Prayer to Neptune

A lead curse tablet, thrown into the water in the British province. Not literature: a private man robbed of a single coin applies to the only court open to him.

The mechanism is legal, and it is the same in all British tablets of this kind. Tibi dono hominem — I give you the man. The thief is made over to the god as property, and from that moment the matter ceases to be a private loss: the injured party is now a deity, and the deity will collect. The victim is not asking for revenge; he is reassigning the claim to a stronger plaintiff.

Neptune here is not the Mediterranean lord of the sea but the god of the local water — the river or estuary into which the tablet was thrown. Provincial religion applies the biggest available name to the nearest body of water.

The word solidus dates the find: the gold solidus was introduced under Constantine, so the tablet is no earlier than the fourth century. The card's period field is empty, but the text dates itself.

No provenance note survives for this card — only the publication number AE 1997.977 is recorded.