Poppaea Note, freedwoman of Priscus, the sealing of Roman legal documents and the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79

 

Among the treasures preserved at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples are wax tablets from Pompeii (in particular, the archive of Caecilius Jucundus) and Herculaneum, which were carbonized as a consequence of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.

A particular case, however, are the two fragmentary Pompeian triptychs (documents consisting of three joint tablets each) of Poppaea Note, as they are not carbonized. 

The two documents were published by Karl Zangemeister in the Supplement to the fourth volume of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL IV 3340, t. 154-155). The photo below shows the first tablet of the second document (CIL IV 3340, t. 155, tab. I).

The fact that these tablets are not carbonized is due to their place of preservation: they were not found together with the larger archives, but at the time of their discovery (September 20, 1887) they were found at the foot of the furnace staircase in the praefurnium of the thermal baths, the so-called Palestra (regio VIII, insula 2, 23), wrapped in a cloth together with various precious objects, gold earrings, and pieces of silverware. 

 

These are two testationes (the most typical form of Roman legal document) of fiducia cum creditore (a kind of pledge; the debtor transferred the ownership of a thing given as a real security to the creditor; the latter assumed the obligation to retransfer the thing to the debtor after the debt was paid: Berger 1953 s.v.). The debtor is Poppaea Note and the creditor is Dicidia Margaris (editions in CIL IV 3340, t. 154-155). 

The second document (photo above) is particularly interesting, as it concerns the sale of two slaves to guarantee a debt of 1450 sesterces; if Poppaea Note repays her debt by November 1 of the following year, she will get the two slaves back, who will otherwise be sold at auction:

Poppaea Note, freedwoman of Priscus, swore that the slaves Simplex and Petrinus, or if these mancipia are (known) by other names, are hers and that she possesses them and that these mancipia [–] are not claimed by any other person and that they are not (held) in common with anyone, and Dicidia Margaris bought these mancipia individually with a single sestertius for [1,450] sestertii and accepted (them) by mancipation from Poppaea [Note freedwoman] of Priscus, with her tutor D. Caprasius A[mpliatus] authorizing, P. C[–] (acting as) libripens for the single (nummus), [–] (acting as) antetestatus for the single (nummus) [–. Dicidia Margaris made a pactum conventum with] Poppaea Note, fre[edwoman of Priscus,] that these manc[ipia would be at her assumed expense and danger, about these things they agreed amongst themselves and they made a pact . . . among themselves. Done at Pompeii on the ninth day before the kalends of – when L. Junius Caesennius Paetus and P. Calvisius Ruso were consuls.]

[Pactum conventum. Those mancipia which today you have s]old [to me thus, let them be restored to you or your heir when that previous money, which] today I gave to you as mutuum for the tw[o mancipia is a]ll [paid back to me or my heir] or when it return[s to me or comes by usus]. If all that mon[ey shall not have been paid back] to me or my heir by the first kalends of November, [be it permitted to me or my heir] to sell for cash these mancip[ia whom this matter concerns o]n the first ides of December, [–] at Pompeii in the forum by day openly [–] and let neither me nor m[y heir be held unless on this account,] if less is returned from this sale on account of malicious fraud [–].

If these mancipia whom this matter concerns shall have sold for some lesser amount, let that [which shall be left over] be repaid to me or my heir in re[payment of (my) share. But if] these mancipia whom this matter concerns shall have sold for more, [let that which shall be extra be returned to you or your h]eir [–] this money [–].

And that these mancipia shall be at your assumed expense and dan[ger], this is agreed by me with you and I have made a p[act with you. Dicidi]a Margaris Poppaea Note, freedwoman of Priscus with her tuto[r D. Caprasius Ampliatus] about these things they agreed amongst themselves and made a pact [–] between themselves.

Done at Pompeii on the ninth day before the kalends [of –] when L. Junius Caesennius [Paetus] and P. Calvisius Ruso were consuls.

(Transl., with corrections: Meyer 2004, 141–142)

The Poppaea Notes triptychs are, as is typical of Roman legal documents, double documents: the text is repeated twice (scriptura interior, inner text, closed and sealed; scriptura exterior, outer text, freely available for consultation). The two main formats were the diptych (two-tablet document) and the triptych (three-tablet document); in some triptychs, perhaps to take into account the possible loss of the scriptura exterior, a third version of the text was added (tertia scriptura).

More precisely, the Poppaea Notes triptychs were drawn up in accordance with the provisions of the senatusconsultum Neronianum adversus falsarios, which we know about from the imperial biographer Suetonius (Life of Nero, 17) and from a later work, the Pauli Sententiae, attributed to the 3rd-4th century AD. 

According to this provision, the two tablets containing the inner text (tab. I-II) had to be sealed by passing a linen cord three times through two central holes, one on the upper frame and one on the lower frame. The witnesses would then affix their seals to the cord. This sealing system prevented the falsification of the inner text; tab. III (containing the outer text), on the other hand, had no central holes as it was not sealed, so that the contents of the document could be read at any time without having to open the inner text. 

Only the top sealing hole is preserved, while the binding holes and the central sealing hole on the bottom rim were reconstructed by Zangemeister.

The senatusconsultum Neronianum adversus falsarios had been dated to AD 61 by Zangemeister precisely on the basis of Poppaea Note’s triptychs: indeed these documents, dated by Zangemeister to AD 61, show the central sealing holes prescribed by the senatuconsultum. Ironically, as Camodeca has clarified, this dating of the senatusconsultum has proved to be substantially correct (more precisely, the senatusconsultum is now dated between the second half of AD 61 and the beginning of 62 on the basis of other documents), even if based on incorrect data: the Poppaea Note triptychs should in fact be dated to AD 79, as the two consuls mentioned in the act were in office in that year rather than in AD 61 (Camodeca 1993; 2022).

The new dating of the triptychs to the year of the eruption of Vesuvius implies that they contained a transaction that was still valid at the time of the catastrophe. This fact should be considered together with the context in which the documents were found, not in a private home but in a thermal bath: the creditor or debtor must have taken with her the objects and documents she considered most valuable when she fled, perhaps believing she could find shelter in the praefurnium (Camodeca 2009).

These extraordinary documents are a good example of a fundamental idea behind the TabulaRasa project: written texts from the past are fascinating and complex testimonies, which we can only hope to understand through a holistic (not only textual, but also material) approach.

Literature:

• Berger, Adolf (1953), Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law, Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society.
• Camodeca, Giuseppe (1993), ‘Nuovi dati dagli archivi campani sulla datazione e sull’applicazione del S.C. Neronianum’, Index 21, 353–364.
• Camodeca, Giuseppe (2009), ‘Gli archivi privati di tabulae ceratae e di papiri documentari: Pompei ed Ercolano: case, ambienti e modalità di conservazione’, Vesuviana 1, 17–42.
• Camodeca, Giuseppe (2022), ‘Senatus consulta e documenti della prassi giuridica campana’, Annali della Facoltà Giuridica dell’Università di Camerino ‒ Studi 11, 1–23: https://afg.unicam.it/2022/senatus-consulta-e-documenti-della-prassi-giuridica-campana.
• CIL IV 3340: Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Consilio et auctoritate Academiae litterarum regiae Borussicae editum. Voluminis quarti supplementum. Pars I. Tabulae ceratae Pompeis repertae annis MDCCCLXXV et MDCCCLXXXVII. Editae A Carolo Zangemeister, Berolini apud Georgium Reimer MDCCCXCVIII.
• Meyer, Elizabeth (2004), Legitimacy and Law in the Roman World. Tabulae in Roman Belief and Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Tomlin, Roger S. O. (2016), Roman London’s first voices: Writing tablets from the Bloomberg excavations, 2010-14, London: Museum of London Archaeology.

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