Children scratched upon walls the alphabet that they were learning. The frequent quotations from Virgil, generally incomplete, are likewise an echo of lessons at school, where this author was carefully studied; we find very often the beginnings of lines at the opening of a book, as Arma virumque cano, or Conticuere omnes. The first word of the poem of Lucretius, Aeneadum, also occurs several times.
Occasionally gnomic quotations are found, in most cases, perhaps, from writers of comedy. Among them is the well-known maxim, Minimum malum fit contemnendo maxumum,—'The smallest evil, if neglected, will reach the greatest proportions.' A proverb more concrete in its form of statement is the following: Moram si quaeres, sparge milium et collige,—'If you want to waste your time, scatter millet and pick it up again.'
CHAPTER LVIII
INSCRIPTIONS RELATING TO BUSINESS AFFAIRS
The most important inscriptions relating to business transactions are the receipts, discovered in 1875, which formed a part of the private accounts of L. Caecilius Jucundus ([p. 447]). They were written on wax tablets, which were carefully packed in a wooden box. The box, which was in the second story of the house, crumbled to pieces when the volcanic dust about it was removed; but many of the tablets, 154 in number, still retained their shape and were taken to the Naples Museum. The wood of the tablets had turned to charcoal, but the writing has been for the most part deciphered. One receipt dates from 15 A.D., another from the year 27; the rest belong to the decade immediately preceding the earthquake, 52-62 A.D. The documents are of the greatest interest as casting light on the business methods of antiquity.
Most of the tablets are triptychs. The three leaves were tied at the back so as to open like the leaves of a book, making six pages ([Fig. 274]). The average height is about 5 inches, the width varies from 2 to 4 inches. Pages 1 and 6 served as covers, being left smooth and without writing. Pages 2, 3, and 5 were hollowed out, leaving a polished surface with a raised rim around it. On this surface a thin layer of wax was spread, in which the letters were made with a stylus; the writing could be easily read because the wood, which was of a light color, showed through wherever a scratch was made in the wax coating.
Two pages facing each other, 2 and 3, were devoted to the receipt. Page 4, as shown in [Fig. 275], was not hollowed out but was divided into two parts by a broad, flat groove running across the middle. When the document was ready to be sealed, the first two leaves were brought together and tied by a thread which passed around the middle, the ends meeting in the groove on page 4. In this groove at convenient distances melted wax was then dropped, on which the witnesses, ordinarily seven in number, impressed their seals. The names of the witnesses were written with pen and ink in a line with the seals, parallel with the sides of the page, sometimes at the right, as in [Fig. 275], sometimes divided, the first name and the gens name being at the left of the seal, the cognomen at the right.
Fig. 274.—Tablet with three leaves, opened so as to show the receipt and part of the memorandum on page 5, restored.
This arrangement made it impossible to consult the receipt without cutting the thread or disturbing the seals of the witnesses. To meet the difficulty a memorandum, which was practically a duplicate receipt, was placed on page 5; this could be read at any time.