"In the 1970s and 1980s, archaeologists excavating near a Roman fort at Vindolanda (located in northern England near Hadrian’s Wall) discovered a cache of more than 500 thin, post-card sized, wooden tablets in various states of fragmentation. To their surprise, these tablets had been folded in half to form into diptychs, and the facing sides of the tablets were covered with messages written in Latin in ink. The writing was on a variety of topics from military matters to personal messages between family members, friends, and slaves. Since the fort at Vindolanda was first constructed c. 85–92 CE and was occupied consistently until c. 104 CE, at which time there was a brief hiatus followed by a reoccupation, the majority of the tablets discovered are dated to the last decade of the 1st century CE.
Among these tablets are two letters that may constitute the oldest extant example of writing in Latin by a woman. The two letters were written by a certain Claudia Severa, identified as the wife of a Roman soldier Gaius Aelius Brocchus, to another woman by the name of Sulpicia Lepidina, the wife of the military prefect Flavius Cerealis. In the first letter, Severa sends Lepidina an invitation to her birthday party. The relationship between the two women is described in intimate terms, and Severa even goes so far as to call Lepidina her sister (soror). Yet, due to the differences in their family names, we can be fairly certain that they are not biological sisters and that soror is meant as a term of endearment. The second message, rare because more than one diptych survive from the letter, is again from Severa to Lepidina. The letter relates that Severa has asked permission from her husband Brocchus to visit Lepidina, which he seems to have granted. She then states that she will remain in a place called Briga for the time being. Since this second letter is not written for a particular occasion, it is thought to be evidence that the two women engaged in regular correspondence. There is a third letter attributed to Severa (Tab. Vindol. II 293), but it is in fragments.
Another interesting aspect of the letters is the handwriting in which they are written. Both letters are written in the same elegant Latin cursive script, except for two three-line portions at the end of each letter. This second handwriting is less elegant than the first, and it is believed that it belongs to Claudia Severa herself. For in Roman epistolography, it was commonplace for a letter writer to dictate a letter for a scribe to write and then include a small section at the end of the letter written in one’s own hand. This was done as a mark of intimacy and as a sign that the letter writer placed a high value on their relationship with the addressee. If these three-line portions are, indeed, written in the hand of Claudia Severa herself, then they are among the earliest examples of writing in Latin by a woman."
Hallett Judith, Natoli Bartolo, Pitts Angela, Ancient Women Writers of Greece and Rome
Birthday invitation of Sulpicia Lepidina:
Claudia Severa to her Lepidina greetings. On 11 September, sister, for the day of the celebration of my birthday, I give you a warm invitation to make sure that you come to us, to make the day more enjoyable for me by your arrival, if you are present (?). Give my greetings to your Cerialis. My Aelius and my little son send him (?) their greetings. I shall expect you, sister. Farewell, sister, my dearest soul, as I hope to prosper, and hail.
