Slave sales in Roman Britain
21 March 2003
A writing tablet to go on display for the first time today at the Museum of London is the only Roman deed of sale of a slave ever to have been discovered in Britain.
Written for a rich Roman bureaucrat over 2,000 years ago, it also reveals startling evidence that some slaves in London could afford to pay high prices for slaves of their own.
Unearthed in 1996 by Museum of London archaeologists working at No 1 Poultry in the City of London, an excavation funded by CAPIT and English Heritage, the silver fir tablet contains eleven lines of text inscribed into black wax with a sharp metal stylus.
Now surviving only as scratches in the wood, the writing has been read and translated for the first time in 19 centuries by Roger Tomlin, University Lecturer in Late-Roman History at Oxford. As only the second stylus page from London to have been translated almost in full, the tablet provides a remarkable insight into a social practice and the status of London in the Roman Empire.
It reads: ‘Vegetus, assistant slave of Montanus the slave of the August Emperor, has brought the girl Fontunata, by nationality a Diablintian (from near Jublains in France), for 600 denarii. She is warranted healthy and not liable to run away…’
Dated to around AD 80-120, the legal document relates to a Gallic slave-girl called Fortunata who was sold for 600 denarii - a price far higher than the annual salary of a legionary soldier - to Vegetus an imperial slave. In the contract, the vendor swore that the young woman was transferred in good health and that she was warranted not liable to wander or run away. If anyone did establish a better title to her, in whole or in part, the purchaser would be reimbursed.
The text indicates a complex hierarchy of slaves: Vegetus himself had been bought by another imperial slave, Montanus who, in his turn, was owned by a slave called Secundus, taking over his job when his master was promoted. They were all officials in London at some time between AD75-125.
As a slave, Vegetus could not strictly own property, but in practice Fortunata would have been regarded as one of his personal possessions. The tablet would have been kept in a safe place by her owner, rather as car log books are kept today.
Tantalisingly, the name of the emperor is missing, but titles used indicate that the contract was written in the reign of either Domitian or Trajan. Vegetus and Montanus are the first imperial slaves to be explicitly named in Britain and provide further evidence that by this date, after the Boudiccan revolt, London had become the capital of the province.
David Miles, Chief Archaeologist at English Heritage, said of the discovery:
‘The Roman Empire was built on slavery and this amazing survival gives us a unique insight into the intricate structure of London’s slave society and its links with the continent.”
Wax tablets were usually made from thin rectangular slabs of silver fir hinged together with loops of cord like a book. The tablet in question was, like all legal documents, bound in a set of three, though the other tablets are lost.
Texts were written duplicate and then the delicate wax faces of the ‘original’ were sealed in the presence of seven witnesses to authenticate the outer, ‘duplicate’ text. Though only one page of the three survives, it contains the essentials of the contract. Its legal nature and tamper-proof construction happily ensured its remarkable survival.
The Roman writing tablet will be displayed at the Museum of London until 27 April 2003. Peter Rowsome’s book, Heart of the City: Archaeology at 1 Poultry, is available from the Museum of London bookshop, price £5.99.
Further information:
Judith Holmes: 020 7814 5502
Kirsten Monks: 020 7814 5511