A section of a military diploma, being the lower right half of the tabella I, reading: "[N]VBIVM CVM VXORIBVS QV[..] / [..]NT CVM EST CIVITAS IIS / CAELIBES ESSENT CVM IIS / [.]VXISSENT DVM TAXAI SIN' in four lines; to the other face, thirteen lines of similar script within incised borders 'ET CONVBIVM CVM / IABVISSENT CVM EST / VI.K. ††BR / RVFINO / TE.PONTIANO / [.] CILICE . [...]OIOPOLI[.] / [.]RI EIVS CILICI / [..] EIVS / VM EX TABVLA AENEA / M VROPO . ITEM / ΛVAM', part of a constitution issued on the 27th of January (ante diem VI kalendas Februarias) 131 AD, while M. Antonius Rufinus and Sergius Octavius Laenas Pontianus were consuls, the diploma was given to a Cilix, a Cilician; he had a wife and a son and was born in a town with name ending in "-polis", since there is no place for the name of the unit and the commander, it is highly possible it is a copy after a constitution issued for one of the praetorian fleets from Ravenna or Misenum; the tabella was thereafter cut for reuse, and new lines on the left margin were added.

PROVENANCE:
Property of a European gentleman living in London; acquired in the UK before 1980.

FOOTNOTES:
Cilicia was an early Roman province, located on what is today the southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Cilicia was annexed to the Roman Empire in 64 BC by Pompey.