; Macrob. Sat. 3.2.17). The first documentary reference comes from the Gracchan extortion law, which requires the Praetor to publish the list of extortion court jurors “on a tablet on the white background, written in black ink” (Crawford 1996: 1, line 14). In the Greek world, the use of whitened boards (Greek leukomata) for publication is attested even earlier (Wilhelm 1909: 246–7). The most important source of law published as an album in the Late Republican and imperial period was the Praetor’s Edict (Dig. 2.1.7.pr; 2.13.1.1; 43.1.2.3; Quint. 12.3.11); the Flavian municipal law in Baetica ordered city magistrates to display in public a similar album of the provincial governor (AE 1986, 333, ch. 85). Another common type of album was a list of members of a particular body in their official order, above all that of the Roman Senate (album senatorium: Cass. Dio 55.3.3; Tac. Ann. 4.42.3; CT 12.1.48), those of municipal decuriones modelled on it (Dig. 50.2.10; 50.3; CT 12.1.142; Nov. Maiorian. 7.18; Canusium, 223 CE: CIL IX 338; Timgad, 363 CE: Chastagnol 1978), and the roster of equestrian judges (CIL IV 1492c, 1493; Sen. (Y) Ben. 3.7.6; Suet. Claud. 16.2). Other examples include member-lists of collegia (CIL III 870, 6150; XI 1355; XIV 246, 250, 251, 256) and an album veteranorum (CIL VIII 2626). Lists of declarations to local authorities required by the TABULA HERACLEENSIS were to be published on an album (Crawford 1996: 13, lines 13–16), as were declarations of childbirth in Roman Egypt (Schulz 1942: 87–91) and perhaps other types of declarations to authorities. SEE ALSO: Decurions; Edict, aedile’s; Edict, magistrate’s; Edict, praetor’s; Legis actio; Lex Irnitana; Publication; Senate, Roman Republic and Empire. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS Chastagnol, A. (1978) L’album municipal de Timgad. Bonn. Crawford, M. H., ed. (1996) Roman statutes, 2 vols. London. Mayor, J. E. B. (1886–8) D. Junii Juvenalis satiræ xiii. Thirteen satires of Juvenal, 2 vols. London. Meyer, E. A. (2004) Legitimacy and law in the Roman world. Cambridge. Nappo, S. C. (1989) “Fregio dipinto dal ‘praedium’ di Giulia Felice con rappresentazione del foro di Pompei.” Rivista di Studi Pompeiani 3: 79–96. Schmidt, J. (1894) “Album.” RE 1: 1332–6. Schulz, F. (1942) “Roman registers of birth and birth certificates.” Journal of Roman Studies 32: 78–91. von Schwind, F. (1940) Zur Frage der Publikation im römischen Recht: 49–53. Munich. Wilhelm, A. (1909) Beiträge zur griechischen Inschriftenkunde: 239–49. Vienna. The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine, and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 279–280. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah13014