A curse tablet is a small tablet with a curse written on it from the Greco-Roman world. Its name originated from the Greek and Latin words for "pierce" and "bind". The tablets were used to ask the gods, place spirits, or the deceased to perform an action on a person or object, or otherwise compel the subject of the curse.
Eyguieres curse tablet
One of the 130 Bath curse tablets. The inscription in British Latin translates as: "May he who carried off Vilbia from me become liquid as the water. May she who so obscenely devoured her become dumb"
Curse tablet found in London. Inscription reads: "I curse Tretia Maria and her life and mind and memory and liver and lungs mixed up together, and her words, thoughts and memory; thus may she be unable to speak what things are concealed, nor be able." (translation: British Museum)
Roman curse tablet with voces mysticae in Greek. The name of the target, Caius Iulius Viator, was added in Latin. Found in Tongeren (Belgium), 70-100 CE, Gallo-Roman Museum (Tongeren).
British Latin or British Vulgar Latin was the Vulgar Latin spoken in Great Britain in the Roman and sub-Roman periods. While Britain formed part of the Roman Empire, Latin became the principal language of the elite and in the urban areas of the more romanised south and east of the island. In the less romanised north and west it never substantially replaced the Brittonic language of the indigenous Britons. In recent years, scholars have debated the extent to which British Latin was distinguishable from its continental counterparts, which developed into the Romance languages.
Britain at the end of Roman rule showing the Romano-British area within the lowland zone
Rubbing of a 6th-century stone inscription in Latin found in West Wales in 1895: "Monument of Voteporigis the Protector". According to Thomas Charles-Edwards, the inscription provides "decisive evidence" of how long Vulgar Latin was spoken in this part of Britain.