Think the ancient Romans were nothing like us? Think again! Explore the fascinating world of Roman curse tablets, their eerie messages, and reveal Roman London life 2,000 years ago. Discover a particularly chilling curse on display at the British Museum!
Ancient Romans and Modern Society
Despite there being almost 2,000 years between us and the Romans, human nature has barely changed, and the Romans were very like us now. They had the same hopes and fears – the same aspirations – and fell out with people just as we do today.
The Romans fell out with each other and made up again just like we do today. They gossiped, kept domestic pets such as cats and dogs and had ambitious hopes and fears – just like us.
The ‘Cave Canem’ Mosaic
A mosaic located in the atrium of the house of the tragic poet in Pompeii was uncovered by archaeologists in 1824. The mosaic, which dates back to one AD, features the inscription “Cave Canem” – beware of the dog. The mosaic shows an image of a leashed fierce-looking guard dog.
The house in my street has a very similar sign, but not in Latin. I find the link between a mosaic created in ancient Rome and the signs we see on peoples gates today which wore visitors that there is a dog in the house and to enter it your own risk, to be a marvellous example of how connected our modern lives are to those in ancient Rome in one AD.
After all, society in the ancient world of Rome was much like our society today. People had relationships, fell in love, fell out of love; they bought grudges, with neighbour fighting neighbour, tradesmen chased outstanding payments and people gossip and past secrets to one another.
The Roman Curse Tablets
However, unlike us the Romans had a unique way of letting someone know that they were cross, vengeful or had been the victim of theft: they wrote curse tablets. Many of these tablets were written on thin sheets of lead with the writing or the “curse“ scratched onto the lead-either with a piece of metal or a piece of bone.
These tablets could then be placed wherever you wanted-at a shrine dedicated to your favourite God or goddess, thrown into the sea or a river (rivers and water was seen as sacred), nailed to the eaves at a hidden place in someone’s house, or Eden fixed to a chariot wheel if you wanted someone to lose a chariot race.
Some cursed tablets were written on papyri and rolled up and placed somewhere while others were written in black ink on thin slivers of wood-usually recycled silver birch from wine caskets. Lead was used most often as it was cheap and easy to come across-it was a result of being a byproduct from the silver mines and the pewter industries. Hot lead wouldʼve been poured into a mould and then cut up into small individual tablets which would then be available for purchase by the general public.
Preservation and Discovery
Luckily for some of us these tablets have survived, having been preserved in the mud of a river or in a drain which allows us to study them in great detail. The motives behind curse tablets were usually negative with the aim of exacting revenge upon the person who had wronged you-or the person who had stolen your belongings.
A Fascinating Curse from the British Museum
One curse that really caught my imagination can be found in the British Museum. It was discovered in Telegraph Street in Moorgate, City of London, in 1934.
The tablet, composed of cursive Latin scratched onto a piece of lead, is particularly fascinating owing to the vengeful, rather vitriolic language that scribe has chosen and the fact that it has been pierced with not one, not two but seven nails.
The anger behind it is palpable. It reads, “I curse Tretia Maria, and her life and mind and memory and liver and lungs all mixed together, and her words, thoughts and memory that she may be unable to speak what things are concealed nor be able to… nor …’ And then it peters out. – Perhaps part of the tablet is missing; of this we cannot be certain.
However, what we can be certain about is that whoever penned this cursed tablet possessed a very strong wrath towards Tretia Maria – one strong enough to want to completely obliterate her and render her helpless, unable to speak. What on earth has she done?
Unfortunately, we will most likely never know what she had done to invoke such anger, but this tablet serves as a wonderful example of the fact that human relationships, in their messy complexity, are universal and were experienced by the Romans in London 2,000 years ago just as they are by us in the present day.
Explore Roman London Today
There are several of these cured tablets on display at the British Museum, and they are well worth a look – this particular one can be found in cabinet 49.
If you enjoyed reading this blog and want to explore Roman London, book a private Roman London tour with Jenny
