If you've ever wondered what Roman writing looked like, then you should hie yourself over to the Vindolanda Tablets Online website. I visted the Vindolanda archaeological site in northern England back in '76 before there was much at the site but building foundations and archaeologists digging. It had been a Roman camp on Hadrian's Wall. The most important find at the site was a bunch of wooden tablets with cursive writing on them, letters mainly. In Britannia, where papyrus was expensive, the local Roman soldiers made due with wafer-thin sheets of wood. One of my favorites is a letter that mentions a shipment of oysters received by the letter writer.
quod est principium epistulae meae te fortem esse a Cordonouis amicus missit mihi ostria quinquaginta quo uelocius.
which is the principal reason for my letter (to express the wish?) that you are vigorous. A friend sent me fifty oysters from Cordonovi.
I see that this is just part of a larger effort to put more classical epigraphic materials online. It's also great that some of the Oxyrhynchus papyri are online now, too.
Posted by jim at August 3, 2003 01:03 PM | TrackBack