Greek contracts from Egypt: When do they turn Byzantine?

This article is focused on the shift from the so-called “Roman” to the “Byzantine” period in the perspective of papyrologists: is there a clear sign of a change in the way scribes prepare their documents between the late third and early fourth century? This view is challenged on the basis of a survey of a specific category of documents, namely contracts (Greek deeds of private law). From a typological perspective, there are gradual changes from the third till the early sixth century, but the real change seems to take place in the fifth century, shortly before Justinian’s lawyers formalize what could be observed among Greek papyri from Egypt in the preceding centuries.