FORMULA of an EDICT

I. PRAESCRIPTIO

The name of the magistrate who possesses the ius dicendi, along with his titles.

[An indication of the place or circumstances in which the magistrate issues the edict]

The date.

DICIT (or DIXIT )

II. TEXT:

A. EXORDIUM: prooimion - a general introduction which aims at producing benevolence and interest in the addressees.

B. NOTIFICATIO: promulgatio - a publishing phrase which, in one form or another, expresses the meaning 'I make known that . . .'

C. NARRATIO: expositio - a relation of the facts which have brought about and conditioned the decision of the magistrate.

D. DISPOSITIO: - the central part of the document, setting forth the decision and its terms.

E. SANCTIO: corroboratio - concluding clauses, directed toward ensuring the observance of the terms of the document.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Margareta Benner, The Emperor Says: Studies in the Rhetorical Style in Edicts of the Early Empire (Goteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 1975) [Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia, XXXIII].
T. Kipp, "edictum," RE V. 2 (1905) 1940-1948.
David Daube, Forms of Roman Legislation (Oxford 1956).
Gérard Chalon, L' édit de Tiberius Julius Alexandre (Olten and Lausanne: Urs Graf Verlag, 1964) [Bibliotheca Helvetica Romana, V.] pp. 69-88.
H. F. Jolowitz, Historical Introduction to the Study of Roman Law 2nd edition (Cambridge 1967), pp. 366-369.
Alan Watson, Law Making in the Later Roman Republic (Oxford 1974), Chapter 3: "The Development of the Praetor's Edict", pp. 31-62.