LOT 0109

Roman Inked Reused Wooden Wax Tablet For a Contract Negotiated and Agreed at Titiiuni between Maianus and Silvanus

EARLY 4TH CENTURY A.D.

7 1/8 in. (64 grams, 18.2 cm).

Well preserved rectangular tablet inscribed in Roman cursive script, on the outer face the beginnings of a contract and the signatures of witnesses, the inner side with a recessed panel inscribed with fourteen lines of Roman cursive script, on the outer face right of the sulcus the signatures of five witnesses, to the left the beginning of the contract: 'the pactum et conventum was made between Maianus, son of Dontiquus, and a person called Silvanus; Maianus was born shortly before A.D. 281 and reached an advanced age as he is still attested after AD 360'; the text consists inter alia of typical Roman legal formula like stipulatus est … – spopondidit … - testati sunt …, including the note: Actum Titiiuni, which may be understood as ‘negotiated and agreed at Titiiuni’. [No Reserve]

Acquired by Albert Sfez in the early 1950s.
Formerly the property of Monsieur Alain Sfez, a Belgian collector; acquired by gift from his father Albert Sfez, in 1965.
Acquired by a London dealer in 1973.
From an important London collection since 1975; thence by descent.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12525-230804.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

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

Exhibited at the Harwich Museum, Harwich, Essex, UK, 21st January-10th March 2025; accompanied by a copy of a photograph of the artefacts on display.

Cf. Rothenhöfer, Peter Jürgen Blänsdorf, Sana mente sanaque memoria testamentum feci: Eine testamentarische Verfügung vom 12. April 340 n. Chr., Gephyra 13 (2016), pp.153-163; Rothenhöfer, Peter - Wang, Weixia Flavius Aelius Victorinus praeses provinciae Numidiae, VDI 2025 (forthcoming); Wang, Wexia, Vibius Flavianus, First Governor of the provincia Valeria Byzacena, VDI 2025 (forthcoming); for examples of testamentary documents on wooden tablets that have survived, see FIRA III, p. 47; for Anthony Silvanus from 142 AD; also see BGU VII 1695 for Safinnius Herminus; for another from Transfynydd, North Wales, see Arch. Camb. 150, pp. 143-156; and see Bowman, A.K., Life and letters on the Roman frontier: Vindolanda and its people, London, 1994, for discussion of the uses of Roman writing tablets.