ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the Tabula Alcantarensis, found near Alcántara, in the province of Cáceres, on the River Tagus and first published in 1984. The tablet contains the example of the recording of a deditio on an inscription; its contents, especially in the context of the warfare which took place in the Spanish provinciae in the second century, are therefore very interesting. A parody in Plautus shows that the words Livy gives were at least recognised as part of the deditio formula in the early second century. If the case of M. Claudius Marcellus shows the strength of the position of the commander when dealing with a deditio, that of Q. Pompeius, consul in 141 bc, who also attempted to end the war centred on Numantia which had been stirred up by the Lusitanian leader, Viriathus, among the peoples of the north, reveals that the senate was not as incapable of intervening as they seem to have been with Marcellus.
