A SOLDIER'S EPITAPH, LONDON Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.10.xml 154510 London Museum of London ANChandler.3.10 AshLI 09

A stele of limestone, with an inscription at the top, and a full-length male figure in a niche below (2.09 0.78 0.27). The rear remains rough and unfinished. The figure carved in the niche is roughly three-quarters lifesized (1.23 tall/ roughly 4 feet). He stands facing the viewer, and is represented with short tunic, belt, and cloak, carrying a staff in his right hand, and what appears to be a scroll in his left. The wooden staff might be taken as a mark of status as a centurion. His face has worn away. Some illustrations of the tombstone have restored the figure in various ways, representing him with short hair (Gale 1709) or with ringlets (Horsley 1732) according to contemporary fashion, and depicting him as bearing a sword. The unreliability of such illustrations (cf. also Allen 1827: pp.20-21) is noted by Knight (1841: p.286), who critiques the desire (e.g. by Pennant 1790: pp.11-12) to identify Marcianus as a ‘British-born’ soldier, precisely on the basis of such inaccurate drawings. A much more reliable image, executed in watercolour over graphite, was produced by J.W. Archer in 1852 (now in the British Museum: BM inv. 1874,0314.234; and accessible online as image AN651893001). There are two secondary dowel-holes in line 3 of the inscription, another in the figure’s chest, and another half way up on the right-hand edge of the monument (with remains of metal still visible). The former apparently caused some confusion in early accounts of the text (see below). There is also a small rectangular dowel hole on both left and right side edges, corresponding to each other, at about the neck height of the figure. The bottom right edge of the tombstone is slightly cut away, up to the height of the figure’s knee. The surface of the inscription is eroded and scratched.

Horizontal lines across the width of the stone, below the first line and above the last line, mark out an inscribed area. Inscribed area: 0.54.

 0.052 (line 1); 0.06 + 0.035 (line 2); 0.053 (line 3); 0.05 (line 4); 0.046 + 0.024 (line 5); 0.045 (line 6); 0.048 (line 7). In line 2, the final I is smaller, wrapped within the C. In addition to fairly large triangular interpuncts (throughout, except at line ends), there is an ivy-leaf interpunct in line 3, between ANO and LEG. Wilson and Wright (1970: p.315, ‘corrigendum’), following Birley (1966: p.228), suggest that a centurial sign > may be squeezed in before the ivy-leaf interpunct. It looks, however, as if either only the top part of this sign is inscribed or its lower part has been worn away. This mark might otherwise be interpreted as an interpunct, but given that the interpuncts elsewhere in the text are simple triangular marks, interpreting this mark as the top half of > seems more attractive. In line 3, O is carved at a higher level than the rest of the letters in that line. The numeral II in line 3 has a horizontal line across its top. The letters in line 4 are irregularly cut, deviating from a straight line so as to arch up towards a peak at N. In line 5, the O of CONIVNX is smaller, wrapped inside the C. There are ligatures in line 5, TI; line 7, RI. In the last line, the word MEMORIAM is split in two, ME…MORIAM, by the rounded top of the niche below. St Martin’s Church, Ludgate Hill, London perhaps 3rd century AD (from military context) The tombstone was found by Sir Christopher Wren in 1669, when St Martin’s Church, Ludgate Hill, London was being rebuilt following the Great Fire of 1666. According to Prideaux (1676), it was brought to Oxford at the expense of the Archbishop of Canterbury. At the time, this was none other than Gilbert Sheldon (Spurr 2008), who had longstanding ties to the University as Fellow and Warden of All Souls, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Chancellor, and benefactor of the Sheldonian Theatre, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and completed also in 1669. The tombstone was consequently displayed in the Garden of Antiquities next to the Sheldonian Theatre (Sturdy and Moorcraft 1999: p.28), before being transferred indoors in 1715 to ‘The Marble School’, an upper gallery in the Bodleian Quadrangle. In 1749, the collection of marbles was transferred downstairs to the ground floor in the former School of Moral Philosophy, and at some point then ended up in the basement of the (Old) Ashmolean Museum on Broad Street (now the Museum of the History of Science) (Munby 2013). )In 1931 it was on display in The Arundel Vestibule on the Ground Floor of the museum (Leeds 1931: p.21). The monument is now on display in the Museum of London. Photograph: front face Photograph (Clio Ancient Art and Antiquities, Roman and Greek Art tumblr)
dis manibus Vivio Marci ano U+1019B legionis II Augustae Ianuaria Martina coniunx pientissima posu it memoriam

To the spirits of the departed. Ianuaria Martina, most dutiful wife, set up the monument for Vivius Marcianus, centurion of the 2nd Legion Augusta.

Omitted (Horsley) LEG H (Prideaux); MIL. LEG, with ligatured MI (Gale); MILEG, with ligatured MIL (Horsley); MIL. EG. II (Chandler; Gough fig.); MIL LEG II, with ligatured MIL and LEG (Gough text; Hübner in CIL); 7. LEG.II (Muratori); M LEG. II (Roach Smith); ivy-leaf LEG II (Collingwood); centurial sign squeezed in before ivy-leaf (Wilson and Wright) MARINA (Prideaux; Muratori); MATRINA, with ligatured TR (Gale; Chandler; Horsley; Roach Smith); MARTINA, with ligatured RT (Hübner in CIL); MARTINA, with ligatured TI (Collingwood) POSVI/T (Prideaux; Maittaire)

This is a sizeable tombstone set up for a Roman soldier by his wife. The name Vivius is a variant spelling of Vibius, substituting B with V. There is some dispute about whether or not the inscription does specify his rank, but the depiction of him holding a vine-staff (vitis) supports the hypothesis that he was a centurion. The 2nd Legion Augusta came to Britain during the Claudian invasion and remained until the Romans withdrew from the province, being based at Caerleon by the mid-second century. It was quite usual for individual soldiers to be posted to serve in the provincial capital at London, however. His presence in London may therefore be explained by supposing him to have been seconded to the staff of the provincial governor there. The stone dates perhaps to the 3rd century AD. If Martina’s title as ‘wife’ was a legal statement of their relationship, then the tomb would have to date after AD 197, when soldiers were given the right to marry (Merrifield 1983: p.176). If, however, Vivius Marcianus was a centurion, then, as an officer, he would have been free to marry in any case before that time (Birley 1966: p.228).

Prideaux (1676) p.280, no.147, with drawing; Gale (1709) pp.67-68 with fig.; Maittaire (1732) p.46, no.140 (picture); Horsley (1732) p.331 + Middlesex pl.no.I; Muratori (1740) p.871 no.1; Chandler (1763) Part 3, Pl. II.x, with drawing; Gough (1789) I pl.xvii fig. 13, II p.16; Roach Smith (1848) p.127, with fig.; Roach Smith (1859) pp.22-23, with fig.; CIL VII no.23 (Hübner, 1873); Taylor and Collingwood (1927) p.218 no.38.; Collingwood (1928) p.173 no.15 fig. 76, pl. 60; RIB I no.17 (1965); Wilson and Wright (1970) p.315; RIB I2 no.17 (1995); Wacher (1995) p.85 + fig.36; Maxfield and Dobson (2006) no.184

Online: EDCS-07800242 [accessed 10/06/14]; Online CIL schedae: http://cil.bbaw.de/dateien/cil_view.php?KO=KO0087914 [accessed 10/06/14]

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