Eventually, tax evasion is the same age as taxation, as a 1,900 -year -old papyrus reveals in the Judean desert decades ago, but its content was only recently analyzed.

Papyrus – written in Greek. – Includes the minutes of a trial for a serious case of tax fraud, forgery and false sales of slaves that took place at the time of Emperor Hadrian, around 130 AD in the remote Roman province of Judea and Arabia, an area corresponding to today’s Israeli.

The defendants were two men. The first name was Soros, and was also supposed to be the “brain” of fraud.

The second, names of Gadalia, was the son of a notary with links to the local elite and “known” the authorities in addition to the convictions of blackmail and forgery, his criminal record still contained robberies, motivation in uprising and four cases of centuries.

Although their nationality is not explicitly mentioned, they are very likely to be Jewish because of their names.

“Papyrus reflects the suspicion with which the Romans saw their Jewish nationals,” said Anth Dolganov, a historian of the Roman Empire at the Austrian Archaeological Institute, who decoded Papyrus. ‘It is likely that tax evaders were involved in Kochba bar [τελευταία θρησκευτική εξέγερση των Εβραίων εναντίον της Ρώμης] which took place a few years later, “he added.

Papyrus does not reveal the final verdict. “If the Roman judge was convinced that they were harsh criminals and that the execution was imperative, Gadalias as a member of the local urban elite may have received a more merciful death,” Dr. Dolganov said. “In any case, almost anything that is better than throwing him into leopards.”

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