Wax tablets are little planks hollowed out on two sides, and then filled with wax. A pointed stilus was used to write letters in the wax surface. The flat back end of the stilus was then applied to erase the text, rendering wax tablets the ideal notebook for children at school.

School exercise of mythological nature. 4th cent. AD

This page shows the story of the creation of man by Prometheus. It is an acrostichon, each new sentence starting with the next letter of the Greek alphabet.

Modelling, Prometheus made mortals from the divine image (?). According to the wish of the gods - - - (he made?) mortals by hand (?). So, having mixed earth and water, he made _- - -. Hard to tear away and dark, he - - - finished the hair. - - - putting eyebrows in front. As a bridge in the middle of the eyes he stretched out and made the nose. - - - twice - - - and to the temples he fastened. He made within the mouth the treasury of the tongue for the speech. Adequately he formed cheeks, he combined - - - with cheeks (?).

For the Greek text, see pdf at the foot of this page. 
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This was the first page of the notebook, the other side formed the cover. The cover was decorated with a set of three concentric circles, drawn with the help of a compass. 

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Complete schoolbook. C. 350 AD

The following five wax tablets together form a complete schoolbook. It was carved out of one single block of beech wood (most likely imported from Italy).

Front cover.The outer sides of the notebook were not hollowed out for the wax. 

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Of the eight pages containing writing, seven show the same writing exercise. At the top of each page the name of the student was written in cursive handwriting. Below that the writing exercise is found,  in separate, meticulously formed uncial capital letters. The exercise itself is a quote from Isocrates (Ad Demonicum 1):

Αὐρήλιος Ἀντώνιος Νεμεσίωνος 
οἱ μὲν γὰρ τοὺς φί- 
λους παρόντας μ- 
όνον τιμῶσιν, οἱ δ- 
ὲ  καὶ  μακρὰν ἀπ- 
όντας ἀγαπῶσιν. 

Aurelius Antonius, son of Nemesion. For some honour their friends only when they are near, others love them even when they are far away. 

The first page, below, was probably written by the teacher. Below the writing exercise the names of three pupils were written (Antoinius son of Nemesion, Makarios son of Paulos and Paulos son of Elias), who supposedly had to do this exercise on a Wednesday ('day of Hermes').

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Page with the same writing exercise. 
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Page with the same writing exercise, now with an error in the third line of the quote. 
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This next page has the same writing error in the (here) fourth line of the quote. 
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On the back of the former page the exercise was written faultless again. 
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The page below is different. To the left an exercise in dividing syllables (three-syllable words starting with N) and to the right the table of 40, looking like this: 
1 x 40 = 40 
40 x 1 = 40 
2 x 40 = 80 
40 x 2 = 80 etc. 
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Again a page with the known writing exercise. 
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On the last tablet on one side the same writing exercise again (restarting the quote at the end). 
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Finally, the back cover, not hollowed out but nonetheless covered with a thin layer of wax.
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