Details

LOT 0103

Roman Inked Wooden Legal Document Signed by Felicianus in Actum

LATE 4TH CENTURY A.D.

5 3/4 in. (12.4 grams, 14.7 cm).

A reused tablet with a recessed panel on one side, the lower part absent, on the upper rim one of originally 3 holes necessary for binding together of the tablets of the document, 5 lines in Roman cursive on the recessed panel containing the end of a the record of a legal document in a formulaic legal language; part of a legal document which consisted of two (diptychon) or three tablets (triptychon), with the indication where it was done (actum in …) followed by the so-called chirographum (signature line) of a person called Felicianus, letter forms point to a date in the second half of the 4th century AD; with a recessed slot to verso. [No Reserve]

Provenance

From an important London collection since 1975.

Accompanied by a collection of six 1970s photographs of the the tablet.

Published

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

Literature

Cf. Rothenhöfer, P., Blänsdorf, Jürgen, Sana mente sanaque memoria testa-mentum feci: Eine testamentarische Verfügung vom 12. April 340 n. Chr., Gephyra 13, 2016, pp.153-163; Rothenhöfer, P., Neues zum Testament des Pomponius Maximus aus dem Jahr 371 n. Chr., (forthcoming); see also Masi Doria, C., Dal testamento di Pomponius Maximus: prospettive del diritto ereditario tardo antico, in: Isola, L. (ed.), Klauselgestaltungen in Römischen Testamenten, Berlin, 2022, pp.151-175; also see Thomas, J. D., Vindolanda: The Latin Writing Tablets, Britannia Monograph Series No 4, London, 1983, for examples of wooden tabulae re-used as writing surfaces; 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.

Footnotes

The contract follows standard Roman legal formulae.