The Romans were into curses. And having an inscription of what the particular curse was intended to do on the object used in the whole cursing ritual (which usually meant tossing it into the waters of a spring, which normally had healing associated with it but apparently also the opposite) was normal, so it would make sense that Tolkien's One Ring could be inspired by a Roman curse.
I suppose it could have been inspired by any number of curses, though...
