Roman Curse Tablets…If you ever think people today can be petty… the Romans have us beaten by centuries.

Angry Notes!

Across Britain…Bath, London, Uley, Barking…archaeologists keep finding little sheets of rolled lead.Thin as a postcard. Scratched with tiny handwriting. Then folded, spiked, nailed, or thrown into a sacred spring.

Curse tablets…The ancient equivalent of firing off an angry email… but asking the gods to deal with it.

Most start the same way…“I give to the god…”…and then the writer lets rip.

The thief problem

Romans were obsessed with stolen cloaks. Stolen tunics. Stolen gloves. At Bath, a man cursed every possible suspect at once, because he didn’t know who took his money.

He wrote:“Whether man or woman, slave or free, known or unknown… may the thief not sleep nor eat.”

Effective. And wonderfully dramatic.

Digestive revenge

Some people prayed for stomach trouble. Proper stomach trouble. Lots of “let his bowels be turned”, which is very Roman and very unpleasant.

Cheating lovers

These get wonderfully blunt. Women asking the gods to make a rival’s hair fall out. Men begging the gods to make their lover’s new partner “unable to perform”. Human nature hasn’t changed much.

Racecourse sabotage

Yes… curses for the chariot races.

People begged divine powers to trip opposing horses, break wheels, or make rival drivers lose their grip. Imagine writing a curse because your favourite team kept losing at the circus!

Workplace pettiness

One tablet even curses a man who stole someone’s lunch. Romans really were just like us… only louder.

So…curse tablets weren’t jokes…people believed the gods, spirits, or the place itself would act.

And thanks to these little scraps of lead, we get a perfect snapshot of everyday Roman frustration… love, theft, jealousy, rivalry, and the odd missing sandwich!

#fblifestyle #WWII #RomanHistory #Archaeology #BritishHistory