Two joining fragments containing several lines of an account written across the grain of the wood and parallel to the short edge of the tablet. The back is blank. It is unfortunately impossible to be certain of the real nature of the text since it is so fragmentary (No. 19, even more fragmentary, might be similar). Most of the lines contain numbers; there is one possible denarius sign and several abbreviations, the meaning of which is not at all clear. Perhaps a comparison might be made with RMR 129 (= ChLA 272), which Marichal thought might be a record of deposits or expenses incurred on a mission. But, given that the denarius sign does not appear regularly before the numbers in our text, we remain totally uncertain of its nature.
]x
]xxxii
]xx m iii
]. (denarios) lxi
].i cccx
] s(emissem) (quadrantem) (asses iii) s(emissem).
]…
]xii
]xvii
10].ii · c · xvi[
]..xiva.[
]ii dclxx. [
. . . .
m: perhaps we should expand this as m(ilites); this abbreviation is found in the pridianum published by R.W. Davies and J.D. Thomas, JRS lxvii (1977), col.iii.15-16. The other possibility is m(odii); elsewhere in the tablets m = m(odius) is usually marked as an abbreviation, but this is not always the case (see No. 4.14, 21).
Traces after lxi may or may not be ink.
There is a horizontal stroke above the first two letters which presumably indicates abbreviation.
In line 6 we now read: ] s(emissem) (quadrantem) (asses iii) s(emissem).. The last trace may not be significant.
Perhaps iii, ligatured at the top as in No. 4.23 etc., or possibly ]ti. The following c appears to have interpuncts preceding and following (though the first interpunct might be a serif to the last i); perhaps compare RMR 129.6 where a · c · is expanded as a(rmorum) c(ustos).
For the first two traces cf. line 5. The following d is difficult since it looks much more like b. To read d we have to ignore the apparent serif at the top left and treat it as part of the horizontal stroke over the previous two letters; the apparent tail at the bottom right of the hasta must be part of the following c. The number (670+) is very much larger than any of the others, but it can hardly be taken to indicate a strength report or something of the kind, since it is too large for a quingenary unit and too small for a milliary one.