Roman Curse Tablets: Inscriptions and Literacy

Over 130 curse tablets have been discovered in the Sacred Roman Spring at Bath and this summer I had the opportunity to work with the museum’s collection team on the Curses Project and handle some of these fascinating objects.

Emily and Kate, placement students, handling the curse tablets.

What are curse tablets?

Curse tablets were a common feature throughout the Greco-Roman world and were an outlet for people to air their anxieties and grievances. They are small sheets of metal, often lead, which contain inscriptions appealing to a deity to cast influence or revenge on another individual. They were usually deposited at religious sites and were often buried or thrown into water so the unique natural hot spring at Bath would have been the ideal location for this ritual. Most of the legible curse tablets at Bath address the goddess Sulis Minerva and relate to the theft of an object.

Curse tablets on display at the Roman Baths museum.

What can they tell us about the Romans?

One aspect of Roman life which they can tell us about is literacy. It is generally believed that literacy levels throughout the Roman world were low and that it was mostly the upper class that were able to read and write. However, only two tablets at Bath were written by the same hand which suggests that there was a significantly higher proportion of the population that could write than what is usually assumed. Many of the curse tablets are thought to have been petitioned by the local native population and this is supported by the lack of Roman name formation within the inscriptions and the mention of low value objects.

 Who or what is Vilbia? 

"May he who carried off Vilbia from me become as liquid as water. May she who obscenely devoured her become dumb, whether Velvinna, Exsupereus, Verianus, Severinus, Augustalis, Comitianus, Catus, Minianus, Germanilla or Jovina."

One of my favourite curse tablets and the first to be discovered at Bath in 1880, is the tablet concerning the theft of Vilbia. The word ‘vilbia’ has proven to be quite problematic.

Some believe that the tablet refers to the theft of a woman, whilst others argue that the word refers to an object as ‘vilbia’ is similar to another British name for a small tool. Such debate which focuses on the language within this inscription shows how hard it is to interpret literary evidence and highlights the dangers in making assumptions about ability. Although it is one of the more legible tablets found at Bath, there are instances where the inscriber has gone over letters to possibly alter mistakes.

Theft of a Hooded Cloak

"To Minerva the goddess Sulis I have given the thief who has stolen my hooded cloak, whether slave or free, whether man or woman. He is not to buy back this gift unless with his own blood."

Another interesting tablet relates to the theft of a hooded cloak. It has been noted that features within the inscription such as spelling and the positioning of the letters is similar to how people with dyslexia write today. This observation has been made regarding other curse tablets and again suggests that the level of education and ability differed amongst those who participated in this particular ritual.

These small tablets offer us insight into an array of topics regarding Romano-British life and I encourage you all to come and see them for yourselves at the Roman Baths.

Kate

Placement student

What do Bath’s curse tablets tell us about the status of the people who wrote them?

The curse tablets are a group of over 130 pieces of lead, many of which are inscribed with prayers to the goddess Sulis Minerva The curse tablets were found during excavations of the Sacred Spring - now known as the King’s Bath - in 1979-80. They are an extremely significant part of The Roman Baths’ collection and were added to the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 2014 due to the unique perspective they give into the lives of ordinary people in Roman Britain.

A view over the Sacred Spring where the tablets were found.

Many of the inscribed tablets are prayers for justice, mentioning the theft of personal belongings and asking the goddess Sulis Minerva to punish the thief. I will be looking at three tablets from the collection to show what the tablets can tell us about the lives of the people who wrote them.

Who wrote the curse tablets?

Britannia was a province rather than a formal part of the Roman Empire; it had been conquered but did not follow all of the same administrative and legal procedures as the rest of the empire. This also meant that the people living there were not considered to be Roman citizens in the eyes of the law. The majority of people in the provinces held the status of  peregrinus, which meant that they were free people (i.e. not enslaved) but did not have the same legal rights as citizens.

Magistrates were busy and would only consider complaints brought by citizens, and would often favour those involving land ownership or business contracts. There was no equivalent of a police force to solve small crimes like theft.

Some peregrini in Britannia may not have been able to write or speak Latin fluently, further excluding them from legal processes as trials, contracts and paperwork were all in Latin. People may have known enough Latin to get by and conduct business, but the majority would not have received a full formal education like a wealthy Roman citizen.

But what are the clues in the tablets that show us that they were written by people of lower social status?

Stolen Possessions

In this tablet, a man called Docilianus says that his cloak has been stolen and asks the goddess to punish the thief with death and insomnia.

The objects reported as stolen to the goddess are of fairly low value. Cloaks, cooking pots, a ring and small amounts of money are some examples of objects mentioned on the tablets. In contrast, the punishments suggested for stealing these objects are very violent or unpleasant. Death, insomnia, blindness, and insanity are just a few examples.

This pattern of low value personal items and harsh punishments speaks to the anger of the people writing the tablets, suggesting that they may not have had the money to easily replace the stolen items.

Language and handwriting

The writing on this tablet uses the Latin alphabet but makes no sense, there are no recognisable Latin words. This has led researchers to believe it may be written in a local British language. 

The inscribed tablets are mostly written in Latin but some of them include unusual spelling or grammar. On many tablets, the writing is uneven, and the letters are not uniform in shape or size. These features indicate that the writers may not have been formally educated in Latin and did not write very often.

Two of the tablets (one is shown above) are thought to have been written in the writer’s native local British language but using the Latin alphabet. They have not been translated as local British languages were not usually written down at this time.

Illiteracy

The many scratches on this tablet may have been made by someone who was illiterate but still wanted to express their anger. The process of making the marks may have been cathartic.

Not all of the tablets are inscribed, some are completely blank while others (like the one above) have only repetitive scratches. These tablets have been interpreted as prayers offered to the goddess by people who were illiterate. They may have spoken their prayer aloud or thought it privately before throwing their tablet in the spring as part of a symbolic ritual. This could suggest that the intention behind depositing the tablet was more important that the actual act of writing the prayer.

Why did people write curse tablets?

As mentioned, the majority of people in Aquae Sulis at the time the tablets were written would have been peregrini, and did not have any way of requesting help from legal powers like magistrates. Instead, they turned to Sulis Minerva as a source of justice.

It is not clear how deeply people believed in the powers of the goddess to return their stolen possessions or punish thieves, but this was one of the only ways they had to seek justice. The presence of so many tablets demonstrate the frustration of lower status people in Roman Aquae Sulis and gives us an idea of how difficult it was to be excluded from the Roman legal system.

Emily

Placement student