A
small fragment, complete at left and foot. It contains the bottom and left part
of a drawing (unless this is mere idle doodling). Another drawing in the tablets is to be found in
Inv.no.87.616 = VRR II, Plate XVIII. That tablet contains no
writing, whereas the present tablet preserves a number of letters. It appears
to begin with three upright strokes (rather like the numeral iii);
we then have some letters of which the first two are certainly be,
and it is likely that ll follows, perhaps in turn followed by i.
After this there seem to be three more uprights before the letter r,
probably followed by e. There is then a small space before some
more marks which do not look like letters; at this point the tablet breaks off.
As can be seen from the plate, all the uprights have long arching strokes
projecting up from their tops and crossing one another (an attempt to draw a
tent?). Below this, considerably inset from the left margin, we have two or
three large letters of which the first is c or g. In
line 1 b is written in the cursive form, whereas e
and r are in the normal capital form. In VRR II, 38
it is suggested that we should read belli.por in the first line
and cla in the second; and it is further suggested that this may
be "another Virgilian effort, recalling Aeneid 1.294, claudentur
Belli portae. The drawing could be a doodle intended to represent the
Gates of War". It is difficult, however, to reconcile the traces after belli
with the reading suggested; it seems more likely that the first three strokes,
which are connected to the drawing, are not letters, and the reading thereafter
is almost certainly re. If we are to pursue this idea further
(and, as is pointed out in VRR, the tablet was found in close
proximity to [118]), perhaps a more likely Virgilian quotation is Aeneid
12.567, causam belli regna ipsa Latini. The first line might read belli
re and the first letter in the second line could well be g. It is perhaps just possible that what
is written thereafter is a botched attempt to write na, after
which the writer abandoned his efforts.