1 More from the Romano-British poets? A possible metrical inscription from East Farleigh, Kent By ALEX MULLEN and R. S. O. TOMLIN ABSTRACT A four-line inscription in Old Roman Cursive on a pot base found in excavations in East Farleigh, Kent, in 2010 appears to be written (at least in part) in metre and has close textual similarities with examples from Binchester, County Durham. We describe the new text and then offer some thoughts about the possible relationship of these British texts to extant Latin verse and consider how to interpret the Kentish piece in context. Although much remains uncertain in our understanding of the text, it is a significant addition to the Romano-British corpus. Keywords: Binchester; East Farleigh; metrical inscription; Martial; Old Roman Cursive; Ovid; Propertius; Reflectance Transformation Imaging; Saturnalia. Metrical inscriptions from Roman Britain are rare. 1 Though the reading and interpretation of the text on a fragmentary and broken pot-base from East Farleigh, Kent, remain uncertain at several points, the authors believe that it may be (in part at least) a metrical graffito, showing clear similarities with two previously found at Binchester, County Durham. Given we do not commonly find inscribed objects in British rural excavations, 2 it is all the more impressive that lightly incised writing was identified during the washing of ceramic on site in East Farleigh in 2010. The pot-base was found in excavations of Building 5 of a group of Roman buildings, which has been excavated by the Maidstone Area Archaeological Group (MAAG) since 2005. 3 The village is located on the south-side of the River Medway about two miles upstream from Maidstone. Interest in the site began in the 1830s when a Roman building, then referred to as a villa, was discovered and its plan published. 4 Work by the MAAG team has so far uncovered five Roman-period buildings and two large ditches. The team do not believe that the structures should necessarily be interpreted as a Roman villa, though the nature of the site has not yet been firmly determined. The site has produced relatively high numbers of inscribed objects for a Romano-British rural site, including several sherds of pottery of various types, a lead tablet and part of a glass vessel, 5 none of which appears to be closely related to the pot-base under analysis here. 1 These texts have been a subject of recent scholarly interest, for example Asciutti 2010; Cugusi 2006, 2014; Kruschwitz 2015; Schumacher 2012. 2 Recent research has suggested that levels of rural literacy were probably slightly higher in Roman Britain than the pessimistic traditional view, see Brindle’s contribution to chapter 3 of Smith et al. 2018; Mullen 2016; Tomlin 2018. 3 An overview of the site can be found at http://www.maag.btck.co.uk/ExcavationsatEastFarleigh/SiteOverview [last accessed 24.1.2018]. 4 Smith 1839, 56–57. This ‘villa’ is probably Building 1 in the MAAG plans, though they do not seem to match precis ely. 5 All these items will appear in the annual notices in Britannia. The lead tablet has already been published in Britannia 43 (2010), 402, No. 12 with Britannia 47 (2016), 414–415, Add. (d) with Fig. 32. The glass sherd can be found in Britannia 49 (2018), 443, No. 33.