Malacitana Law

What makes this legal tablet so exceptional is the excellent condition that we find it in. The laws that it contains are explained in five columns, written in actuarial letters and divided into chapters. This document contains part of the Law awarded to the Municipium Flavium Malacitano (Málaga) after the city was granted municipal status by the emperor Vespasian in the year 74. Hung in a prominent public place, this bronze tablet contains the rules by which the urban Hispanic community of Malaca should be governed. They were very similar to all those issued for any imperial city. The laws became key in fully achieving the Romanisation of all the cities in the empire, subject to Rome through Latin Law. The authorities, emperor, senate and magistrates created and published legal, administrative, commercial, artistic, family and private documents, which were produced in large quantities. They were made from bronze to ensure that they would last, but it was this very material that meant that almost all of them would disappear since metal was recycled.