TABELLA DEFIXIONIS 3rd century CE
Provenance Trier, Germany (Augusta Treverorum)
Target Quartus and Aquilina
Deity invoked None named — sympathetic magic
Just as this lead is cold and useless, so may Quartus and Aquilina be cold and useless. Just as this corpse cannot move, so may they be unable to move against me.
Archaeological note A simile curse — the tablet draws power from analogy with the dead body it was buried with. The lead itself becomes a metaphor: cold, heavy, inert.