=Writing.=--The wax-coated tablet which contains the foregoing table was the usual appliance for writing. A writing lesson is shown in the terracotta group (No. =602=, fig. 236, _left_). The instrument employed was a pointed implement, called by the Romans a _stilus_. An example in ivory, here figured (No. =609=; fig. 239), was found in a tomb of the fifth century B.C. at Eretria in Euboea. The broad flat end was used for erasures, so that we find the Romans using the phrase _vertere stilum_, "to turn the pen" in the sense of "to erase." Numerous _stili_ in bronze are shown in the Case, and some are illustrated in fig. 240. The fifth example from the top in the illustration is in silver bound with gold wire, probably from France and of late Roman date. These tablets were not as a rule used singly, but strung together, so that the waxen surface was protected when the two or more leaves were closed. The present tablet was composed of two leaves, one of which is in the Department of Manuscripts with a writing exercise upon it. The arrangement of several tablets in a fashion anticipating the form of the modern book is well shown in the relief of the pork butcher (Case 41). [Illustration: FIG. 238.--TABLET WITH MULTIPLICATION TABLE AND READING EXERCISE (NO. 606).] [Illustration: FIG. 239.--IVORY _Stilus_ (NO. 609). 2:3.] For documents of a more permanent character paper was made from the papyrus plant, whence it takes its name. It was manufactured chiefly at Alexandria from the time of the foundation of that town in the fourth century B.C., and pen and ink were used to write on it. A specimen of Greek writing on papyrus is seen in the Case (No. =610=). It is a letter of the first century after Christ, asking that a supply of drugs of good quality--"none of your rotten stuff that won't pass muster in Alexandria"--should be sent to the writer, Prokleios. Later on, parchment, prepared from the skins of animals, and made principally at Pergamon, in Asia Minor, began to rival papyrus as writing-material. Specimens of ancient reed and bronze pens (No. =611=) are given in the illustration above (fig. 240), and a series of ancient inkpots is here figured (No. =612=; fig. 241). The pens, whose split nibs have a curiously modern appearance, are all of Roman date. The reed pens come from Behnesa, in Egypt, and one of the bronze pens was found in the Tiber at Rome. The inkpots are also of Roman date. The middle one of the lower row has its hinged cover still remaining, with the inlaid vine-spray in silver round the rim. The one to the right of it is in blue faïence, and was found in Egypt. [Illustration: FIG. 240.--ROMAN PENS AND _Stili_. 1:2.]