Ordalie e diritto romano

The existence of ordeals in Roman law has been desumed mostly from the supposed universal nature of the institution, or by broadening its meaning to make it coincide with every divine intervention. The analysis of the alleged cases of ordeal in Roman law shows on the contrary that they either depend on paradoxographical or magical texts and are completely alien to the Roman culture, or have been reconstructed by the scholars under the influence of present-day perspectives, such as evolutionism or the Christian idea of religion. In Roman religion there is no ‘judgement (or jurisdiction) of the Gods’, because the Gods themselves are believed to be part of a community governed by Roman law, so that even on issues of ius divinum the authorities of the civitas have the final say.