A fragment of the right-hand portion of a diptych containing the remains of three lines of a letter, as well as some traces of writing at a right-angle in the left margin. The back contains part of an address to Marcus Cocceius Velox, who does not appear elsewhere in the Vindolanda texts.
. . . . . .
traces
re ne saltem quiuis
traces
. . . . . .
].ra.[
Marco Cocceio Veloci ..
traces
. . . . . .
re ne saltem: re is presumably the end of a word which began in the previous line. There is a gap between n and e because the writer left space to accommodate the descender from the line above.
Possibly frat[er. For writing between the columns cf. [302], [311].
It is noteworthy that this is not written in address script but in a largish, ordinary cursive; compare [310].back 23-4. The traces after the initial V are very abraded. Velox is a fairly well-attested cognomen, but, perhaps surprisingly, not in Britain. Its first occurrence seems to be on a text from Catterick, t(urma) Velo[cis (Britannia 21 (1990), 374, no.60). The use of the tria nomina in full is not paralleled in either the addresses or the texts at Vindolanda and Velox is obviously not here using it himself (cf. A.R.Birley (1990a), 19, VRR II, 69). The attribution of the tablet to Period 5 would place it some 20 years later than the reign of Nerva which the gentilicium evokes. There appear to be traces of two more letters at the end of the line; perhaps the beginning of a title or rank.