Gorgocutie’s Breakdown:
These four faces belong to a single Roman stylus from around 70 AD — a bronze writing tool used to inscribe text on wax tablets. Found in London (Londinium), it bears an inscription along all four sides in Latin capital letters.
The funny caption translates it into the ancient equivalent of “I went to the city and all I bought you was this lousy pen.” In reality, the inscription probably reads something closer to “Londini ad templum Isidis” — “London, to the temple of Isis” — making this essentially the world’s oldest tourist souvenir. A bored Roman metalsmith carved a cheeky keepsake for a traveler visiting a temple in Roman Britain 2,000 years ago.
It’s remarkable how little has changed. We’re still buying cheap trinkets at historical sites and pretending they’re meaningful gifts for people back home. Some things are timeless.
TL;DR: A Roman bronze stylus from 70 AD basically says “souvenir from London” — proving that tourist trinkets are literally a 2,000-year-old tradition.
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