The Recipients of Private Rescripts

The Gregorian and Hermogenian Codes were officially sponsored pro ductions. But if the impetus for their compilation was imperial, the rescripts included in them were prompted by private petitions, originating often far from the court. Thus, whatever selection procedure chose rescripts for the codes, the population of texts, from which the selection was made, came into being as a function of private initiative. Indeed, with around I ,200 surviving rescripts, the number of private individuals known by name to have petitioned Diocletian exceeds that for any other emperor.1 Whatever effect upon the accessibility of the ruler was caused by the gorgeous ceremonial of the late antique court (as reputedly intro duced by Diocletian),2 there was no adverse effect upon the flow of petitions, at least in the early years of the tetrarchy

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