Modius (corn measure)

This modius, found in Carvoran Roman Fort, just a few yards north of the north-west corner of the fort in 1915, is an extremely rare find. The inscription on the outside dates it to the reign of Domitian and says it holds 17 ½ sextarii. It can in fact hold 20.8 sextarii, however, and so if it was used to measure tax paid in grain, the tax payers were being swindled! Domitian’s name has been scratched out, a practice linked with the phenomenon of damnatio memoriae – where the memory of someone was damned, and wiped from record.