The Herculaneum Tablets
These tablets were discovered in the 1930s in the ruins of Herculaneum, a small coastal town at the foot ofVesuvius. The town had already suffered from an earthquake on 3 February 63, but the damage had evidently been repaired when, with the eruption ofVesuvius on 24 August 79, the town was overwhelmed by mud and lava.
The places where wax tablets were discovered are well-known: the majority were found in the Case del Bicentenario, others in the Casa di Lucius Cominius Primus, and quite a few in the Casa di Venedius Ennychus.70 Between 1946 and 1961 Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli edited them and, in 6 instalments, published a total of 102 documents. In a great number of them only a few words are legible; many are damaged and their texts need extensive reconstruction. There are only a few that are complete or sufficiently complete that their reconstruction is not in doubt. The date is preserved in only about twenty documents: the oldest are from 52, 55, and 59;71 and the latest from 70, 75, and 76,72 while the majority date from the 60s. If these dates are representative of the whole, then by far the greatest number of documents belongs in the reign of Nero, and a few in that ofVespasian.Giuseppe Camodeca is preparing a second edition, and the many publications he has produced in the course of his work show just how much it is needed. For example, he has established that tablets TH 77, 78, 80, 53, and 9 are parts of one and the same document,73 and that the same is true of TH 44 and 45; TH 70 and 71; and TH 52 and 90.74 He has also put forward new and convincing readings,75 and by combining previously neglected fragments has discovered new parts of these documents.
In spite of their fragmentary condition, the Herculaneum tablets too give a lively impression of everyday life in the town.
The large number of well-preserved76 lang=EN-US>names of witnesses and the order in which they placed their seals; the cognomina (surnames) which often show that their bearers were freedmen; and, not least, the business carried on by the protagonists, such as L. Cominius Primus and C. Vibius Eurynus: all of this material provides an insight into the social structure of the town.77L. Cominius Primus borrowed and lent money. He was probably a banker (argentarius). In two documents slaves of Ulpia Plotina acknowledge receipt from L. Cominius Primus of sums paid in settlement of an obligation, probably arising out of a stipulation: in the first case Venustus, probably on 6 November 61,78 acknowledged 1,000 denarii; in the second, Felix, in June 70,79 acknowledged an unknown sum of denarii. From other documents we discover that on 31 January 65 Cominius Primus borrowed 20,000 sesterces from M. Messenius;80 in 68 (or earlier)81 he borrowed a further 6,000 sesterces;82 he made a loan to Laelius Euphrosymus of 20,000 sesterces;83 and probably also a loan to Venustus of 19,000 sesterces.84 A testatio85 probably of 20 January 69 records that M. Nonius Fuscus conveyed his slave-woman Nais to L. Cominius Primus in security by way offiducia, after first swearing that she belonged to him. This was done in relation to a debt of 600 sesterces. On 12 May 59 C. Vinius Eurytus became surety for a debt of 1,000 sesterces owed by Pompeia Anthis to L. Cominius Primus. Ten year later, in early 69, L. Cominius Primus was involved in a boundary dispute with L. Appuleius Proculus, which they brought before Tiberius Crassius Firmus as arbiter.87 A further document shows us L. Cominius Primus in January 70, after his divorce from Paullina, in a dispute about return of her dowry.
From the archive of Lucius Venidius Ennychus there is a testatio of 24 July 60 which has no parallel - it attests his declaration that his wife Livia Acte has given birth to a daughter: it was no doubt intended for the register of births and to enable the daughter to secure her legal position, freedom, citizenship, and membership of his family.89 A fragment of a testatio of May 52,90 only part of whose external text can be read, documents an agreement that Venidius made with his opponent to interrupt orbring to an end legal proceedings before a judge.91 Another testatio records a declaration by Venidius Ennychus to the effect that L. Annius Rufus meets the requirements for standing as a candidate for public office;92 unfortunately the date of the testatio is not preserved - only the external text on side 4, which was written in ink on wood, is preserved and is barely legible.
A series of documents deals with preparations for a civil case.93 We do not know how the case ended - or even whether it actually took place.
The litigants were two women, Petronia Iusta and Calatoria Themis, and the case concerned the status of Iusta. She maintained that she had been born as a free person (ingenua), while Calatoria claimed to be her patron, since Iusta had been her slave and she had freed her. Iusta wanted to bring the dispute to court. Three documents about vadimonia are preserved; two are identical.94 They were executed on 7 September 75 and show, first, that Iusta and Calatoria agreed that Calatoria would appear before the tribunal of the urban praetor in the forum Augustum in Rome at the second hour on 3 December. There Iusta could have summoned her to appear before the praetor (in ius vocatio). In the event that she did not appear, Calatoria had, with the consent of her tutor, C. Petronius Telephorus, promised to pay 1,000 sesterces. Second, the documents also attest a further vadimonium with the same content, this time agreed with the tutor, Petronius. We do not know whether they observed their vadimonia, but as far as we can tell the litigation did not take place. According to a third document,95 Marcus Calatorius bound himself to Petronia Iusta to appear, again in Rome in the forum Augustum, in front of the temple of Mars Ultor at the third hour. (According to the editors, the document was executed on the same day as he was to appear, which seems rather unlikely.) It is not clear what part Calatorius played, but it may well be that he intended to conduct the case on behalf of Calatoria Themis. It is unclear whether Calatorius observed his obligation and appeared, or appeared but was not summoned by Petronia before the praetor. These uncertainties are not resolved by any of six further documents, all chirographs, whose authors make declarations on behalf of the parties, either Iusta96 or Calatoria.97 They all give reasons for their statements and end with the formula that she was ‘born a free girl/woman’ or ‘is or was a freedwoman of Calatoria Themis’.Finally, mention should be made of tablets which follow a formula that was previously unknown.
Their written form is itself distinctive: the first line is evidently a superscript which consists of the word tablets (tabellae) and a name in the genitive: tabellae L. Comini Primi. In Herculaneum only fragments of these documents have been found; the best preserved is an internal text of 12 May 59, the two parts of which have been separated and separately edited.98 The first part is an extract from tabellae, probably the account book of L. Cominius Primus: the extract duplicates the payment of a loan of 1,000 sesterces in cash (ex area) to Pompeia Anthis; the second part records that C. Vibius Eurytus stood surety for repayment of the loan.The documents from Murecine are more numerous and much better preserved, and we will turn to them now.
7.