Suolahti, Jaakko

English

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A I I N I . I HELSI 197 5 LSI RS Erkki Palm en Patrick Bruun Paavo Hohti Jorrna Kaimio Iiro Kajanto Bengt Lofstedt Martti Nyman H.-G. Pflaum Gilles Roques INDEX Paivo Oksala in memoriam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Constantine's Change of Dies Imperii . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 •• Uber die notwendigkeit bei Herodot . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Notes on the Pay of Roman Soldiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Who was Sabinus Ille? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Zwei Patristica ............ 0 0 • • • • • • • • • • • • • 57 1st der rest-Typus moglich? ................. 0 • 61 Clients et patrons a la lumh~re du cimetiere de 1' Autoparco sous le Vatican a Rome . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Breve reponse aux 'Bemerkungen zur Sprache des Jonas von Bobbio' de M. B.LOfstedt ..... 0 • • • • • • • 89 Eeva Ruoff-Vaananen The Roads leading to Rhegium. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Heikki Solin Analecta epigraphica 0 •• 0 ••••• 0 ••••••• 0 • • • • • 99 Jaakko Suolahti Unknown Source on Ancient Stenography ......... 109 De novis libris iudicia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 0 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 111 UNKNOWN SOURCE ON ANCIENT STENOGRAPHY J aakko Suolahti It is generally known that the Greeks already in the fourth century B.C. and the Romans during the Imperial Age used some form of stenography. Information concerning this has been carefully compiled .I There are, however, less well-known writings from late antiquity that may throw more light on the subject. One of these is a passage from a historical work by the Byzantine historian Agathias ( 536-581 A.D.) which probably is significant in the early history of shorthand.2 In English it reads like this: "He (the lawyer) had men with him who had been taught to write quickly and to read back rapidly what had been written. There were also stern and serious assistants who were well versed in legal proceedings as well as vociferous criers and lictors. They were all chosen from among the officials of Constantinople". Agathias describes the trial in Caucasia of a vassal of the Eastern Roman Etnperor accused of murdering the Tatzian king, Gubatses, in 555 A.D. Agathias mentions that the festive formalities observed in the capital were strictly adhered to at the trial. Therefore, one could reasonably assume that stenographers were regularly present in the courtroom. There was, at any rate, a staff of stenographers in Constantinople who probably recorded courtroom speeches as well as trial proceedings. A relief of a legal agent preserved in the Ostia Museum may be en-lightening. It depicts two officials, possibly stenographers. The courtroom speeches presented by Agathias are clearly his own. This does not prove, however, that the speeches were not recorded, for historians of antiquity always prepared speeches in their own individual style and were apt to change the discourse in the process. Since Agathias states that the judge questioned the parties involved twice, it would seem that there was a record of the trial proceedings and that Agathias was acquainted with it. Regardless of how exact or inexact Agathias's description of events may be, his statement about the stenographers in Constanti-nople is surely true. He served as a lawyer in the capital city and was undoubtedly well acquainted with the legal process. Thus, at least as late as 555 A.D., courtroom statements were taken down in shorthand. It is difficult to say when this custom became obsolete and shorthand was forgotten. Possibly it already occurred during the chaotic period of Byzantine history before the !saurian Emperors.3 At any rate, it had happened before 1045 110 J aakko Suolahti A.D ., when legal education, now dependent on private enterprise, was reformed by the state. The shortened forms used in the tachygraphy of books was also a form of shorthand.4 The fact that N iebuhr does not mention stenography in his translation or comments is natural since even if it became known again as John Willis's dis-covery in 1602, Gabelsberger's new and better shorthand system did not begin to spread until after 1834, when he published his textbook.5 1 O.W. Melin, Stenografiens historia I, Stockholm 1927, 17 ,26. 2 IV:1 p. 206, 7-12. B.G1 Niebuhr, Corpus. Scriptorutn Historiae Byzantinae Ill, Bonn 1828; 4.1.2: 6-8 R. Keydell, Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae II, Berolini 1967, pp. 123: irapflcrav oe cruT~ &vopes ypaq>et v TE es Tax os nenatoev-IJEvot Kai errtTpox6:oT)v O:va/\eyecreat Ta yeypaiJl-U~va, &A./\ot TE vrrT)pETCXt cro(?>apwTepot Kcxi EIJ~pi6eis Kal 8aT)IJOVEO"TaTot TllS Twv otKCXCYTT)pic.vv KOIJ'J-'Eias Kf}pvKES TE IJEyaAo{36at Kai oi -Twv IJ.acrTiywv entcrTaTal. OITCXVTES 8£ OVTOl EK TWV EV Bvsav··rfC}> apxeiwv ETVyXOVOV O:noA.eA.ey-/ IJEVOl. 3 Melin, 24. 4 H.]. Scheltema, Byzantine Law, CMH 4 ( 1967) 71. 5 Melin, 25. 

Unknown Source on Ancient Stenography

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Unknown Source on Ancient Stenography

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