9A Part 2

Question 1

What tablet did you choose?

Answer 1

Tab.Vindol. II 301 (appendix 7)

Question 2

What is on the tablet?

Answer 2

A letter from Severus, a corniculares, to Candidus, a slave of Geniales

Question 3

What does the tablet read?

Answer 3

“Severus to his Candidus, greetings. Regarding the expenditure for the Saturnalia, I ask you, brother, to sort them out at a price of four or six asses and radishes to the value of not less than 1/2 denarius. Farewell brother.”

Question 4

What does Bowman use this tablet to illustrate?

Answer 4

• That even though there were clear social distinctions between slaves and soldiers, they may not have been as stark as first suggested, as the tablet uses the word “frater”, which is not a manner in which one would expect a man of such rank to address a slave