LOT 0179

Roman Wooden Wax Tablets from a Codex

CIRCA 2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.

7 1/4 x 6 3/4 in. (263 grams total, 18.6 x 17 cm).

Two well-preserved rectangular wax tablets of a polyptych, each made of dark hardwood, probably acacia; the inner leaf in two adjoining parts, with recessed panels on both sides, covered with dark layers of wax; the second is the rear cover of the polyptych, with a recessed wax covered writing panel to the inner face, the outer face flat and not inscribed; both tablets with two pairs of holes on the left frame for linking them together; remains of stylus engraved Greek script on all three writing panels; on the second tablet 11 lines in cursive Greek script, mentioning inter alia a gymnasiarchos, a local magistrate in Roman Egypt, probably from an accounting codex.

Property of a North London gentleman; previously in the Dean family collection since 1975.

Accompanied by a copy of an illustrated academic report by Professor Dr phil. Peter Rothenhöfer.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13177-248472.

Cf. Meyer, E. A., Legitimacy and Law in the Roman World. Tabulae in Roman Belief and Practice, 2004, 21-43; for a Roman-Egyptian codex (inv. no.1888.0920.72-75) in the British Museum; this tablet will be published by Rothenhoefer, P., Unpublished Documents from Roman Egypt (forthcoming).

Wax tablets written in Greek or Latin, were used by Romans as account registers (codices accepti et expensi); for transactions (for example, the tablets of the banker Lucius Caecilius Iucundus found in Pompeii); for lists of goods, inventories, and notes to be kept and archived; for Roman magistrates to annotate the salient events of their bureaucratical activities; for writing letters; for drawing up legal texts of various kinds: legacies, declarations of births and citizenship, reports of trials and diplomata militaria.