Roșia Montană, AD 131
6 February AD 131: what we can still read after 1,895 years
On a fir tablet coated with wax, Valerius Firmus drew up a deed for people with Illyrian names. The museum presents it today as an employment contract, but the clauses are gone: fragments still preserve the date and several names — enough for an exact day, 6 February 131, and for the oldest written occurrence of the name Alburnus Maior.
How to look at the text:
[Po]ntiano [et] Rufino co(n)s(ulibus) (The letters “Po” and “et” are editorial restorations; “co(n)s(ulibus)” is an expanded abbreviation.)
VIII idus Februarias
Valerius Firmus s[cripsi rogatus ab] (The words “cripsi rogatus ab” are restored by the editors.)
Verzone Beusantis … Dasius Verzonis (The ellipsis marks our omission between the selected passages, including surviving words.)
[Al]burno Maiori (The letters “Al” are restored by the editors.)
Under the consuls Pontianus and Rufinus. On the eighth day before the Ides of February. I, Valerius Firmus, have written this, asked by Verzo, son of Beusas … Dasius, son of Verzo. At Alburnus Maior.
Pick a line: learn what survives, what the editors restored, and what follows from it.
What the selected passages tell us
Tablet XVIII is a fragment of a triptych: three bound fir tablets, waxed on the inner faces. A single part survives, waxed on one face and framed by a protective rim. The rest is layer upon layer — here they are, separated.
✓ Secure, from the text
The year 131. The day of 6 February. The consuls Pontianus and Rufinus. The name Valerius Firmus. Several Illyrian names. Alburnus Maior.
△ Restored by editors
The “Po” in Pontianus, the “et”, the “scripsi rogatus ab” formula, the “Al” in Alburno. The rest of each word survives; the missing letters follow from the text and the known place-name.
○ Today's interpretation
The museum identifies the piece as an employment contract and Firmus as a jurist. Both are expert readings, not lines you can read yourself.
? Lost
What the deed was about. The clauses. The sums. The duration. The parties' trades. Why Firmus wrote it instead of them.
A small Roman sum
The Romans counted days backwards from the Ides, starting the count on the day they stood on. In February the Ides fell on the 13th — so “the eighth day before the Ides” counts like this:
- 13the Ides
- 12II
- 11III
- 10IV
- 9V
- 8VI
- 7VII
- 6VIII — the tablet's day
What kind of deed was it?
- What the museum says today
- An employment contract — without qualification, in the February 2026 exhibition.
- What the fragment actually preserves
- The date, the names, the drafting formula, Alburnus Maior. No clause from which an ordinary reader could recognise the kind of deed alone.
- Why a limit remains
- The part that would identify the legal object beyond doubt is gone. An older presentation of the same piece also allowed for a loan.
The tablet measures 145 by 70 millimetres: it fits in a palm. It was found in 1854, in the Ohaba–Saint Simeon gallery of the Cârnic massif, together with further pieces from the same lot. It now sits in the National Museum of Romanian History under inventory number 54186; in February 2026 the museum put it on display as exhibit of the month, 1,895 years after it was written.
A note on an error still alive: on 24 September 2026, the Hungarian-language Wikipedia dated the tablet to 6 January and housed it in the local mining museum. But the surviving text reads Februarias, and the piece is in Bucharest. The Romanian Wikipedia gives February.
- Where
- Alburnus Maior, the Roman mining district in the area of present-day Roșia Montană, Alba County
- When
- 6 February 131, under the consuls Pontianus and Rufinus, in the reign of Hadrian
- Number
- Tabula Cerata D. XVIII; National Museum of Romanian History, inv. 54186
- Size
- 145 by 70 millimetres, fir wood with wax, a single triptych panel
- Found
- 1854, Ohaba–Saint Simeon gallery, Cârnic massif
Another contract, whole: 20 May 164
Tablet XVIII is a fragment. But the same museum holds proof that such hirings also survive almost whole: tablet XI, a hiring of labour from 20 May 164. The panel measures 143 by 105 millimetres, keeps the binding holes of the triptych and the traces of an older text, scraped away for the new contract.
These are not the lost clauses of the 131 deed. This is a different contract, written 33 years later in a different settlement — shown here as a comparison, not a reconstruction.
The tablet of 164 — not the 131 fragment
The piece was given to the museum in Cluj by the mining technician L. Diószegi and reached Bucharest later, as inventory 54187. Open the clauses one by one.
1. The date
[Macri]no et Celso co(n)s(ulibus) XIII Kal(endas) Iunias
Under the consuls Macrinus and Celsus, on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of June.
Macrinus and Celsus are the ordinary consuls of 164. The thirteenth day before 1 June falls on 20 May.
2. The scribe
Flavius Secundinus scripsi rogatus a Memmio Asclepi quia se lit[ter]as scire negavit
I, Flavius Secundinus, have written this, asked by Memmius, son of Asclepius, because he said he knew no letters.
The only direct evidence of illiteracy in the archive — Memmius's, not the 131 people's. Flavius is the writer of the deed; the text gives no profession for him.
3. The hiring
it quod dixsit se locas[se] et locavit operas s[ua]s opere aurario Aurelio Adiutori ex ha[c] die [in] Idus Novembres proximas
Because he said he had hired himself out, and hires out his labour for gold-mine work to Aurelius Adiutor, from this day until the coming Ides of November.
The Ides of November fall on the 13th: the hiring runs from 20 May to 13 November. Memmius hires out his labour, not a mine. Aurelius Adiutor, a Roman citizen, is the conductor — the lessee hiring the labour.
4. The pay
[denarios se]pt(u)aginta liberisque [denarios … mer]c[ede]m per [t]empora accipe[re] debebit
Seventy denarii — plus, in a damaged passage, a sum the editors usually read as “for the children”; the pay will be due in its season.
The legible sum is 70 denarii. A damaged group of letters is usually read liberisque, “and for the children” — two lives in a single word: Carcopino proposed cibarisque, “and for provisions”. The wood leaves no safe choice; the discussion is in Cuvigny 1996.
5. The worker's duty
qu[as] operas sanas v[ale]ntes [ed]e[re] debebit conductori
And he will owe the contractor named above labour that is sound and strong.
That is all the contract asks: arms fit for the gallery — a requirement about the quality of the work, not the body.
6. The penalty
quod si invito condu[c]tore decedere aut c[e]ssare volue[rit dare] debebit in dies singulos [H]S V num(mos) (a)ere octus[s(is)] c[ond]uct[or]i
But if he wishes to leave or go idle against the contractor's will, he will owe him, for each day, five sesterces and eight asses.
The fine runs by the day, not by the month. Another editorial tradition (Bruns, after CIL III) reads “HS V numeratos” here — five sesterces counted out; the wood is too damaged for the editions to agree.
7. The water
si laborem fluor inpedierit pro rata c[o]nputare de[bebit c]onduc[tor]
If water hinders the work, the contractor will reckon the pay pro rata.
Water was an operational risk important enough for pay to depend on it. The contract does not say how often it broke into the galleries.
8. Late payment
[si t]empore peracto mercedem sol[v]endi moram fecerit ead[em] p[oena] tenebitur exceptis cessatis tribus
If, the term fulfilled, he delays payment, he will be held to the same penalty, except for three days of grace.
The penalty is a mirror: what the worker pays for a missed day, the contractor pays for a delayed day, after a tolerance of three days.
9. Place and witnesses
actum Immenoso Maiori. Titus Beusantis qui et Bradua. Socratio Socrationis. [M]emmius Asclepi.
Done at Immenosum Maius. Titus, son of Beusas, also called Bradua. Socratio, son of Socratio. Memmius, son of Asclepius.
Immenosum Maius is attested in the text and never securely located in the field: a mining settlement in the Alburnus Maior area. The witnesses' names have Illyrian and Greek affinities; weighed together with the rest of the archive, they show a mixed mining community.
The text is not the flawless Latin of the textbooks: spelling and syntax keep features of provincial documentary Latin — dixsit for dixit, inpedierit for impedierit, it quod for id quod. The formulae of a written deed are no recording of mine talk.
Wax had a memory: here and there the traces of an older text show through — the panel had been used once and smoothed for the new contract. The parties come from different worlds: the contractor and the scribe are Roman citizens, while the worker and the witnesses are peregrini — residents without citizenship. Elsewhere in the archive the mixture runs deeper: among the witnesses appears Appius Proclus, a veteran of legio XIII Gemina.
English rendering of the Latin text: Marius Comper, after the transcription of the National Museum of Romanian History.
Alburnus Maior: a mining country
Roman mining and its settlements grew in the Roșia Montană area after the conquest of Dacia, probably from the first decades of the new province. Alburnus Maior was a complex of mining settlements — vici and kastella — whose legal organisation is still debated. The surviving tablets open a precise documentary window between 131 and 167.
Illyrian-Dalmatian mining communities worked here, brought in for their skill, among them the attested Pirustae. Many of the people in the documents are peregrini, without Roman citizenship; others — witnesses, guarantors, a legionary veteran — are citizens.
The historian Vasile Pârvan is said to have called the district the “California of Antiquity”: the phrase is attributed to him in a museum presentation, with no work cited. As a metaphor for a gold rush it keeps its charm, but it is no legal classification of the place. The documents explain why it stuck: two contracts hold Illyrian, Greek and Roman names.
In July 2021 the mining landscape of Roșia Montană entered the UNESCO World Heritage List — and, simultaneously, the List of World Heritage in Danger, over threats to its integrity including possible renewed mining. The UNESCO documentation records over 7 km of known ancient underground workings; the galleries of all periods together exceed 80 km, according to the culture and environment ministries.
The archive, in brief
Between 1786 and 1855 about 40 pieces came out of the galleries; 25 documents were preserved and published — numbers 31–55 in the first volume of the Inscriptions of Roman Dacia — of which 9 read from end to end. Sources count physical panels and legal acts differently: here “25” means documents.
Two lots were exceptionally rich: the 1854 one, from the Ohaba–Saint Simeon gallery — source of tablets XI and XVIII both (a geographical study of the area counts 11 pieces, nine of them in Budapest) — and the 1855 one, from the Saint Catherine mine, with about 40 pieces identified.
The rest of the archive: loans of money, sales of enslaved people, hirings of labour, and the winding-up of a burial association, that of Jupiter Cernenus. Tablets XI and XVIII sit in the National Museum of Romanian History, Bucharest; further pieces, by the published inventories, in Budapest, Cluj-Napoca, Alba Iulia, Blaj and Aiud.
- 131The deed of Alburnus Maior is drawn up: tablet XVIII, the place's oldest document — fragmentarily preserved.
- 142The sale of the boy Apalaustus: 600 denarii, on 16 May.
- 164The hiring of Memmius: tablet XI, preserved almost whole.
- 167The winding-up of the burial association of Jupiter Cernenus.
- 1786–1855The pieces leave the galleries, one by one, as mining reopens.
- 1854The Ohaba–Saint Simeon gallery lot, with tablets XI and XVIII.
- 1855Another rich lot, at the Saint Catherine mine.
- 2021Roșia Montană enters the UNESCO World Heritage List, straight onto the danger list.
Sources
The Latin texts follow the transcription of the National Museum of Romanian History, through the historian Mihaela Simion. English rendering of the Latin texts: Marius Comper. Where editions part ways, the page says so.
- National Museum of Romanian History: “Exhibit of the month for February — Epigraphic discoveries from Alburnus Maior” (February 2026): the identification of piece XVIII as an employment contract, the dating, the 1854 lot. mnir.ro
- Mihaela Simion: “The wax tablets of Alburnus Maior” — the transcriptions of tablets XVIII and XI and the English translation of the 164 contract, preserved on historyofinformation.com. historyofinformation.com
- UNESCO, Roșia Montană nomination dossier (doc. 180594): the first attestation of the name Alburnus Maior on 6 February 131; over 7 km of known ancient underground workings. whc.unesco.org
- UNESCO (27 July 2021): simultaneous inscription on the World Heritage List and the Danger List. whc.unesco.org
- Rada Varga: “Networks and Ties. The Economical Power Holders of Alburnus Maior”, JAHA: peregrine status, vici and kastella, the citizen–peregrine mixture. jaha.org.ro (PDF)
- Tamás Nótári: “Private Law in the Province of Dacia”, Acta Univ. Sapientiae 9/2 (2020): the 25 published documents. acta.sapientia.ro (PDF)
- Tamás Nótári: “Tăblițele cerate de la Roșia Montană: context și conținut”, RRID 01/2021 (PDF). rrid.ro (PDF)
- Bruns, Fontes Iuris Romani Antiqui, 3rd ed., Tübingen 1876, p. 191: the “HS V numeratos” variant of the 164 penalty (scan). archive.org
- Hélène Cuvigny: “The Amount of Wages Paid to the Quarry-Workers at Mons Claudianus”, JRS 86 (1996), pp. 142–143: liberisque versus cibarisque. jstor.org
- Szabó et al.: “Digitising a Roman tabula cerata from Alburnus Maior”, Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 52/4 (2022): the 1854 and 1855 lots, the Aiud piece. author's reference
- Baron et al.: “Of about 40 tablets discovered, 25 were preserved and studied. The oldest one dates back to the year 131 AD and the most recent one to 167 AD” (lead-isotope study). folia.unifr.ch (PDF)
- Dávid Petruț: “Henrik Finály and Roman Dacia”, Acta Classica Debrecen LIII (2017): the 25 as IDR I 31–55; the Budapest and Blaj pieces. ojs.lib.unideb.hu (PDF)
- Geographical study of the Roșia Montană area (West University of Timișoara, PDF): 11 pieces in the 1854 lot, nine in Budapest. cbg.uvt.ro (PDF)
- Ministry of Culture + Ministry of the Environment, joint release (5 Feb 2016): over 80 km of galleries, 7 km of them ancient. mmediu.ro (PDF)
- The consuls of 131: the military diploma of 27 January 131 (primary text quoted). timelineauctions.com · Smith's Dictionary, “Rufinus” (Fasti). perseus.tufts.edu
- The consuls of 164: Trismegistos, consular list (Macrinus + Celsus, full year). trismegistos.org
- Immenosum Maius, unlocated in the field: the Transformation project, “Mining in Roman Dacia”. leiza.de
- Octussis = 8 asses: Lewis & Short, “as”. perseus.tufts.edu
- “Neither a Truant nor a Fugitive” (Univ. of Michigan, ICP) and Moldovan, Curentul Juridic — the sale of 16 May 142. quod.lib.umich.edu · revcurentjur.ro (PDF)
- Rada Varga: “The wax tablets of Alburnus Maior”, EAGLE Portal (13 May 2015): the archive's general context. eagle-network.eu
- Hungarian Wikipedia, “Verespatak” (accessed 24 September 2026): still dating the tablet to 6 January — the witness of the error. hu.wikipedia.org