The second section of the paper was devoted to a re-examination of another inscription whose text had substantially been revised and reconstructed in Accame's book on the Confederacy. Dreher's new text corrects Accame's in two important details, but leaves Accame's reconstruction of the allied resolution almost unaltered. A new reading, based on a re-examination both of the stone and of squeezes taken from it, was presented to the seminar. Digitised images were not used in this revision, although further reconstruction of the text may benefit from the results of other work on image enhancement being carried out in the Centre. The alternative reconstruction proposed offers a more plausible form for the beginning of the allied resolution, closely paralleled in other similar documents dealing with internal settlements elsewhere, and establishes the primary declared purpose of the settlement as the restoration of harmony among the citizens of Paros.
Curse tablets are texts inscribed on lead which invoke supernatural powers against other people.
May the goddess Sulis inflict him with the greatest death, and not allow him children now or in the future, until he has brought my caracalla to the temple of her divinity'. It contains turns of phrase or formulas found in British curse tablets, which can be paralleled outside Britain in curses and in religious or legal texts. Often the unknown thief is exhaustively described in quasi-legal terms, 'whether slave or free' being a favourite formula. These British curses are thus much closer to petitions than to magic spells. This handwriting is the only dating evidence, and ranges from the second century to the fourth.