Tabulae 

Tabulae This word properly means planks or boards, whence it is applied to several objects, as gaming-tables, pictures, but more especially to tablets used for writing, of which alone we have to speak here. The word Tabulae was applied to any flat substance used for writing upon, whether stone or metal, or wood covered with wax.  Tabulae and Tabellae more frequently signify waxen tablets, which were thick pieces of wood usually of an oblong shape, covered over with wax. The wax was written on by means of the stilus.  These tabulae were sometimes made of ivory and citron-wood, but generally of a wood of a more common tree, as the beech, fir, &c. The outer sides of the tablets consisted merely of the wood; it was only the inner sides that were covered over with wax. They were fastened together at the back by means of wires, which answered the purpose of hinges, so that they opened and shut like our books; and to prevent the wax of one tablet rubbing against the wax of the other. There were sometimes two, three, four, five, or even more, tablets fastened together in the above-mentioned manner. In tables containing important legal documents, especially wills, the outer edges were pierced through with holes, through which a triple thread was passed, and upon which a seal was then placed. This was intended to guard against forgery, and if it was not done such documents were null and void.

Waxen tablets were used among the Romans for almost every species of writing, where great length was not required. Thus letters were frequently written upon them, which were secured by being fastened together with packthread and sealed with wax.  Such tablets were also used for accounts, in which a person entered what he received and expended, they were also used in voting in the comitia and the courts of justice.  To erase the tablets they were exposed to heat to melt the wax, or the old wax was scraped off, re-melted, and poured back in.

Waxen tablets continued to be used in Europe for the purposes of writing in the middle ages

The STILUS or STYLUS

An iron instrument, resembling a pencil in size and shape, used for writing upon waxed tablets.  At one end it was sharpened to a point for scratching the characters upon the wax, while the other end being flat and circular served to render the surface of the tablets smooth again, and so to obliterate what had been written.