The tabella defixionis: a Roman curse in lead

 

These days, if someone ticks you off, you might be tempted to go on social media and say something nasty about them. This is not something I recommend. Often, the repercussions can be far worse than anyone expects.

Crosa, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

In the days when the Roman Empire controlled half the known world, dissing someone on the internet was not an option. This didn’t stop people from saying nasty things about each other, though. They just had to use different methods. One of the ways people vented their complaints about others was in a tabella defixionis. Sometimes just shortened to defixio, this is usually translated into English as a curse tablet.

A tabella defixionis was a note requesting a curse or other course of action from a god or
goddess. While these might have been written on parchment or velum, the ones that have survived to the modern period were created on very thin sheets of lead. The aggrieved person would write on that sheet, using a stylus to scratch tiny letters onto the surface. 

There are hints that some of the tabellae were written not by the aggrieved, but by a clerk or scribe. Archaeologists have excavated 80 lead curse tablets from the Roman temple of Mercury at West Hill, Uley in Gloucestershire, England. About 45 of these tablets were either completely blank or contained pre-formulated template text without a specific victim's name so that a client could add in the name of their specific enemy.

Almost all the curse tablets discovered at Bath, in Southern England, relate to petty thefts of clothing, especially cloaks and gloves. Money, jewelry, and household items are also listed. This suggests that victims frequently had their belongings swiped while they were relaxing in the public waters.  The language on these tablets was formulated to function as divine legal contracts. The victim "gifted" the stolen item to the goddess Sulis Minerva, so that the theft became a crime against the deity herself. The goddess was then expected to torment the thief until the property was safely returned to the temple.

An example of this was written by a man named Docilianus, who wrote: “to the most
holy goddess Sulis. I curse him who has stolen my hooded cloak, whether man or woman, whether slave or free, that … the goddess Sulis inflict death upon … and not allow him sleep or children now and in the future, until he has brought my hooded cloak to the temple of her divinity.”

Another, found in Gaul, says “Just as this lead disappears and falls, thus falls their lifetime, limbs, life, ox, grain and goods, those who did me wrong, namely Asuetemeos who Secundina bore, and Verres Tearus // and Amarantis and all that is yours, oh gods, I forbid (them) by all spells to celebrate the Masitlatida and to sing the Necrocantus.” https://mckies.wordpress.com/2014/06/

Not all curse tablets asked the gods to curse someone. Some were love spells, asking the gods to make a specific person fall in love with the writer of the tabella. Many of these had a bit of hair or pieces of clothing wrapped up in them. This was seen as a way to give them strength through inclusion of the central essence of the person. Others have rings folded into them. Archaeologists wonder if these are gifts to the gods to help along their requests.

Other tablets were intended to help the dead. These have been found at the grave sites of people who had died at a very young age or in a violent manner. The tablet seeks to help the dead lay their souls to rest in spite of their untimely deaths.

Whether the sheets were curses, pleas for aid in love or in death, or requests for some other assistance from the gods, after the sheet inscribed, it was rolled or folded, and placed where the gods might have access to it. In Britain, 72 of the 256 tabella were folded, while 6 have been rolled. Most of the ones found at Uley had been rolled, then flattened. 

The word defixionis comes from the Greek and Latin words for "pierce" and "bind". Many of the tablets found have been pierced by nails. Sometimes these were the nails that affixed them to coffins and temple walls. Other times, the piercing seems to have been done at specific words, especially names. Small dolls or figurines were found near some tablets, and these, too, had been pierced by nails and often had bound feet and hands. The texts of many curses say they bind or nail down a specific person.

Once written and folded, the tablets had to be placed where the gods would find them. Many have been found buried in underground sanctuaries. Others, presumably to water gods and goddesses, had been thrown into wells or pools. Some have been found nailed to temple walls or tucked between their stones. The tabella defixionis that ask favors of or for the dead have been found in graves and tombs, and some of the ones requesting help with love seemed to have been hidden away in the homes of their intended.

In The Potter’s Hands, the novel I am presently working on, the main character is a Britanii with a temper as fiery as her hair. When Enica is spurned by a handsome young centurion, she responds by writing a tabella defixionis She writes:

Enica Flavia Servula to the goddess Minerva. I call upon you to give justice to the worthless man who has betrayed me. Do not allow sleep or health to him who has done me wrong.May his member cause him pain when he urinates. May it refuse to be a good soldier and stay at attention when he is with another woman. I give to your divinity and majesty my finest water jug, made of my own hand.

She flings this tablet into the river as he is passing by on parade and immediately feels vindicated, but as time goes on, it appears to Enica that Minerva has responded with horrifying finality. Just as many who post curses on social media later regret their actions, Enica finds her entire world damaged by a few words written on a little sheet of lead.

Jennifer Bohnhoff is an author and speaker. She writes historical and contemporary
novels for middle grade through adult readers and loves to give presentations about the places and times in which her books are set. She was inspired to write The Potter’s Hand after hiking the length of Hadrian’s Wall in Northern Britain during the summer of 2025.