I bring you a welcome gift with a sharp point that you may remember me

June 30, 2024 12:42 PM

This Ancient Roman Souvenir Stylus Is Inscribed With a Corny Joke
posted by chavenet (13 comments total)

The genesis of the Novelty Pen!
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:01 PM on June 30 [3 favorites]

The stylus was uncovered during an excavation effort centered on a now-lost tributary of the Thames
maybe they didn't get the point
posted by HearHere at 1:21 PM on June 30 [3 favorites]

SEE!
posted by clavdivs at 1:21 PM on June 30 [2 favorites]

Romans invented the cheap souvenir?
posted by tommasz at 1:27 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]

The stylus was uncovered during an excavation effort centered on a now-lost tributary of the Thames
The river of skulls.
posted by pracowity at 1:30 PM on June 30 [3 favorites]

SEE!
see the point? oh yeah, i guess that's the idiom [wiki] *sharpens stylus* back to the drawing board...
posted by HearHere at 1:40 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]

I hate to say bad things about the Smithsonian, but would it have killed them to just tell us what the inscription says, in Latin? It's the best-known dead language in the world. This article feels more like repost-bait "content" than a piece of pop science.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 2:01 PM on June 30 [2 favorites]

""I have come from the City. I bring you a welcome gift with a sharp point that you may remember me. I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able (to give) as generously as the way is long (and) as my purse is empty"



SEE!
see the point? oh yeah, i guess that's the idiom [wiki] *sharpens stylus* back to the drawing board.
I'm fairly sharp, but not sharp enough to read the comment, to type see, all in 20 seconds and post it
posted by clavdivs at 2:19 PM on June 30 [2 favorites]

Look, you’re lucky I didn’t get the strigil.
posted by Phanx at 2:29 PM on June 30 [2 favorites]

The stylus was uncovered during an excavation effort centered on a now-lost tributary of the Thames

Of course! The stylus was taken from a bank.
posted by Smart Dalek at 2:36 PM on June 30 [6 favorites]

would it have killed them to just tell us what the inscription says, in Latin?

Bit rot strikes again. The first link in the Smithsonian article is to the MOLA blog post which originally had the latin inscription. The problem is that the article is from 2019 and the MOLA blog post has vanished. Archive.org has it though. Per Dr Roger Tomlin it reads:

‘ab urbe v[e]n[i] munus tibi gratum adf(e)ro
acul[eat]um ut habe[a]s memor[ia]m nostra(m)
rogo si fortuna dar[e]t quo possem
largius ut longa via ceu sacculus est (v)acuus’

‘I have come from the City. I bring you a welcome gift
with a sharp point that you may remember me.
I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able (to give)
as generously as the way is long (and) as my purse is empty.’

posted by RichardP at 2:51 PM on June 30 [12 favorites]

You can always count on Roman stylusness.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:25 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]

Considering how the Romans were, I'm half surprised it wasn't shaped like a penis. Maybe the gift shop was sold out of those.
posted by biogeo at 8:41 PM on June 30