Details

LOT 0144

Roman Contract for Sale of Land on Wooden Tablet Witnessed by Iulius Aequirius

LATE 3RD-EARLY 4TH CENTURY AD

6 x 5 1/2" (299 grams total, 15 x 14cm).

An inked wooden tabula, square in plan, used for a contract of sale of land, with shallow rectangular socket dividing the field horizontally; above, ten lines of later cursive script; below, ten short lines of later cursive script written perpendicular to the first and a short legend below in a different hand; using the typical legal formulae and the signatures of witnesses (e.g. a Iulius Aequirius).

Provenance

Ex Monsieur Alain Sfez collection, Belgium; acquired by gift from his father Albert Sfez, 1965; acquired by Albert in the early 1950s.

Published

Rothenhoefer, P., Neue römische Rechtsdokumente aus dem Byzacena-Archiv / New Roman Legal Documents from the Byzacena Archive, (forthcoming).

Literature

For examples of wooden tabulae re-used as a writing surfaces, see Thomas, J. D., Vindolanda: The Latin Writing Tablets, Britannia Monograph Series No 4, London, 1983; for examples of testamentary documents on wooden tablets that have survived, see FIRA III, p.47 for Anthony Silvanus from 142 AD and see BGU VII 1695 for Safinnius Herminus; for another from Transfynydd, North Wales, see Arch. Camb. 150, pp.143-156.

Footnotes

The contract follows standard Roman legal formulae.

CONDITION