Sulpicia Lepidina
Encyclopedia
Sulpicia Lepidina was the wife of Flavius Cerialis, prefect of the Ninth Cohort
of Batavians
, stationed at Vindolanda
in Roman Britain
about the turn of the 1st century AD.
Her notability is the result of receiving two letters from Claudia Severa
, wife of Aelius Brocchus, commander of a nearby fort. One of the letters from Severa is an invitation to a birthday party, which is perhaps the best-known of the Vindolanda tablets
now at the British Museum
.
The invitation is partly written by a scribe and partly by Severa herself. Along with another tablet (a fragment with a closure written in Severa's hand), the invitation is thought to be the oldest extant writing by a Roman woman found in Britain, or indeed anywhere. The subject-matter of the letters is social and personal, and Severa calls Lepidina her sister.
The letters were written in ink on wooden tablets found during excavations at Vindolanda in the 1970s. Their preservation was due to the waterlogged soil conditions on parts of the Vindolanda site.
Cohort (military unit)
A cohort was the basic tactical unit of a Roman legion following the reforms of Gaius Marius in 107 BC.-Legionary cohort:...
of Batavians
Batavians
The Batavi were an ancient Germanic tribe, originally part of the Chatti, reported by Tacitus to have lived around the Rhine delta, in the area that is currently the Netherlands, "an uninhabited district on the extremity of the coast of Gaul, and also of a neighbouring island, surrounded by the...
, stationed at Vindolanda
Vindolanda
Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England. Located near the modern village of Bardon Mill, it guarded the Stanegate, the Roman road from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth...
in Roman Britain
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
about the turn of the 1st century AD.
Her notability is the result of receiving two letters from Claudia Severa
Claudia Severa
Claudia Severa was a literate Roman woman, the wife of Aelius Brocchus, commander of an unidentified fort near Vindolanda fort in northern England....
, wife of Aelius Brocchus, commander of a nearby fort. One of the letters from Severa is an invitation to a birthday party, which is perhaps the best-known of the Vindolanda tablets
Vindolanda tablets
The Vindolanda tablets are "the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain". They are also probably our best source of information about life on Hadrian's Wall. Written on fragments of thin, post-card sized wooden leaf-tablets with carbon-based ink, the tablets date to the 1st and 2nd...
now at the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
.
The invitation is partly written by a scribe and partly by Severa herself. Along with another tablet (a fragment with a closure written in Severa's hand), the invitation is thought to be the oldest extant writing by a Roman woman found in Britain, or indeed anywhere. The subject-matter of the letters is social and personal, and Severa calls Lepidina her sister.
The letters were written in ink on wooden tablets found during excavations at Vindolanda in the 1970s. Their preservation was due to the waterlogged soil conditions on parts of the Vindolanda site.