The tablets: their form and epigraphy | Roman Inscriptions of Britain

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Here are the <a href="//www.enable-javascript.com/" target="_blank"> instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser</a>.</p></noscript> <div class="col col-xxl-10">  <nav aria-label="breadcrumb"> <ol class="breadcrumb"> <li class="breadcrumb-item"><a href="/">Home</a></li> <li class="breadcrumb-item"><a href="/tablondbloomberg">Bloomberg Tablets</a></li> <li class="breadcrumb-item active" aria-current="page">The tablets: their form and epigraphy</li> </ol> </nav>  <div class="row"> <div class="col-lg-4"> <button class="btn btn-sm btn-outline-secondary sidenav-toggle" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#SideNav" aria-expanded="true" aria-controls="SideNav"> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 448 512"><path d="M0 96C0 78.33 14.33 64 32 64H416C433.7 64 448 78.33 448 96C448 113.7 433.7 128 416 128H32C14.33 128 0 113.7 0 96zM0 256C0 238.3 14.33 224 32 224H416C433.7 224 448 238.3 448 256C448 273.7 433.7 288 416 288H32C14.33 288 0 273.7 0 256zM416 448H32C14.33 448 0 433.7 0 416C0 398.3 14.33 384 32 384H416C433.7 384 448 398.3 448 416C448 433.7 433.7 448 416 448z"/></svg> <span class="collapse-menu"> </span> Menu </button> <div class="collapse show" id="SideNav"> <ul class="nav sidenav flex-column"> <li class="nav-item"><a href="/tablondbloomberg/introduction" class="nav-link">Introduction</a></li> <li class="nav-item"><a href="/tablondbloomberg/form-epigraphy" class="nav-link">Form and Epigraphy</a></li> <li class="nav-item"><a href="/tablondbloomberg/stylus-tablets" class="nav-link">Stylus Tablets</a></li> <li class="nav-item"><a href="/tablondbloomberg/ink-tablets" class="nav-link">Ink Tablets</a></li> <li class="nav-item"><a href="/tablondbloomberg/indexes" class="nav-link">Indexes</a></li> </ul> </div></div> <div class="col-lg-8"> <section class="main"> <div id="TLB-Chapter-2"> <h1>The tablets: their form and epigraphy</h1> <ul class="plain"> <li class="">2.2 2.2 <a href="#TLB-Chapter-2.2">Reading the tablets</a></li> <li class="">2.3 2.3 <a href="#TLB-Chapter-2.3">Letterforms</a></li> <li class="">2.4 2.4 <a href="#TLB-Chapter-2.4">The form and format of the tablets</a> <ul class="plain"> <li class=""><a href="#TLB-Chapter-2.4.1">Type and size</a></li> <li class=""><a href="#TLB-Chapter-2.4.2">Format and usage</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <div id="TLB-Chapter-2.2"> <h3>2.2 Reading the tablets</h3> <p>Except for two ink-leaf tablets (<a id="d57e73" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="6" data-key="bibC02803" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Chapter 5</a>) like those from Vindolanda, the Bloomberg London tablets are all stylus writing tablets, that is, rectangular panels of wood, usually silver fir (<span class="latin">Abies alba</span>), recessed on one or both faces to take a thin, smooth coating of wax in which the scribe wrote with a needle-pointed stylus (<span class="latin">stilus</span>). Many were used more than once (below and <a class="icon-table" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericTableModal" data-path="/tablondbloomberg/tablondbloomberg-table-2" data-alttext="Table 2 - Tablets showing signs of reuse, according to the type of text">Table 2</a>), but the excavations produced good evidence that imported barrels or casks were also recycled, reworking the constituent parts – the staves and headboards – into tablets (<a id="d57e96" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="8" data-key="bibC02803" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Chapter 2.1</a>). This method of manufacture was not necessarily general practice, especially in areas where the wood was readily available from the tree.</p> <p>The Latin term for a stylus writing tablet, <span class="latin">tabula cerata</span>, usually abbreviated to <span class="latin">cera</span> (‘wax’), derives of course from its wax coating; <span class="latin">cera</span> was explicitly beeswax, and its use was taken for granted. When his girl sent him tablets (<span class="latin">tabellae</span>) with a negative message, Ovid comments (<a id="d57e124" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="9" data-key="bibE00048" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false"><em>Am</em></a> 1.12, ll 8–10) that the wax must have been collected by Corsican bees from hemlock flowers. The wax of these tablets, as it happens, was coloured red with vermilion (‘like blood’, Ovid adds sourly), but the usual colour was black. Vitruvius (<a id="d57e142" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="10" data-key="bibE00037" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false"><em>Arch</em></a> 7.10) and Pliny the elder (<a id="d57e151" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="11" data-key="bibC01460" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false"><em>Nat Hist</em></a> 35.41) describe how the black colorant (<span class="latin">atramentum</span>), as used in paint and ink, was made by burning resin or resinous wood in a confined chamber, ordinary soot being a cheap substitute. This lampblack (ie carbon black) was stirred into the melted beeswax, which was then poured on to the tablet, ‘<span class="latin">cera … rasis infusa tabellis</span>’ (<a id="d57e164" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="12" data-key="bibE00047" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Ovid, <em>Ars Am</em></a> 1, l 437). If need be, it could be smoothed off with a hot spatula (below). When it was inscribed, the stylus cut into it, exposing the pale wood underneath. The resulting effect can still be seen on the Trawsfynydd (Merionethshire) tablet (<a id="d57e177" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="13" data-key="bibC03745" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Tomlin 2001</a>), which the wax stained black before it disappeared; however, where the wax had already been divided by the stylus, it could not stain the wood, so the writing survives as a ghostly brown trace against a black background. The Romans appreciated the need to brighten the contrast: instead of gloomy waxed tablets (<span class="latin">tristes cerae</span>), Martial (<a id="d57e188" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="14" data-key="bibE00030" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false"><em>Epig</em></a> 14.5) recommends resting one’s eyes with ivory tablets inscribed in ink. This is the effect intended by the line drawings in this volume: black on white, a reverse of the original. But by contrast, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-9.jpg" data-alttext="Fig 9 - Stylus tablet <WT29> as it may have originally appeared. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 9</a> reconstructs photographically the original appearance of <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg29"><WT29></a>, with the text inscribed on the wax-coated surface.</p> <p> <table class=""> <thead> <tr> <th>Reconstructed text:</th> <th>Translation of reconstructed text:</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td class="align-top">taurus macrino domino</td> <td class="align-top">Taurus to Macrinus his dearest lord,</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="align-top">carissimo salute</td> <td class="align-top">greetings.</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="align-top">scias me domine recte esse</td> <td class="align-top">Know that I am in good health,</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="align-top">quod tu sis inuicem cupio</td> <td class="align-top">which I desire that you are too.</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="align-top">cum uenerat catarrius et</td> <td class="align-top">When Catarrius had come and</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="align-top">iumenta aduxerat conpedia</td> <td class="align-top">had taken the beasts of burden away,</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="align-top">quae messibus tribus reficere</td> <td class="align-top">investments which I cannot</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="align-top">non possum adfueram ehre</td> <td class="align-top">replace in three months,</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="align-top">ad diadumenum set ille</td> <td class="align-top">I was at (the house of) Diadumenus yesterday,</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="align-top">superuenit unum diem</td> <td class="align-top">but he (Catarrius) arrived unexpectedly for a single day …</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </p> <p>The Bloomberg London tablets, like the Trawsfynydd tablet and almost every tablet ever found in Britain, have lost this coating. Some of them retain grey/black patches which may be degraded wax (eg <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg165"><WT165></a>), or a blackish residue like an oily film. However, unusually, sufficient wax survived on <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg108"><WT108></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-10.png" data-alttext="Fig 10 - Stylus writing tablet <WT108>, a type 2 tablet made of spruce (Picea abies) with traces of wax surviving on the recessed face. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 10</a>) for samples to be taken and submitted for scientific analysis (<a id="d57e349" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="22" data-key="bibC02803" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Chapter 6.1</a>). The lipid composition of the wax contains all of the characteristic components of beeswax; to this has been added carbon as soot to blacken the wax, and the carbon may also have retarded solidification of the wax.</p> <p>Such residues now serve only to obscure the underlying scratches. These scratches are crucial since, in favourable circumstances, they preserve something of the text. On about half the Bloomberg London tablets the stylus, in exposing the wood, also cut into it. These traces often amount to incisions, including pressure-breaks somewhat wider than the original letter, but sometimes no more than a linear abrasion or a bruising discoloration. It must be emphasised that they hardly ever preserve the full text: letters are generally incomplete, because they survived best where the writer was pressing hardest, that is in the middle of the stroke, especially if they cut across the grain vertically or diagonally; horizontal strokes tend to disappear. But even when the stylus cut across the grain, it might ‘skip’ alternating bands or zigzag slightly. Letters which incorporate the same basic stroke can also be difficult to tell apart when incomplete (<a href="#TLB-Chapter-2.3">below, 2.3</a>).</p> <p>The surface of the wood is often degraded by subsequent wear, and especially by ribbing due to differential shrinkage of the alternating bands of grain. Letters are often fragmented in consequence, and it can be difficult to decide whether a mark is deliberate or ‘casual’. (In the line drawings which accompany the catalogue (<a href="/tablondbloomberg/stylus-tablets#TLB-Chapter-4">Chapter 4</a>), marks which may only be casual, and traces of earlier text(s), have been drawn in outline.)</p> <p>Unfortunately (from our point of view) tablets were intended for reuse: the inscribed waxen surface was simply smoothed off to remove the existing text. This was easily done with a spatula (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-11-6178.png" data-alttext="Fig 11 - Example of a spatula dating to the later 1st century AD, from Bloomberg London. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 11</a>), the most diagnostic form having a wide triangular iron blade (<a id="d57e381" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="26" data-key="bibC04671" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Feugère 1995</a>, 322, fig 1, types A1–A5). It is found with styluses and writing tablets as part of writing sets within burials and in iconographic representations (<a id="d57e387" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="27" data-key="bibC04671" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">ibid</a>, 321–4; <a id="d57e393" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="28" data-key="bibC04677" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Obrecht 2012</a>, 27–30). Spatula <6178> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-11-6178.jpg" data-alttext="Fig 11 - Example of a spatula dating to the later 1st century AD, from Bloomberg London (<6178>). This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 11</a>) is an example of the type found at Bloomberg London along with a range of spatulas of other forms (as <a id="d57e415" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="30" data-key="bibC04671" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Feugère 1995</a>, 322, fig 1, types B1–C1), some of which might also have been used with stylus tablets (<a id="d57e421" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="31" data-key="bibC04692" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Marshall and Wardle in prep</a>). Fig 11 also illustrates three examples of iron styluses of the 1st century AD from Bloomberg London (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-11-6889.jpg" data-alttext="Fig 11 - Example of iron stylus dating to the later 1st century AD, from Bloomberg London (<6889>). This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk."><6889></a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-11-6732.png" data-alttext="Fig 11 - Example of iron stylus dating to the later 1st century AD, from Bloomberg London (<6732>)"><6732></a>, and <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-11-9039.jpg" data-alttext="Fig 11 - Example of iron stylus dating to the later 1st century AD, from Bloomberg London (<9039>). This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk."><9039></a>); the 200 or so styluses from the site include an octagonal stylus (<8700>) which is unique for its very long inscription, four lines of tiny letters dot-punched on alternate facets (Tomlin in <a id="d57e466" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="35" data-key="bibC04692" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Marshall and Wardle in prep</a>).</p> <p>The new text was then inscribed. There would be no sign of reuse at the time, since it was concealed by the wax, but, in the wood under the wax, a second series of scratches had been created, a process repeated every time the tablet was reused. Often this resulted in rows of meaningless diagonal incisions or triangular dents. Occasionally a line survives in isolation from a previous text, as in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg29"><WT29></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB068-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 68 - Stylus tablet <WT29> (inner face), with letter from Taurus to Macrinus. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 68</a>), but usually the lines coincide, making it impossible to distinguish one set of scratches from another since individual letters are often incomplete and the potential combinations multiply rapidly. This problem is uniquely illustrated by a Vindolanda stylus tablet (<a id="d57e488" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="39" data-key="bibC02097" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Birley et al 1993</a>, 29–30 and pl 19; <a href="/tabvindol/vol-II/appendix#VRRII-comments"><em>Tab Vindol</em> 2, p.364</a>, inventory no. 88.836), one of the very few found in Britain which retained its wax. Providently it was photographed before conservation, since the wax then dissolved and exposed the underlying surface as an illegible palimpsest. But the photograph preserves the latest text, a letter from Albinus. More than a hundred of the Bloomberg tablets are palimpsests of this sort.</p> <p>On the plain outer face of the aforementioned Vindolanda tablet, an address was scratched ‘to Albanus at Catterick’ (<span class="latin">Cataractonio Albano</span>), but inside on the wax was a letter which began with Albinus’ greetings to his friend Bellus (<span class="latin">Albinus Bello suo salutem</span>). To write to Bellus at Vindolanda, Albinus (or Albanus) was reusing a tablet sent to him previously at Catterick (Yorkshire). Regular correspondents would have taken this interchange for granted. When Augustine wrote a letter (<a id="d57e556" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="41" data-key="bibE00040" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false"><em>Epp</em></a> 15) to his friend and patron Romanianus, he apologised for using parchment, on the excuse that he had already used his ‘ivory tablets’ (<span class="latin">tabellas eburneas</span>) to write a more urgent letter to Romanianus’ own uncle. He went on: would Romanianus please send back any of his (Augustine’s) tablets he happened to have, so that he could meet such needs in the future?</p> <p>It is no surprise, therefore, to find that many of the Bloomberg London letters are written on tablets which were reused (<a class="icon-table" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericTableModal" data-path="/tablondbloomberg/tablondbloomberg-table-2" data-alttext="Table 2 - Tablets showing signs of reuse, according to the type of text">Table 2</a>: 29/43, 67%), even if it is usually impossible to tell what sort of text this was; a few were loan-notes (cf also <a id="d57e592" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="43" data-key="bibC02803" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Table 12</a>). Nor is it surprising that some of the financial or legal documents, as well as the accounts, also show signs of reuse, even if the proportion is rather less (<a class="icon-table" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericTableModal" data-path="/tablondbloomberg/tablondbloomberg-table-2" data-alttext="Table 2 - Tablets showing signs of reuse, according to the type of text">Table 2</a>: 10/24 and 3/8, respectively; in total 13/32, 40%). It should be added that some documents, such as <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg44"><WT44></a>, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg45"><WT45></a>, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg48"><WT48></a>, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg54"><WT54></a> and <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg55"><WT55></a>, positively seem not to have been reused. The reason for this disproportion is that documents such as loan-notes, contracts and other financial memoranda, such as accounts and receipts, were more likely than letters to be kept for future reference. <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg72"><WT72></a>, for example, shows signs of being used over some period of time. The three probable examples of ‘writing-practice’ (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg77"><WT77></a>–<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg79"><WT79></a>), unsurprisingly, reuse tablets.</p> <p>The catalogue (<a href="/tablondbloomberg/stylus-tablets#TLB-Chapter-4">Chapter 4</a>) does not note every inscribed face which is totally illegible, and when traces are illegible, it can be difficult to tell whether they are multiple or not. The catalogue simply refers to ‘multiple’ texts, without trying to estimate how many there were. For two examples illustrated by line drawing, see <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg28"><WT28></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB028-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 67 - Stylus tablet <WT28> (inner face), with one (dated) text overwritten by a letter. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 67</a>) and <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg43"><WT43></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB043-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 86 - Stylus tablet <WT43> (inner face), with little legible other than puer (slave). Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 86</a>).</p> <p>Conversely, a tablet which has undoubtedly been reused may not retain traces of previous text, for example <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg27"><WT27></a>, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg35"><WT35></a> and <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg80"><WT80></a>. But it is unusual to find a tablet which has almost certainly been used only once, like those noted above. <a class="icon-table" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericTableModal" data-path="/tablondbloomberg/tablondbloomberg-table-2" data-alttext="Table 2 - Tablets showing signs of reuse, according to the type of text">Table 2</a> is limited to the 90 tablets with legible text or of interesting format, since it is not possible to categorise the Descripta (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg91"><WT91></a>–<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg181"><WT181></a>). For these reasons <a class="icon-table" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericTableModal" data-path="/tablondbloomberg/tablondbloomberg-table-2" data-alttext="Table 2 - Tablets showing signs of reuse, according to the type of text">Table 2</a>, by collecting tablets which show definite evidence of reuse, understates the number that were actually reused. It notes details which are significant or unusual, but reference should also be made to the commentary.</p> <p>Waxed tablets were also intended for easy correction and alteration: a word could be erased with the wedge-shaped end of the stylus and replaced by another, whether it was the name of a place (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg45"><WT45></a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB045-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 88 - Stylus tablet <WT45> (inner face), wherein on 21 October AD 62 Marcus Rennius Venustus writes that Gaius Valerius Proculus is to bring from Verulamium to London, by 13 November, 20 loads of provisions …. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 88</a>), a change of phrase (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg44"><WT44></a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB044-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 87 - Stylus tablet <WT44> (inner face), wherein on 8 January AD 57 Tibullus, the freedman of Venustus, writes that he owes Gratus, the freedman of Spurius, 105 denarii …. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 87</a>) or even the writer’s own name (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg29"><WT29></a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB068-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 68 - Stylus tablet <WT29> (inner face), with letter from Taurus to Macrinus. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 68</a>). Again, there would have been no sign of this on the surface of the wax, but two sets of scratches were left in the wood. One overlies another, but from their appearance alone it is difficult to tell them apart.</p> <p>The challenge of reading these scratches is illustrated by the story of the Carthaginian who disguised a secret letter ‘by taking new tablets not yet coated with wax, and incising his text on the wood; he then coated them with wax in the usual way, and sent them off as if uninscribed’. The recipient scraped off the wax and duly read the letter underneath (<a id="d57e746" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="76" data-key="bibE00041" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Aulus Gellius, <em>Noct Att</em></a> 17.9.16–17). Evidently the scratches were quite legible. A similar story, centuries earlier, is told by Herodotus (<a id="d57e756" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="77" data-key="bibE00050" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false"><em>Hist</em></a> 7.239). It may be objected that correspondence consisting of blank pages would have looked odd if intercepted, and that the wily Carthaginian would have been still more wily had he written a different text in the wax on top, but doubtless he was aware of the problem posed by multiple texts and was careful not to complicate the underlying text.</p> </div> <div id="TLB-Chapter-2.3"> <h3>2.3 Letterforms</h3> <div id="maindiv"> <p>The Bloomberg tablets preserve a large sample of Roman stylus-handwriting from a western provincial city within a well-defined period, at longest the second half of the 1st century AD, but in essence only about 30 years from <span class="foreign">c</span> AD 55 to <span class="foreign">c</span> AD 85 (<a id="d57e788" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="78" data-key="bibC02803" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Chapter 3.1</a>, <a id="d57e791" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="79" data-key="bibC02803" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">3.2</a>). Those which can be certainly dated to these years (<a id="d57e795" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="80" data-key="bibC02803" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Table 10</a>; <a id="d57e798" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="81" data-key="bibC02803" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Table 11</a>), including <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg30"><WT30></a> (AD 43–53) and the five which reflect the order of battle after the Boudican revolt (AD 60/1), are distinguished by an asterisk in the graphic tabulations of letterforms (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-12.png" data-alttext="Fig 12 - Capital letter or cursive letterforms of the outer texts on wood. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 12</a>; <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-13.png" data-alttext="Fig 13 - Cursive letterforms in the inner texts on wax. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 13</a>). Since the assemblage can be located so closely in time and place, it is worth setting out its letterforms, and no surprise to find them more or less uniform.</p> <p>The tabulation is divided between the capital letter or cursive letterforms of the outer texts on wood (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-12.png" data-alttext="Fig 12 - Capital letter or cursive letterforms of the outer texts on wood">Fig 12</a>), the latter being the addresses of correspondence, and the cursive letterforms of the various inner texts on wax (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-13.png" data-alttext="Fig 13 - Cursive letterforms in the inner texts on wax">Fig 13</a>). The ‘cursive’ letters, despite the implication of the adjective ‘running (hand)’, were made with discrete strokes of the stylus. The scribe drew the stylus towards him and lifted it, before he made the next stroke. He did not run one letter into the next, this absence of ligatures contrasting with the ink-written texts of Vindolanda of the AD 80s to c AD 110 (<a href="/tabvindol/vol-II/introduction#palaeography-letter-forms"><em>Tab Vindol</em> 2, 49–54</a>) and the stylus-written Bath (Aquae Sulis), Somerset, curse tablets of a century and more later (<a id="d57e870" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="88" data-key="bibC01759" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false"><em>Tab Sulis</em></a>, 88–94). The only obvious exception is the letters <span class="latin">o</span> and <span class="latin">n</span> in <span class="latin">Ammonicus</span> (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg76"><WT76></a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB076-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 125 - Stylus tablet <WT76> (inner face), detailing that … Ammonicus owes 30 denarii … Pactumeius the son of ?Adenhus, … ?total 106 denarii. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 125</a>). The strokes are variously curved or straight. The letters <span class="latin">b</span>, <span class="latin">c</span>, <span class="latin">d</span>, <span class="latin">o</span> and <span class="latin">q</span> incorporate an anti-clockwise loop or semicircle, but the other letters are made with strokes either straight or sinuous, almost all of them diagonal or vertical. Horizontal strokes are rare, being confined to the cross-stroke of <span class="latin">t</span>, and the mid-stroke of <span class="latin">h</span> and the <span class="latin">denarii</span> symbol (<span class="special-symbol">𐆖</span>). These observations may be amplified by considering the letters one by one.</p> </div> <div id="maindiv" class="blockquote"> <p><span class="latin strong">a</span> is made with two diagonal strokes, the first of which is sometimes vertical or sinuous, or extended downwards, features which may confuse it with <span class="latin">r</span>. But the second stroke of <span class="latin">r</span> should be sinuous. An earlier form of <span class="latin">a</span> survives in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg35"><WT35></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB035-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 77 - Stylus tablet <WT35> (ungrooved face), requesting money owed. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 77</a>), where the second diagonal was continued with a short vertical downstroke. In two addresses which contain cursive forms, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg13"><WT13></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB013-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 51 - Stylus tablet <WT13> (outer face), addressed to Namatobogius son of […]linagus or […]linagius. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 51</a>) and <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg18"><WT18></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB018-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 57 - Stylus tablet <WT18> (outer face), addressed to […]inus, ?secretary of tribunician rank, in London. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 57</a>), a downstroke is added between the diagonals, a form found in the capital letter <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg7"><WT7></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB007-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 44 - Stylus tablet <WT7> (outer face), addressed to Optatus, merchant. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 44</a>).</p> <p><span class="latin strong">b</span> is made with a small loop, followed by a second sinuous stroke; it is liable to be confused with <span class="latin">d</span>.</p> <p><span class="latin strong">c</span> is made with a single semicircular stroke, which makes it difficult to distinguish from <span class="latin">g</span> or even <span class="latin">s</span> (if incomplete). Although many Roman hands, both with pen and stylus, made <span class="latin">c</span> in two strokes (the first a curving downstroke, the second horizontal or diagonally upward), this does not seem to be so in the Bloomberg tablets.</p> <p>The first stroke of <span class="latin strong">d</span> is often difficult to distinguish from that of <span class="latin">b</span>, but the second stroke should be straight and diagonal, although some scribes preferred to make a curving downstroke.</p> <p><span class="latin strong">e</span> is made with two short downstrokes which may be vertical or slightly diagonal. Their tendency to curve towards the right can make <span class="latin">e</span> difficult to distinguish from <span class="latin">u</span> (eg in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg55"><WT55></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB055-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 98 - Stylus tablet <WT55> (inner face), the second page of a (cancelled) loan-note, regarding a loan by Narcissus the slave of Rogatus the Lingonian to Atticus, to be given to Ingenuus. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 98</a>) and <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg72"><WT72></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB072-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 121 - Stylus tablet <WT72> (inner face), account of Crispus in respect of sums due for beer supplied. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 121</a>), and quite often it must be decided from the context. They are well differentiated in the personal name <span class="latin">Verecundus</span> (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg62"><WT62></a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB062-grooved-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 109 - Stylus tablet <WT62> (grooved face), witnesses … […], troop of […]; Longinus, troop of Mar[…]; Agrippa, troop of Silvanus; Verecundus, troop of Silvanus. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 109</a>), for example, but less so in <span class="latin">Vespasiano</span> (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg51"><WT51></a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB051-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 94 - Stylus tablet <WT51> (inner face), wherein on 22 October AD 76, in the consulship of the Emperor Caesar Vespasian and Titus, the judge gives his preliminary judgement in the case of Litugenus and Magunus appointed for 9 November coming. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 94</a>).</p> <p><span class="latin strong">f</span> is made with a sinuous downstroke, followed by a single short downward diagonal, not by the two short strokes, whether horizontal or diagonal, typical of Vindolanda and Bath. This form is found in two contemporary graffiti, <9197> from Bloomberg London and <a href="/inscriptions/2501.193"><em>RIB</em> II.7, 2501.193</a> (Braughing, Hertfordshire).</p> <p><span class="latin strong">g</span> is made with a large semicircle like <span class="latin">c</span>, which is followed by a short diagonal stroke at its foot, sometimes gently curved.</p> <p>There are few examples of <span class="latin strong">h</span>, which consists of two downstrokes joined medially by a horizontal. The second downstroke tends to be shorter, and in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg55"><WT55></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB055-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 98 - Stylus tablet <WT55> (inner face), the second page of a (cancelled) loan-note, regarding a loan by Narcissus the slave of Rogatus the Lingonian to Atticus, to be given to Ingenuus. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 98</a>) there is the lower-case form typical of Vindolanda.</p> <p><span class="latin strong">i</span> is made in two forms, ‘short’ <span class="latin">i</span> which is a short downstroke sometimes gently curving to the right or slightly diagonal, and ‘long’ <span class="latin">i</span>, which has not been tabulated, but is simply an elongated downstroke. It serves to mark an initial letter, notably in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg51"><WT51></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB051-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 94 - Stylus tablet <WT51> (inner face), wherein on 22 October AD 76, in the consulship of the Emperor Caesar Vespasian and Titus, the judge gives his preliminary judgement in the case of Litugenus and Magunus appointed for 9 November coming. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 94</a>), and is not confined to vowels which are quantitatively long: see <span class="latin">promissit</span> in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg55"><WT55></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB055-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 98 - Stylus tablet <WT55> (inner face), the second page of a (cancelled) loan-note, regarding a loan by Narcissus the slave of Rogatus the Lingonian to Atticus, to be given to Ingenuus. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 98</a>), for example, where the first <span class="latin">i</span> is quantitatively long, but written ‘short’, and the second <span class="latin">i</span> is written ‘long’, but is quantitatively short. In other words, the form of the letter bears no apparent relationship to the length of the vowel.</p> <p><span class="latin strong">k</span> is very rare, since it was virtually displaced by <span class="latin">c</span>. There is one instance at Bath (<a id="d57e1214" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="126" data-key="bibC01759" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false"><em>Tab Sulis</em>, no. 53, l 9</a>), and in the Bloomberg tablets it only occurs twice in the fossil form of <span class="latin">K(alendas)</span> (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg51"><WT51></a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB051-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 94 - Stylus tablet <WT51> (inner face), wherein on 22 October AD 76, in the consulship of the Emperor Caesar Vespasian and Titus, the judge gives his preliminary judgement in the case of Litugenus and Magunus appointed for 9 November coming. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 94</a>; <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg37"><WT37></a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB037-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 80 - Stylus tablet <WT37> (inner face), reporting the visit of Atigniomarus to the city on 25 December. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 80</a>).</p> <p><span class="latin strong">l</span> is usually a long downstroke, curving at top and bottom like the second stroke of <span class="latin">b</span>. The capital letter form is used in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg51"><WT51></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB051-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 94 - Stylus tablet <WT51> (inner face), wherein on 22 October AD 76, in the consulship of the Emperor Caesar Vespasian and Titus, the judge gives his preliminary judgement in the case of Litugenus and Magunus appointed for 9 November coming. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 94</a>) to mark the initial letter of a personal name, but idiosyncratically in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg30"><WT30></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB030-inner-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 70 - Stylus tablet <WT30> (inner face), with letter written over an earlier text. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 70</a>) (<span class="latin">gloriantur</span>).</p> <p><span class="latin strong">m</span> is made with four diagonal strokes, the third not being linked to the second or even omitted, as occurs in some stylus tablet hands. <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg55"><WT55></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB055-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 98 - Stylus tablet <WT55> (inner face), the second page of a (cancelled) loan-note, regarding a loan by Narcissus the slave of Rogatus the Lingonian to Atticus, to be given to Ingenuus. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 98</a>) (<span class="latin">promissit</span>) is exceptional in this respect. Sometimes the first and third strokes are vertical and even extended, as in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg38"><WT38></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB038-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 81 - Stylus tablet <WT38> (inner face), with letter regarding property (scale 1:1). Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 81</a>) and <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg56"><WT56></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB056-ungrooved-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 99 - Stylus tablet <WT56> (ungrooved face), referring to a ?loan-note. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 99</a>).</p> <p><span class="latin strong">n</span> is capital letter, two downstrokes linked by a diagonal from top to bottom.</p> <p><span class="latin strong">o</span> is not made as a circle or in two curves, as at Vindolanda and Bath. As usual in stylus tablet texts, the first stroke is a loop, the second a diagonal. It can thus resemble <span class="latin">p</span>.</p> <p><span class="latin strong">p</span> is made with a short downstroke, often curving at the foot, topped by a short diagonal second stroke.</p> <p><span class="latin strong">q</span> survives well, because of its long diagonal second stroke. The first stroke, a loop sometimes unfinished, survives less well. The letter is invariably followed by <span class="latin">u</span>, quite often made above the line.</p> <p><span class="latin strong">r</span> is made with a long downstroke, often sinuous and tending to the left, topped by a second sinuous stroke. As already noted, it is liable to confusion with <span class="latin">a</span>.</p> <p><span class="latin strong">s</span> is made with a single sinuous downstroke, and like <span class="latin">q</span> survives well. It is not made in two strokes, as at Vindolanda and Bath, the first a sinuous downstroke, the second an upward diagonal.</p> <p><span class="latin strong">t</span> is a simple letter, but liable to be confused with <span class="latin">p</span>. It is made with a short downstroke, usually tending to the right, which is topped by a horizontal cross-stroke.</p> <p><span class="latin strong">u</span> is occasionally made with two straight strokes like modern <span class="latin">v</span> (eg in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg31"><WT31></a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB031-inner-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 72 - Stylus tablet <WT31> (inner face), with request that money be sent. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 72</a>), but is usually two short downstrokes, the first tending to the right and often meeting the second. As already noted under letter <span class="latin">e</span>, if incomplete it is liable to be confused with <span class="latin">e</span>.</p> <p><span class="latin strong">x</span> is made with two intersecting diagonals, the first of which is often elongated, the second shorter and almost horizontal.</p> </div> <div id="maindiv"> <p>Addresses (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-12.png" data-alttext="Fig 12 - Capital letter or cursive letterforms of the outer texts on wood. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 12</a>) were written on the outer (plain) face of tablets used for correspondence, in letters larger and bolder than the cursive on the waxed inner face (below, 2.4). The distinction between ‘capital letter’ and ‘cursive’ is somewhat artificial, since many of the letterforms are much the same, but the criterion adopted here has been the lower-case forms of <span class="latin">b</span> and <span class="latin">d</span>. It should be noted, though, that <span class="latin">p</span> in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg11"><WT11></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB011-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 49 - Stylus tablet <WT11> (outer face), addressed to Sabinus son of Pirinus. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 49</a>) and <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg18"><WT18></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB018-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 57 - Stylus tablet <WT18> (outer face), addressed to […]inus, ?secretary of tribunician rank, in London. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 57</a>), with its full loop, is close to the ‘capital’ form; and that even in ‘capital letter’ addresses, <span class="latin">r</span> is lower-case in form. Capital E is always written as II. The alphabet in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg79"><WT79></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB079-outer-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 130 - Stylus tablet <WT79> (outer face), with alphabet, possibly ‘writing-practice’. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 130</a>; <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB079-inner-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 131 - Stylus tablet <WT79> (inner face), with alphabet, possibly ‘writing-practice’. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 131</a>) may have been an exercise in writing headings and addresses, so it has been tabulated with the capital letter addresses. There is no example of the elongated ‘address script’ used to write the addressee’s name on Vindolanda ink-leaf tablets (<a id="d57e1521" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="163" data-key="bibC00392" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false"><em>Tab Vindol</em> 2</a>, 43).</p> </div> </div> <div id="TLB-Chapter-2.4"> <h3>2.4 The form and format of the tablets</h3> <div id="TLB-Chapter-2.4.1"> <h3>Type and size</h3> <p>The various types of tablet are noted by Padley (<a id="d57e1543" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="164" data-key="bibC04613" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">1991</a>, 210) and fully described by Speidel (<a id="d57e1551" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="165" data-key="bibC03815" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">1996</a>, 23–8). At Bloomberg London, as at Vindonissa (Windisch, Switzerland) and Carlisle (Luguvalium) in Cumberland, type 1 is much the most common, followed by type 2; the others are quite uncommon (summarised in <a class="icon-table" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericTableModal" data-path="/tablondbloomberg/tablondbloomberg-table-3" data-alttext="Table 3 - Numbers of tablets and labels by period and tablet type">Table 3</a>; detailed in <a id="d57e1585" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="167" data-key="bibC02803" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Chapter 6.3, Table 14; Table 15</a>).</p> <div id="maindiv"> <h3>Type 1 (Padley 1, Speidel A1)</h3> <p>One face is recessed, the other plain. This is the ‘standard’ type, used in pairs hinged together so as to protect the waxed surfaces which faced inwards (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-14.png" data-alttext="Schematic reconstruction of a diptych – a pair of standard type (type 1) tablets hinged together – used for correspondence. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 14</a>). <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg77"><WT77></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB077-outer-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 126 - Stylus tablet <WT77> (outer face), with grid of scored lines, one of two leaves of a diptych with <WT78>. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 126</a>; <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB077-inner-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 127 - Stylus tablet <WT77> (inner face), with ‘1,000,000’ symbol. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 127</a>) and <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg78"><WT78></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB078-outer-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 128 - Stylus tablet <WT78> (outer face), with grid of scored lines, one of two leaves of a diptych with <WT77>. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 128</a>; <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB078-inner-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 129 - Stylus tablet <WT78> (inner face), two columns of numerical symbols, possibly ‘writing-practice’. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 129</a>) can be identified as forming such a ‘diptych’, since they come from not just the same land use but were found in dump deposits in close proximity (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg78"><WT78></a> came from a deposit overlying that containing the two conjoining fragments of <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg77"><WT77></a>), are the same width and thickness, and unique in being inscribed with nothing but numerical symbols. Type 1, like all tablets, is liable to break along the grain, but there are 13 complete, or almost complete, examples which are inscribed. The capacity of a type 1 pair might be doubled by inserting a third, double-faced tablet between them to form a ‘triptych’. The inserted tablet might be type 2 or 3, but much the most common is type 2.</p> <p>Type 1 complete or almost complete examples are: <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg10"><WT10></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-15-WT10.png" data-alttext="Fig 15 - Almost complete example of type 1 stylus tablet, with one plain (outer) face and one recessed (inner) face: <WT10>. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 15</a>; <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB010-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 48 - Stylus tablet <WT10> (outer face), the property of Florus. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 48</a>), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg23"><WT23></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB023-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 62 - Stylus tablet <WT23> (outer face), addressed to […]nor, son of Gessinus, written by Intervinaris at ?Viroconium. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 62</a>), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg28"><WT28></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB028-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 67 - Stylus tablet <WT28> (inner face), with one (dated) text overwritten by a letter. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 67</a>), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg29"><WT29></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB068-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 68 - Stylus tablet <WT29> (inner face), with letter from Taurus to Macrinus. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 68</a>), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg40"><WT40></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB040-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 83 - Stylus tablet <WT40> (inner face), letter referring to Nigellio. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 83</a>), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg42"><WT42></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB042-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 85 - Stylus tablet <WT42> (inner face), a complete tablet but with no legible continuous text. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 85</a>), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg48"><WT48></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB048-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 91 - Stylus tablet <WT48> (inner face), wherein in AD 67, in the consulship of Fonteius Capito and Julius Rufus, […], of the First Cohort of Vangiones, writes…. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 91</a>), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg53"><WT53></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB053-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 96 - Stylus tablet <WT53> (inner face), wherein on 15 March AD 82, in the consulship of the Emperor Caesar Domitian Augustus, Communis acknowledges his debt. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 96</a>), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg54"><WT54></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB054-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 97 - Stylus tablet <WT54> (inner face), part of a legal document, probably the first page of a loan-note. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 97</a>), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg55"><WT55></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB055-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 98 - Stylus tablet <WT55> (inner face), the second page of a (cancelled) loan-note, regarding a loan by Narcissus the slave of Rogatus the Lingonian to Atticus, to be given to Ingenuus. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 98</a>), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg57"><WT57></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-15-WT57.png" data-alttext="Fig 15 - Almost complete example of type 1 stylus tablet, with one plain (outer) face and one recessed (inner) face: <WT57>. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 15</a>; <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB057-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 101 - Stylus tablet <WT57> (inner face), regarding legal permission. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 101</a>) and <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg76"><WT76></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-15-WT76.png" data-alttext="Fig 15 - Complete example of type 1 stylus tablet, with one plain (outer) face and one recessed (inner) face: <WT76>. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 15</a>; <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB076-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 125 - Stylus tablet <WT76> (inner face), detailing that … Ammonicus owes 30 denarii … Pactumeius the son of ?Adenhus, … ?total 106 denarii. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 125</a>); in addition there are <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg84"><WT84></a> (no visible text) and ‘Descripta’ <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg123"><WT123></a>, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg135"><WT135></a>, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg136"><WT136></a> (no text), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg144"><WT144></a>, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg156"><WT156></a> (no text) and <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg157"><WT157></a>.</p> </div> <div id="maindiv"> <h3>Type 2 (Padley 2b, Speidel S1)</h3> <p>Both faces are recessed, but one face is divided into two panels by a flat-bottomed groove down the centre. It was structurally weaker than type 1, and <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg65"><WT65></a> (now in two pieces) is the only complete inscribed example (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-16.png" data-alttext="Fig 16 - <WT65>, the only complete inscribed example of type 2, with one recessed face divided by a central groove">Fig 16</a>; <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB065-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 113 - Stylus tablet <WT65> (grooved face), witnesses … Marius (perhaps Marus) … Paullus … Saccus … […] … Verecundus. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 113</a>).</p> <p>The triptych thus formed, type 2 between two type 1 tablets (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-17.png" data-alttext="Fig 17 - Schematic reconstruction of a triptych – two type 1 tablets enclosing a type 2, hinged together – used for a legal document. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 17</a>), was intended for legal documents (<a id="d57e1908" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="238" data-key="bibC03967" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Meyer 2004</a>, 131, fig 4). The text was written on the first two faces which were then bound together, the cord running down the flat-bottomed groove where the witnesses attached their seals to certify that it was unopened. They wrote their names in the wax on either side. The Bloomberg tablets are mostly too fragmentary to establish the relationship between the traces in these panels to left and right, but witnesses seem to have written their names in column (i) and completed them in column (ii) with a cognomen or filiation, or other form of identification; this is best seen in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg62"><WT62></a>, where the witnesses name their cavalry sub-unit (<span class="latin">turma</span>) in column (ii) (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB062-grooved-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 109 - Stylus tablet <WT62> (grooved face), witnesses … […], troop of […]; Longinus, troop of Mar[…]; Agrippa, troop of Silvanus; Verecundus, troop of Silvanus. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 109</a>). The text before being sealed was copied on to the other type 1 tablet, where it was available for reference without the need to open the sealed text. This ingenious device, which was established by a senatorial decision of Nero’s reign (<a id="d57e1936" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="242" data-key="bibE00036" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Suetonius, <em>Nero</em></a> 17), prevented the master text from being altered; but in case of dispute, or when the document was executed, for example a will (<span class="latin">testamentum</span>), the seals could be broken and the outer text checked against the inner.</p> <p>Type 2 tablets could of course be reused for other purposes. Examples are <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg26"><WT26></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB026-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 65 - Stylus tablet <WT26> (inner face), with letter from Calventius Ingenuus. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 65</a>), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg35"><WT35></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB035-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 77 - Stylus tablet <WT35> (ungrooved face), requesting money owed. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 77</a>), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg39"><WT39></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB039-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 82 - Stylus tablet <WT39> (ungrooved face), letter referring to the fort of ?Epocuria in (the canton of) the Iceni, and one Julius Suavis. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 82</a>), and perhaps <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg34"><WT34></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB034-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 76 - Stylus tablet <WT34> (ungrooved face), probably reused for correspondence and mentioning Frontinus. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 76</a>) (correspondence) and <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg70"><WT70></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB070-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 119 - Stylus tablet <WT70> (ungrooved face), part of an account where slaves (Catullus, …, …) are acting for their masters (Romanius Faustinus, Senecio, …), and a costing in denarii. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 119</a>) (an account). For a Vindolanda example, see Bowman and Tomlin (<a id="d57e2015" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="258" data-key="bibC04393" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">2005</a>, 9–10).</p> <p>No Bloomberg examples were identified of a further type where both faces are recessed, but are not divided (Padley 2a, Speidel I 1). One might be inserted (like type 2 tablets) between a pair of type 1, to make a triptych, or several to make a ‘polyptych’ which resembled a solid block of wood (<span class="latin">caudex</span>, whence <span class="latin">codex</span> or ‘book’). There is a single British instance of this type, the now-lost Roman will from Trawsfynydd (<a id="d57e2039" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="259" data-key="bibC03745" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Tomlin 2001</a>), which was described when found as a ‘wooden book’ of about ten tablets bound together with wire: ‘All the leaves were written upon on both sides – the two covers on the <em>inside</em> only.’ Only one of these ‘covers’ now survives, the first tablet (type 1).</p> </div> <div id="maindiv"> <h3>Type 3 (Padley 2c, Speidel S2)</h3> <p>Both faces are recessed, but one face is divided into three panels by retaining two vertical bars to act as raised borders. The centre panel is much narrower, and would have served the same purpose as the groove in type 2; an example from Saintes (Charente-Maritime, France) retains traces of seals here (<a id="d57e2068" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="260" data-key="bibC04634" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Vienne 1992</a>, 217, fig 1). The only Bloomberg London examples are <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg88"><WT88></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB087-inner-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 135 - Stylus tablet <WT87> (inner face) divided into two recessed panels of different widths. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 135</a>), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg90"><WT90></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB088-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 136 - Stylus tablet <WT88>, recessed face divided into panels. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 136</a>) and <5171>, but there are two others from London (<a id="d57e2109" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="267" data-key="bibC04633" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Chapman and Straker 1986</a>, nos 9.2−.3), and ones from Hadrian’s Wall (<a id="d57e2118" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="268" data-key="bibC04636" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Simpson et al 1935</a>) and Vindolanda (<a id="d57e2125" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="269" data-key="bibC02111" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false"><em>Tab Vindol</em> 1</a>, pl 12 no. 1; <a id="d57e2132" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="270" data-key="bibC02097" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Birley et al 1993</a>, pl 24). At Vindonissa one such tablet was reused for correspondence (<a id="d57e2142" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="271" data-key="bibC03815" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Speidel 1996</a>, no. 4).</p> </div> <div id="maindiv"> <h3>Type 4 (Speidel A3)</h3> <p><a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg87"><WT87></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB087-outer-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 134 - Stylus tablet <WT87> (outer face) with a four-pointed bone ‘star’ inserted in the surface. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 134</a>), which is one of only two tablets made of maple (<span class="latin">Acer</span> sp), is unique at Bloomberg London. It has one recessed face, which is divided into two unequal panels 130mm and 13mm wide respectively. When the wider panel was recessed, a small rectangle of the original surface was retained, measuring 3 x 4mm, its purpose being to prevent the surrounding wax from touching that of the similar tablet to which it was hinged. Examples are known from Vindonissa and Herculaneum (Italy).</p> </div> <div id="maindiv"> <h3>Type 5: tags or labels</h3> <p><a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg182"><WT182></a> and <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg183"><WT183></a> are neat wooden strips pierced at one end for attachment (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB090-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 137 - Stylus tablet <WT90>, recessed face divided into panels. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 137</a>). They are quite uncommon, no doubt because they are so slight, but others have been found in the Walbrook in London (British Museum 1934, 1210.98, measuring 110 x 30mm), at Vindolanda (British Museum 1993, 1103.58), and at Saintes (<a id="d57e2232" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="279" data-key="bibC04634" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Vienne 1992</a>, 216–17, fig 4). <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg183"><WT183></a> was intended to be reusable, since one face is recessed for wax.</p> </div> <div id="maindiv"> <h3>Dimensions</h3> <p>The large number of stylus tablets recovered permits us to attempt some calculation of average dimensions. The numbers of stylus tablets with a complete dimension are shown in <a class="icon-table" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericTableModal" data-path="/tablondbloomberg/tablondbloomberg-table-4" data-alttext="Table 4 - Tablet dimensions: numbers of stylus tablets and labels with complete measurements, by type">Table 4</a>, by type, together with the labels. Based on the sample sizes shown in <a class="icon-table" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericTableModal" data-path="/tablondbloomberg/tablondbloomberg-table-4" data-alttext="Table 4 - Tablet dimensions: numbers of stylus tablets and labels with complete measurements, by type">Table 4</a>, <a class="icon-table" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericTableModal" data-path="/tablondbloomberg/tablondbloomberg-table-5" data-alttext="Table 5 - Tablet dimensions: minimum, maximum and average measurements for all stylus tablets and labels with a complete measurement (Table 4), by type">Table 5</a> presents the data for minimum, maximum and average measurements. From this, the average width of (216) type 1 tablets and (46) type 2 tablets is taken to be 140mm. In order to discount atypical items, the width data were recalculated having excluded tablets that deviated from the average by more than 20%. In practice, the cut-off points were determined as deviation by more than 30mm from the average; thus tablets >170mm (>121.5%) or <110mm (78.6%) of average are deemed to be unusually wide or narrow. <a class="icon-table" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericTableModal" data-path="/tablondbloomberg/tablondbloomberg-table-6" data-alttext="Table 6 - Tablet dimensions: stylus tablet outliers, viz exceptionally wide or narrow type 1 or type 2 tablets">Table 6</a> lists these outliers by type. The exclusion of these items obviously alters the set to be averaged for each type. <a class="icon-table" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericTableModal" data-path="/tablondbloomberg/tablondbloomberg-table-7" data-alttext="Table 7 - Tablet dimensions: revised average values for stylus tablets types 1 and 2 after removing outliers (Table 6) from the averaged set">Table 7</a> shows revised average statistics for types 1 and 2.</p> <p>Only a small a percentage of all tablets preserved their original complete height. The sample size (26) for average height for type 1 tablets is small (<10%), but this could be taken as <span class="foreign">c</span> 110mm. The range of values in shown in <a class="icon-table" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericTableModal" data-path="/tablondbloomberg/tablondbloomberg-table-5" data-alttext="Table 5 - Tablet dimensions: minimum, maximum and average measurements for all stylus tablets and labels with a complete measurement (Table 4), by type">Table 5</a>, and averaged statistics for types 1 and 2 after removing outliers in <a class="icon-table" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericTableModal" data-path="/tablondbloomberg/tablondbloomberg-table-7" data-alttext="Table 7 - Tablet dimensions: revised average values for stylus tablets types 1 and 2 after removing outliers (Table 6) from the averaged set">Table 7</a>.</p> <p>The majority of stylus tablets thus measure <span class="foreign">c</span> 140mm wide by (probably) <span class="foreign">c</span> 110mm high. The exceptions (see <a class="icon-table" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericTableModal" data-path="/tablondbloomberg/tablondbloomberg-table-6" data-alttext="Table 6 - Tablet dimensions: stylus tablet outliers, viz exceptionally wide or narrow type 1 or type 2 tablets">Table 6</a>) include two type 1 tablets, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg84"><WT84></a> and <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg85"><WT85></a>, which together with type 2 tablet <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg86"><WT86></a> (above; Fig 133, faces <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-133A.png" data-alttext="Fig 133 - inner face of type 1 outer tablet of triptych of unusually wide stylus tablets <WT84>–<WT86>, showing the four inner faces or ‘pages’. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">1</a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-133B.png" data-alttext="Fig 133 - inner face of type 2 tablet of triptych of unusually wide stylus tablets <WT84>–<WT86>, showing the four inner faces or ‘pages’. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">2</a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-133C.png" data-alttext="Fig 133 - inner grooved face of type 2 tablet of triptych of unusually wide stylus tablets <WT84>–<WT86>, showing the four inner faces or ‘pages’. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">3</a>, and <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-133D.png" data-alttext="Fig 133 - inner face of type 1 outer tablet of triptych of unusually wide stylus tablets <WT84>–<WT86>, showing the four inner faces or ‘pages’. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">4</a>) form a set of three matched tablets which at <span class="foreign">c</span> 176mm are unusually wide, as are <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg89"><WT89></a> (type 1, 181mm) and <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg106"><WT106></a> (type 2, 188mm). Three catalogued tablets of type 1, which are unrelated to each other, are unusually narrow, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg21"><WT21></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB021-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 60 - Stylus tablet <WT21> (outer face), with address. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 60</a>, 94mm wide), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg136"><WT136></a> (80mm) and <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg181"><WT181></a> (63mm). All of these tablets are of silver fir. Another narrow tablet <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg87"><WT87></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB087-outer-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 134 - Stylus tablet <WT87> (outer face) with a four-pointed bone ‘star’ inserted in the surface. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 134</a>; 155mm wide by 72mm high) is of maple and evidently imported.</p> </div> </div> <div id="TLB-Chapter-2.4.2"> <h3>Format and usage</h3> <p>The stylus tablets, as already observed, were thin rectangular panels of wood recessed on one or both faces to take a coating of black beeswax. The tablets were inscribed horizontally long-axis in ‘landscape’ format, unlike the pages of this volume which are ‘portrait’ format with the long axis vertical. A saw-cut or V-notch was made in the top and bottom edge to take the binding cord, and two small holes either side of it in one of the raised borders to take the loops which hinged two or three tablets together. The binding cord and the loops, threaded or poked through the holes, were probably twine made from hemp or linen, but wire may also have been used, as with the Trawsfynydd tablets (<a id="d57e2451" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="315" data-key="bibC03745" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Tomlin 2001</a>, 145). Seal boxes were found at Bloomberg London (<a id="d57e2461" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="316" data-key="bibC04692" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Marshall and Wardle in prep</a>), but not in direct association with the tablets, and how they were actually used remains uncertain. A small tablet from Vindonissa incorporates a central recess in which a seal box was lodged (<a id="d57e2468" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="317" data-key="bibC04606" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Marichal 1992</a>, figs 7−8), and it is quite possible that they were used to seal some of the Bloomberg London correspondence, but legal documents carried multiple seals which were differently protected (see type 2, above).</p> <p>The Bloomberg tablets, as already noted, are almost all of type 1 or 2 (<a class="icon-table" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericTableModal" data-path="/tablondbloomberg/tablondbloomberg-table-3" data-alttext="Table 3 - Numbers of tablets and labels by period and tablet type">Table 3</a>). They were used in pairs or threes for writing of all kinds, such as note-taking, memoranda and accounts, as well as legal documents and correspondence (letter-writing). No trace was found pre-conservation of the fore-edge annotation in ink found on four tablets from Vindonissa (<a id="d57e2493" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="319" data-key="bibC04630" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Frei-Stolba and Krieger 2008</a>) and some from Vindolanda (eg <a id="d57e2501" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="320" data-key="bibC02097" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Birley et al 1993</a>, pl 21 bottom), but this may only be an accident of preservation. There is no complete letter like the pair of tablets from 1 Poultry addressed to L(ucius) Iulius M[…] by Septimius Silvanus which retained traces of text on their waxed inner faces (<a id="d57e2516" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="321" data-key="bibC01773" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Tomlin and Hassall 2003</a>, 374, no. 23; <a id="d57e2522" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="322" data-key="bibC02800" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Tomlin 2011b</a>, 515; <a id="d57e2528" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="323" data-key="bibC02803" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Table 13</a>). Even <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg29"><WT29></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB068-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 68 - Stylus tablet <WT29> (inner face), with letter from Taurus to Macrinus. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 68</a>) is unusual in being the whole of one page. Although legal documents might be reused for the purpose (above), it is likely that most letters were written on two type 1 tablets hinged together. It was also possible to break a type 1 tablet into two pieces, and to cut a new notch in each of the broken edges before binding them together (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg4"><WT4></a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-18-WT4.png" data-alttext="Fig 18 - Example of type 1 stylus tablet broken in two and a new notch cut in the broken edge: <WT4>. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 18</a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB004-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 41 - Stylus tablet <WT4> (outer face), addressed to Luguseluus son of Junius. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 41</a>; <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg12"><WT12></a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-18-WT12.png" data-alttext="Fig 18 - Example of type 1 stylus tablet broken in two and a new notch cut in the broken edge: <WT12>. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 18</a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB012-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 50 - Stylus tablet <WT12> (outer face), addressed to Tertius, ?brewer. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 50</a>; <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg27"><WT27></a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB027-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 66 - Stylus tablet <WT27> addressed to Vialicus, the freedman of Secundio. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 66</a>; <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg80"><WT80></a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-18-WT80.png" data-alttext="Fig 18 - Example of type 1 stylus tablet broken in two and a new notch cut in the broken edge: <WT80>. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 18</a>). This improvisation is also found at Carlisle (<a href="/inscriptions/2443.10"><em>RIB</em> II.4, 2443.10</a>), Vindonissa (<a id="d57e2622" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="344" data-key="bibC03815" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Speidel 1996</a>, no. 45) and Saintes (<a id="d57e2632" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="345" data-key="bibC04634" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Vienne 1992</a>, 212, 217, fig 3).</p> <p>A peculiarity of the Bloomberg type 1 tablets not shared by Vindonissa is that a small rectangular panel was sometimes excised from one corner of the outer face (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg2"><WT2></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-19-WT2.png" data-alttext="Fig 19 - Examples of stylus tablets with a small rectangular panel excised from one corner (<WT2>). Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 19</a>; <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB002-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 39 - Stylus tablet <WT2> (outer face), addressed to Gratus son of Junius. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 39</a>), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg23"><WT23></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB023-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 62 - Stylus tablet <WT23> (outer face), addressed to […]nor, son of Gessinus, written by Intervinaris at ?Viroconium Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 62</a>), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg69"><WT69></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB069-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 118 - Stylus tablet <WT69> (inner face), ?‘40’ Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 118</a>), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg78"><WT78></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB078-outer-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 128 - Stylus tablet <WT78> (outer face), with grid of scored lines, one of two leaves of a diptych with <WT77 Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.>">Fig 128</a>), <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg81"><WT81></a>, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg96"><WT96></a>, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg100"><WT100></a>, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg102"><WT102></a>, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg173"><WT173></a>, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg38"><WT38></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB038-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 81 - Stylus tablet <WT38> (inner face), with letter regarding property. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 81</a>), and even from two corners (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg18"><WT18></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB018-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 57 - Stylus tablet <WT18> (outer face), addressed to […]inus, ?secretary of tribunician rank, in London. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 57</a>) and <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg36"><WT36></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB-Fig-19-WT36.png" data-alttext="Fig 19 - Examples of stylus tablets with a small rectangular panel excised from two corners (<WT36>). Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 19</a>; <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB036-inner-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 79 - Stylus tablet <WT36> (inner face), addressing Carus or […]carus Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 79</a>). This feature has not been noted at Carlisle or Vindolanda, but there are two other London examples, from Lothbury (<a href="/inscriptions/2443.7"><em>RIB</em> II.4, 2443.7</a>) and from Bucklersbury House (<a href="/inscriptions/2443.8">2443.8</a>) (<a id="d57e2791" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="379" data-key="bibC02803" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Table 13</a>). Of these 14 tablets, four carry addresses (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg2"><WT2></a>, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg18"><WT18></a>, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg23"><WT23></a> and Lothbury, while a fifth was part of a letter (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg38"><WT38></a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB038-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 81 - Stylus tablet <WT38> (inner face), with letter regarding property. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 81</a>), seven are indeterminate, and only two were used for other purposes (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg69"><WT69></a>, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg78"><WT78></a>). If the latter are seen as reused, it is easy to associate the recessed panel with correspondence, but difficult to determine its exact function. Presumably it was once coated with wax, but it would have been too small to carry a whole address; moreover, it is unrelated to three of the actual addresses (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg2"><WT2></a>, <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg18"><WT18></a>, Lothbury <a href="/inscriptions/2443.7"><em>RIB</em> II.4, 2443.7</a>), and the fourth (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg23"><WT23></a>) expressly avoids it. Perhaps, therefore, it was used to identify the sender, whether by name or by signet-impression. Unfortunately there is only one inscribed example, the Bucklersbury House tablet with M TRA in one corner, and no address. It is difficult to see this as an abbreviated name, since three initials would have been usual, for example MVM in a London samian graffito (<a href="/inscriptions/2501.398"><em>RIB</em> II.7, 2501.398</a>), for <span class="latin">M(arcus) V(alerius) M(aximus)</span> or similar. Since this tablet was found so close to the temple of Mithras, it is tempting to see a reference to <span class="latin">Mitras</span> (as his name was sometimes written), but the temple of <span class="foreign">c</span> AD 240 would be much later in date than the tablet, which to judge by other stylus tablets would have been 1st- or 2nd-century AD at latest; and M TRA thus interpreted would have been inadequate as an address, and implausible as the sender’s name.</p> <p>This outer (plain) face was used to address a letter to its recipient; there are many examples at Carlisle (<a href="/inscriptions/2443.3"><em>RIB</em> II.4, 2443.3</a>−<a href="/inscriptions/2443.6">6</a>, <a href="/inscriptions/2443.10">10</a>) and Vindonissa (<a id="d57e2902" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="396" data-key="bibC03815" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Speidel 1996</a>, 35–9). The lettering is larger and bolder than the cursive writing (with the letters joined or ‘running’) on the waxed inner face (<a href="#TLB-Chapter-2.3">above, 2.3</a>), no doubt for greater legibility, but also because the writing-surface, being bare wood, was less smooth and regular. The address started at the top of the page and ran horizontally along the axis of the wood grain, so the surviving traces consist mostly of vertical and diagonal lines which cut across the grain, often broken as they ‘bump’ over its ridges. The point used was apparently broader than the needle-like stylus used for the inner text, but this must be because it had been sharpened to a chisel-point, or was simply driven in more deeply. There is no trace of ink to imply the use of a metal-nib pen, although two Vindonissa addresses (<a id="d57e2918" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="398" data-key="bibC03815" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Speidel 1996</a>, nos 20, 23) were actually written with pen and ink. This is quite exceptional. The bold scratches in the bare wood must have been sufficiently legible at the time, like the scratches of the Carthaginian letter mentioned above (<a href="#TLB-Chapter-2.2">2.2</a>). It is conceivable, to judge by surviving traces on <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg8"><WT8></a>, for example, that the outer face was sometimes rubbed with black wax before incising the address, to increase the visual contrast. This would account for <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg3"><WT3></a>, which carries the names of two different recipients on successive lines, without any sign of erasure; but this particular tablet shows no sign of any wax (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB003-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 40 - Stylus tablet <WT3> (outer face), addressed to Claudius and Cornelius. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 40</a>).</p> <p>The writing often respects the binding cord which tied the tablets together, but this may not mean that they had already been tied up. Some of the Vindonissa tablets have a line drawn vertically down them, to mark where the cord was going to be (<a id="d57e2953" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="404" data-key="bibC03815" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Speidel 1996</a>, 35–6), and <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg31"><WT31></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB031-outer.lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 71 - Stylus tablet <WT31> (outer face), addressed to or from Atticus. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 71</a>) may be a Bloomberg example. But <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg30"><WT30></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB030-outer-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 69 - Stylus tablet <WT30> (outer face), addressed to Titus. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 69</a>) is puzzling, since the name is divided, but not in line with the saw-cut.</p> <p>The resulting address is surprisingly brief by modern standards, being little more than the name of the recipient in the dative case, sometimes accompanied by <span class="latin">dabis</span> (‘you will give’) as in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg1"><WT1></a> (with note of others). He may well be identified by his filiation, for example ‘Luguseluus the son of Junius’ (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg4"><WT4></a>), or by his occupation, for example ‘Tertius the brewer’ (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg12"><WT12></a>). But both these examples are complete, and they point to the lack of place names, as already remarked by their editors for the Vindolanda tablets (<a href="/tabvindol/vol-II/introduction#II3wp10"><em>Tab Vindol</em> 2, 43</a>). It is true that most Bloomberg addresses are incomplete, so generalisation is difficult, but only three include the place name ‘London’. This is in the form <span class="latin">Londinio</span>, a locatival ablative (‘in London’) which immediately precedes the name of one recipient (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg6"><WT6></a>, <span class="latin">Londinio Mogontio</span>) and follows that of two others (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg18"><WT18></a>, <span class="latin">[…]ino … Londinio</span>; <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg24"><WT24></a> <span class="latin">[…] dabis Londinio</span>). By its position and the absence of any preposition such as <span class="latin">ab</span> (contrast <a href="/inscriptions/TabVindol343">ibid, no. 225, ll 24–5</a>, <span class="latin">ha[ec ti]bi a Vindolanda scribo</span>), ‘London’ must be the place of delivery, not the place of writing; the latter is uniquely specified in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg23"><WT23></a> (<span class="latin">scripsit</span> <span class="latin">?Vir[oc]oni</span>), apparently ‘at Wroxeter’ in the locative. One address specifies a neighbouring property, ‘opposite Catullus’ (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg14"><WT14></a>), like the mention of ‘at (the house of) Diadumenus’ in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg29"><WT29></a>; and another address (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg21"><WT21></a>) may refer to a local landmark. The brevity of these addresses implies that the recipient was often known to the bearer of the letter, and even that most letters originated from London itself.</p> <p>The inner text begins with the writer’s name, followed by the recipient’s name in the dative case, perhaps qualified as ‘dearest’ (<span class="latin">carissimo</span>) or ‘brother’ (<span class="latin">fratri</span>); the second line, which is indented to mark the heading, ends with ‘greetings’ (<span class="latin">salutem</span>). Thus ‘Taurus to Macrinus his dearest lord, greetings’ (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg29"><WT29></a>). The confusion over this writer’s name, whether he was ‘Taurus’ or ‘Taurinus’, suggests that he was dictating to an amanuensis. <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg50"><WT50></a>, a receipt, is explicitly written by a slave at his master’s orders (<span class="latin">iussu domini mei</span>). The letter <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg27"><WT27></a> is exceptional in not naming the writer, no doubt because it was obvious to the recipient, who was his dependent.</p> <p>The beginning of a new sentence is marked by extending it to the left, and often the initial letter is enlarged; the last letter too may be extended to the right, for example <span class="latin">m</span> in <span class="latin">Nerviorum</span> (<a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg33"><WT33></a>, <a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB033-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 75 - Stylus tablet <WT33> (inner face), … Classicus, prefect of the Sixth Cohort of Nervii. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 75</a>). Words are often separated by a space, if not as clearly as we might wish, but the interpunct, a medial point obsolescent during the 1st century AD (<a id="d57e3168" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="429" data-key="bibC00392" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false"><em>Tab Vindol</em> 2</a>, 56), is used for this purpose only in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg57"><WT57></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB057-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 101 - Stylus tablet <WT57> (inner face), regarding legal permission. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 101</a>). It also marks an abbreviation in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg71"><WT71></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB071-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 120 - Stylus tablet <WT71> (inner face), total: 20 denarii, the sum of an account. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 120</a>), and perhaps in <a href="/inscriptions/TabLondBloomberg32"><WT32></a> (<a class="icon-fig" href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#genericImageModal" data-path="/images/TLB032-ungrooved-lineart.png" data-alttext="Fig 73 - Stylus tablet <WT32> (ungrooved face), with text written over earlier text. Drawn by R.S.O.T., 2016. This image is © MOLA. For permission to reproduce, please contact photo@mola.org.uk.">Fig 73</a>). There is apparently no instance of the apex, an acute accent which marked a vowel as long; this occurs on the contemporary tombstone of Classicianus in London (<a href="/inscriptions/12"><em>RIB</em> 12</a>; <a id="d57e3222" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="440" data-key="bibC02188" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false">Grasby and Tomlin 2002</a>), and is frequent in the Vindolanda tablets (<a id="d57e3229" href="#" class="biblio" tabindex="441" data-key="bibC00392" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-sanitize="false"><em>Tab Vindol</em> 2</a>, 57–61).</p> </div> </div> </div> </section> </div> </div> </div> </div>  <div class="row page-footer justify-content-center"> <div class="col-md-10 generated"> <p>Page generated: 2024-06-22 15:43:21 Z</p> </div> <div class="col-md-6"> <p><a href="#" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#rptErrModal"><i class="fa fa-exclamation-triangle"></i> Report an error</a> | <a href="/lod/"><i class="fa fa-code-branch"></i> Linked Data</a></p> </div> <div class="col-md-4 social"> <p>Share on <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fromaninscriptionsofbritain.org%2Ftablondbloomberg%2FTLB-Chapter-2" class="twitter-button" target="_blank"><i class="fab fa-twitter-square fa-2x"></i></a>  <button class="social copyme js-copy-link-btn" id="copyLinkBtn"><i class="fas fa-link"></i></button> </div> </div> <div class="row footer justify-content-center"> <footer> <div class="col-md-12"> <p>© 2014-2024 - <a href="/about/terms-of-use">Terms of Use</a> - <a href="/about/privacy-cookies">Privacy & Cookie policy</a></p> </div> <div class="cookies-box hide" id="cookie-disclaimer"> <p>We use cookies to track usage and preferences.</p> <p><button class="button closeme center" aria-label="Dismiss alert" type="button">Accept</button></p> <p><a href="/about/privacy-cookies">Privacy & Cookie Policy</a></p> <button class="close-button" aria-label="Dismiss alert" type="button">Close <span aria-hidden="true">×</span></button> </div> </footer> </div> </div>   <div class="modal fade" id="rptErrModal" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="myModalLabel" aria-hidden="true"> <div class="modal-dialog modal-xl"> <div class="modal-content"> <div class="modal-header"> <h4 class="modal-title" id="myModalLabel">Report an error</h4> <button type="button" class="close" data-bs-dismiss="modal"><span aria-hidden="true">×</span><span class="sr-only">Close</span></button> </div> <div id="emailDlgBody" class="modal-body"> <form class="form-horizontal" method="post" id="rptErrForm" name="rptErrForm" action="/contactsubmit.php" onsubmit="javascript:contactSubmit('rptErrForm');return false;"> <input name="subject" value="Error Report" type="hidden"> <input name="mode" value="modal" type="hidden"> <input name="source" value="https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/tablondbloomberg/TLB-Chapter-2" type="hidden"> <p>Have you found a typo, mistake, or other error on this page? 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