One tablet with fifteen lines cursive script of a copy (lat. exemplum) of a contract regarding the sale of two fields, originally consisting of two or three tablets, in a strongly formalised legal language; the sale of two fields by Julius Clementianus is attested, between typical legal formulae the borders of the two fields are mentioned, of which one is called ager Rogatiani, the field of (a person called) Rogatianus 'There are five fig trees and four Cirramonaceae(?) on it'; four lines to the verso. 4 1/2 x 3 3/4 in. (13.5 grams, 11.5 x 9.7 cm).

PROVENANCE:
Acquired by Albert Sfez in the early 1950s.
Property of Monsieur Alain Sfez, a Belgian collector, received by gift from his father Albert Sfez in 1965.
Acquired by a London dealer 1973.
From an important London collection since 1975.

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 used as 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:
Wooden tablets were used as administrative documents (contracts, testament, etc.) by civil and military clerks, or simply for correspondence. The contract followed standard Roman legal formulae.