Babatha had a dispute with the guardians of Jesus, her son (from her first marriage). We do not know the reasons for this dispute, however, she seems to have been interested in the formula by which, under Roman law, the tutor could be called upon to account for the loss that the ward had suffered. Hence, we can find three nearly identical Greek translations of the actio tutelae in her archive (about 124/25 A.D.). Here we will only examine the appointment of the judges. The text of Pap. Yadin 28 1.1–4 runs as follows:
These lines were translated in the standard edition of the Babatha archive by N. Lewis in this manner:
Between a plaintiff X son of Y and a defendant A for up to 2,500 denarii there shall be (local?) judges.
Lewis does not comment on his (cautious) translation of xenokritai as “local judges”. Presumably, however, it reflects the opinion of the first editor, H. J. Polotsky, that the xenokritai are non-Roman judges (iudices peregrini). Consequently, the Latin version should have been as follows:
. . . . . . dumtaxat denarium MMD iudices peregrini sunto.