Whimsy Incubator
A stationer's eye for a forged document. Each pair below holds one genuine record and one forgery with one to three planted tells — pick which half is the forgery, then open "Reveal" to see what gave it away.
Score: 0 correct of 0 picked
Document A
To all who may read this: Gaius Opiternius, soldier of the frontier cohort, entered the service in the eighteenth year of his life and has this day, after twenty-five years under the standards, been granted an honorable discharge, his name entered upon the rolls without blemish, and with it the right of lawful marriage to the woman he has to wife or shall first take hereafter. Let him keep this tablet as his proof, in the consulship of Gnaeus Satrienus and Appius Vennonius.
Document B
To all who may read this: Gaius Opiternius, soldier of the frontier cohort, entered the service in the twelfth year of his life and has this day, after twenty-five years under the standards, been granted an honorable discharge, together with all boundary stones and water rights appurtenant thereto, his name entered upon the rolls without blemish. Let him keep this tablet as his proof, in the consulship of Gnaeus Satrienus and Appius Vennonius.
A stationer's eye catches it twice over: no camp ever swore in a boy of twelve, and no discharge paper ever needed to speak of boundary stones or water rights — that clause belongs to a deed, not a soldier's tablet.
Document A
Let it be known that Vibia Sentiana has sold to Paulla Nasidiena a vineyard of ten iugera, bounded on the east by the old road for three iugera, on the south by the stream for four, on the west by the cypress stand for two, and on the north by the Pontilius boundary stones for four, this land having passed down three generations in the Sentiana family until Vibia received it as her bride's dowry only last year, for the price of six thousand sesterces paid in full, in the consulship of Lucius Fadienus and Marcus Tannonius, witnessed by five citizens whose seals are set below.
Document B
Let it be known that Vibia Sentiana has sold to Paulla Nasidiena a vineyard of ten iugera, bounded on the east by the old road for three iugera, on the south by the stream for three, on the west by the cypress stand for two, and on the north by the Pontilius boundary stones for two, this land held by Vibia these ten years past, for the price of six thousand sesterces paid in full, in the consulship of Lucius Fadienus and Marcus Tannonius, the transfer witnessed and sealed by Numerius Caedicius, Appia Terentilla, Sextus Oppidius, Marcia Vennonia, and Lucius Baebidienus, each setting his or her own mark below this tablet, with the further provision that any dispute over the boundary stones named above shall be settled by three arbiters chosen from among the neighboring landholders rather than brought before the magistrate directly, and that a copy of this tablet shall be kept in the archive of the district granary for so long as the vineyard itself stands planted.
A stationer's eye lands on the sums first: three and four and two and four make thirteen iugera, not the ten the deed opens with — and a vineyard can't both pass down three generations and arrive as last year's dowry.
Document A
Decimus Fadienus to his friend Spurius Tannonius, greeting. If you are well, it is well; I also am well. I send to you the bearer of this letter, a man known to me and worthy of your kindness, who comes to your town on the matter of a debt owed to his late father by a merchant there, and will explain it better than I could set it down in a letter, asking that you receive him as you would receive me, and show him whatever aid his business there requires. Greet your mother and all your household for me. Take care of yourself. Farewell.
Document B
Decimus Fadienus to his friend Spurius Tannonius, greeting. If you are well, it is well; I also am well. I send to you the bearer of this letter, a man known to me and worthy of your kindness, who departed my house at dawn and dined with you that same evening three hundred miles distant, asking that you receive him as you would receive me. Let him who hinders the bearer of this letter be deprived of his inheritance and his name struck from every testament, world without end. Take care of yourself. Farewell.
A stationer's eye catches a traveler who covers three hundred miles between breakfast and supper, and a closing curse that belongs on a will, not a letter of introduction — no correspondent writes like that to a friend.
Document A
Let it be recorded that Quintus Pontilius has this day freed his slave Festa, who shall henceforth be known as Festa Pontilia, a free woman, this manumission costing five hundred denarii paid to the treasury, of which account three hundred denarii for the registration fee and four hundred denarii for the scribe's entry are set down below, and that Festa Pontilia, being now free, stands eligible this same day for election to the magistracy of her district, witnessed by those whose names are set below.
Document B
Let it be recorded that Quintus Pontilius has this day freed his slave Festa, who shall henceforth be known as Festa Pontilia, a free woman, this manumission costing five hundred denarii paid to the treasury, of which account three hundred denarii for the registration fee and two hundred denarii for the scribe's entry are set down below, witnessed by those whose names are set below.
A stationer's eye adds the fees first — three hundred and four hundred make seven hundred, not the five hundred named above — and then catches a freedwoman made eligible for a magistracy on the very day of her own manumission, which the law never allows.
Document A
Ticket of the grain dole: Marcus Oppidius, of the third district, is entitled to twenty modii of grain for this month, to be collected at the public granary upon presentation of this ticket and no other.
Document B
Ticket of the grain dole: Marcus Oppidius, of the third district, is entitled to twenty modii of grain for this month — recorded in the ledger as XL modii — to be collected at the public granary upon presentation of this ticket and no other, and filed in triplicate for the quarterly audit.
A stationer's eye reads twenty in the words and forty in the numeral on the same line, and a ticket that files itself in triplicate for an audit — no grain clerk ever spoke that way.
Document A
Certificate of the Ropemakers' Brotherhood of Duovicus: Lucilla Vatiena, having paid her dues in full, is enrolled a member in good standing, the brotherhood itself founded ten years past, Lucilla having served as its duumvir for the past fifteen consecutive years, having completed her service with full honor and no entry of misconduct upon the rolls.
Document B
Certificate of the Ropemakers' Brotherhood of Duovicus: Lucilla Vatiena, having paid her dues in full, is enrolled a member in good standing, the brotherhood itself founded ten years past, Lucilla having served as its duumvir for the past four years, elected twice running by her fellow members.
A stationer's eye does the subtraction first — fifteen years as duumvir of a ten-year-old brotherhood is impossible — then catches a soldier's own discharge phrase sitting where a guild certificate has no use for it.