The contents of most of the texts are mundane: private letters, accounts, daily reports of the units garrisoned there, lists of men allocated to various duties, etc. A significant number of the tablets are associated with Flavius Cerialis and his household. His name suggests that he or his father gained citizenship at the time of the Batavian Revolt in AD 70, presumably for loyalty. In one text, the decurion Masclus refers to him as ‘his king’. The editors of the tablets are inclined to see this as no more than sycophancy by a subordinate, but it is possible that he was from the Batavian royal family. Neither he nor his wife, Sulpicia Lepidina, are recorded outside the tablets. The editors suggest that her family became Roman citizens through the favour of the short-lived Emperor Sulpicius Galba, who reigned for several months after the suicide of Nero. This is possible, but she could equally have come from a family whose citizenship was far older. There is no evidence that she was the daughter of a senator, but once again this is not impossible. A generation or so later, such a woman is recorded as the wife of an auxiliary prefect commanding the garrison of High Rochester.

Commanders of auxiliary units usually served with them for three or more years, and Cerialis and Sulpicia Lepidina seem to have been at Vindolanda for at least as long as this. Texts give us some idea of the food they provided for guests – with poultry and eggs common – and his taste for hunting. They also tell us of the social life of garrison commanders – in one letter Claudia Severa speaks of coming to visit Vindolanda, but requiring her husband’s permission to do so, and probably his assistance in arranging transport and, most likely, an escort. Elsewhere Sulpicia Lepidina appears supporting an appeal for assistance made to her husband, and it is clear that an officer’s wife behaved much as she did in more settled provinces, not simply running the household but trading favours in a very Roman way.