Writing tablet

Scratched onto a wax layer, the lettering on this Roman wooden writing tablet has survived. It is a deed of sale for a young enslaved woman called Fortunata, described as a 'Diablintian', meaning a member of the Diablintes people from northern France. Fortunata was bought for 600 silver denarii (the equivalent of two years’ pay for a legionary soldier). She was bought by an enslaved man called Vegetus, who worked for the government and who was, in turn, owned by another enslaved government worker called Montanus.
This gives us a rare glimpse into government staffing methods and some of the lives of Roman enslaved people: they could earn money and own enslaved people themselves.
The wording on the tablet says: ‘Vegetus, assistant slave of Montanus the slave of the August Emperor and sometime assistant slave of Secundus, has bought and received by mancipium the girl Fortunata, or by whatever name she is known, by nationality a Diablintian, from Albicianus [...] for six hundred denarii. And that the girl in question is transferred in good health, that she is warranted not to be liable to wander or run away, but that if anyone lays claim to the girl in question or to any share in her, [...] in the wax tablet which he has written and sworn by the genius of the Emperor Caesar [...]’ (translation by Roger Tomlin)