A 1600-year-old parchment, preserved at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia for more than a century, has uncovered forgotten Roman laws. The museum acquired fifty fragments of animal skin from an antiquities dealer in Egypt in 1911, and these have now been identified as parts of a page from an unknown Roman legal text. Matthijs Wibier, a Roman law specialist from the University of Cincinnati, has reconstructed and translated this fourth-century Latin text, which covers topics such as taxes, road maintenance, and the protection of public buildings. The text dates to the end of the fourth century and relates to the reigns of two emperors, Constantius II and Julian, who ruled between 337 and 363. This newly discovered text does not match any of the known imperial legal codes, such as the Theodosian Code, which was compiled later, between 429 and 438. Scholars believe the parchment predates this formal codification and may have represented a smaller, practical collection of imperial laws used by officials, wealthy landowners, or their lawyers. This work likely served as a reference tool rather than a comprehensive summary of all Roman law. Reconstructing the text involved analyzing the texture differences on both sides of the parchment, which helped determine the page's orientation and its place in the original book. Red ink marks on one side, along with ultraviolet light, were used to improve the readability of the text. The handwriting indicates that the manuscript was carefully produced, not a rough draft or an improvised copy. The discovery of a Latin legal text in Egypt aligns with the history of the Roman Empire, as Egypt was a vital province during the fourth century, especially for its grain supply. The Penn Museum's collection includes many texts from Egypt, written on various materials and in multiple languages. The region's dry climate has helped preserve many ancient documents exceptionally well. This discovery emphasizes the value of maintaining and studying existing museum collections. New methods, perspectives, and time invested in these collections can reveal previously unknown texts. Similar findings have occurred elsewhere, such as the identification of a missing page from the Archimedes palimpsest in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Blois and the rediscovery of a treatise by Ptolemy in Milan using multispectral imaging.