A fragment containing the ends of two lines from the left-hand column of a letter and three lines from the end of the right-hand column. The amount of space before the first line in the second column suggests either that the writer left a blank space between the end of the message proper and the closure, or that the three surviving lines came at the top of col.ii; if the latter is the case, as is suggested by the fact that uale at the end of line ii.3 is probably by a second hand, the letter must have been written on more than one tablet (cf. [292], [343]), since the preserved line-ends in col.i clearly cannot belong to the opening of a letter.
. . . .
]. per
]bis
. . . .
. . . . . . . . .
Pacatam saluta uerbis meis
et tuos omnes cum quibus opto
domine bene ualeas ? uale
"... Greet Pacata in my words, and all your household with whom, my lord, I pray that you are in good health. (2nd hand?) Farewell."
There is no clear evidence for Pacata elsewhere in the Vindolanda texts (but cf. [320].ii.2). For Pacatus in a Batavian context see CIL 6.8807 (Bellen (1981), no.9); the cognomen is particularly common in Gallia Belgica (see NPEL).
uerbis meis: for the expression cf. [310].i.9-10.
tuos omnes: cf. [260].7-8, pueros tuos.
The ligature of us in quibus is noteworthy. The reading must be correct (cf. [346].ii.4-5, cum quibus / o]pto felicissimus uiuas) although no trace of the tail of q survives.
uale: the first letter is very difficult to read but it can hardly be anything else. It is difficult to be certain that we have a second hand here since the sample of writing is so small; on balance, however, it seems likely that uale was added by the author when the scribe had written the fuller closing formula (cf. [250].ii.17, [300].ii.12).