The attribution of this text to Period 2 means that it should predate the other requests for leave. As far as it takes us, however, there is no reason to think that it deviated from the normal pattern. The person to whom the application is made is called Flavianus. This is a very common cognomen but it is difficult to avoid connecting its occurrence here with Hostilius Flavianus, a correspondent of Cerialis (see [261].1). If this is the same person, the request for leave suggests that he was a prefect at Vindolanda during Period 2. The centurial symbol is more rounded than the usual angular symbol shaped like a figure 7.
Auentinus (centuriae) .u.eli
rogo domine Flauiane
d[ignum
. . . . . . . . .
"I, Aventinus, of the century of ..., ask, my lord Flavianus ... a worthy person ..."
Auentinus: the last five letters are very abraded but the reading is compatible with the traces and the name is reasonably common in the Gallic provinces (NPEL cites 8 instances in Gallia Belgica).
.u.eli: the first letter is very abraded but eli looks secure and before it s is probable; cuseli is possible, perhaps a derivative of Cuses, the name of a man with the ethnic Regus (therefore from castra Regina = Regensburg), attested in an inscription from Mainz (CIL 13.7048). Note also the cognomen Sucelus attested in Italy and Noricum (NPEL); Cusedus, also attested in Italy, probably cannot be read. A possible though very difficult alternative is lupeli. For this form of the fairly common name Lupulus see LC, 128, 328 and note the occurrence of the name Lopolus in an inscription from Trier, CIL 13.3854; see also VRR II, 73, no.1, Lupul(us).