CHRISTIAN EPITAPH, CUMAE Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL AN2007.49.xml 258818 Oxford Ashmolean Museum AN2007.49 AshLI 159

A rectangular marble slab in a modern mount (0.22 0.46). There is some damage to its right side. At bottom right are the truncated remains of a circular shape and a thick horizontal line, suggesting that something has been cut off to the right side of the slab.

The text is preceded by a cross. There is an ivy-leaf interpunct at the end of line 2, and simple triangular interpuncts in line 3.

 0.034 (lines 1-2); 0.03 (line 3). According to Nissen (in CIL), it was found at Cumae. fourth century AD or later. According to Nissen (in CIL), it was found at Cumae, but located thereafter at Pozzuoli in the collection of Giuseppe De Criscio, a priest of Pozzuoli who collected antiquities from his local area (Tuck 2005: p.4). It was purchased by Charles Wilshere from De Criscio and brought back to London (according to Rossi, in CIL). Charles Wilshere (1814-1906) was a lawyer and member of the landed gentry, succeeding to his family estate at The Frythe, Welwyn (Hertfordshire) in 1867. As a supporter of the Oxford movement and Anglican layman, he had particular interest in ecclesiastical history, which he pursued during several trips to Rome between roughly 1860 and 1890, purchasing antiquities relevant to Judaism and early Christianity (Kraabel 1979: p.42). In addition to purchasing antiquities for his own collection, he presented others to the Vatican. This inscription was bequeathed to Pusey House, a noted centre for theological study in Oxford, in 1906, along with the rest of the Wilshere collection. It was subsequently loaned to and then purchased by the Ashmolean Museum. On the Wilshere collection, see Webster 1929, Kraabel 1979 and Vickers 2011. It is currently on display in the Mediterranean Gallery Photograph
hic requiescit in pace Sapis qui legis ora pro me

Here rests in peace Sapis. You who read this, pray for me.

SAPRIS (Wilshere).

Both the symbolism of the cross and the formulae used in this epitaph show that the deceased belonged to a Christian context. Diehl (1925) suggests that name Sapis is a form of Sapiens, whilst Solin (2006: p.311) cautiously discusses possible connections with a river Sapis in Italy and other toponyms and ethnics, and points out that even the gender of the name is uncertain here.

CIL X.1 no.3312 (1883); ILCV vol.1 no.2353 (Diehl, 1925); Webster (1929) p.150 no.8; Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities MS. Accession Register 2007.49

Online: EDCS-15400741 [accessed 03/09/14] ; EDR-128960 (G. Camodeca) [accessed 05/02/15]

Kraabel A.T. 1979 Jews in Imperial Rome: More Archaeological Evidence from an Oxford Collection’ Journal of Jewish Studies 30 41-58 Solin H. 2006 Varia onomastica XV Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 156 308-12 Tuck S.L. 2005 Latin inscriptions in the Kelsey Museum. The Dennison and De Criscio Collections Ann Arbor The University of Michigan Press Vickers M. 2011 The Wilshere Collection of Early Christian and Jewish Antiquities in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford Miscellanea a Emilio Marin Sexagenario Dicata Split Franjevačka provincija Presv. Otkupitelja: Kačić 41-43 605-614 Webster T.B.L. 1929 The Wilshere Collection at Pusey House in Oxford JRS 19 150-54