P. Giss. I 40: der status quaestionis

The only evidence for the so-called Constitutio Antoniniana, with which all free citizens of the Imperium Romanum were granted Roman citizenship by Emperor Caracalla, is the papyrus P. Giss. I 40, more specifically lines 1-9 of the first column. The present article takes a holistic approach to the artifact preserved in Giessen, traces its finding and edition history, and then deals in detail with the question of how many different texts are found on the two-column papyrus. Careful comparison of all interpretations presented to date with the composition and layout of the text leads one to side with Peter van Minnen's thesis that there are only two texts and that the edict as such was much more extensive. Col. II, 12-15 reveal the date of the promulgation of the Constitutio Antoniniana - Rome, July 11, 212. The clauses that have so far been considered the sole subject of the edict, however, are merely the introduction to a large-scale package of measures with which the emperor sought to mitigate the political, social and, not least, religious disorder that had emerged after the murder of his brother Geta.