EPITAPH OF L. AETIDIUS, ROME (?) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.101.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.101 AshLI 100

None is available from autopsy, since the stone has been missing since at least 1763. Neither Prideaux nor Maittaire offers a description, either.

It is of unknown provenance, but probably originates from Rome. It probably dates from the late first century BC/ early first century AD because of the following textual features: no cognomen is recorded for the deceased; the inclusion of filiation and tribe generally occurred only during the early imperial period (Solin 1971: p.36); the formula Sp. f. was also most common during this period (Rawson 1989: p.37). It was first recorded in Oxford by Prideaux as part of the Arundel Collection, which was given to the University of Oxford by Henry Howard, Earl of Arundel, in 1667 (Prideaux 1676). The Arundel marbles were first displayed in the ‘Garden of Antiquities’ outside the new Sheldonian Theatre from 1668/9 (Sturdy and Moorcraft 1999). The inscriptions were subsequently transferred indoors in 1715 to ‘The Marble School’, an upper gallery in the Bodleian Quadrangle. In 1749, they were 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). The inscription had gone missing by 1763, when Chandler (1763: p.xviii) had to derive his edition of it from Maittaire.
Luci Aetidi Spuri filii Arnensis ossa hic sita sunt

Here are buried the bones of Lucius Aetidius, son of Spurius, of the Arnensis voting-tribe.

Prideaux, Maittaire, Chandler indicate another (illegible) line above this one.

The filiation, ‘son of Spurius’, suggests that the deceased was of illegitimate birth – in other words, that his mother had not been in a legally recognised marriage at the time of her birth (Rawson 1989).

Prideaux (1676) p.146, no.98; Fabretti (1702) p.601 no.19 (from Barberini schedae); Maittaire (1732) p.43, no.123; Chandler (1763) p.138, no.101 (following Maittaire); CIL VI 11191

Online: EDCS-17200907 [accessed 08/09/15]

ChandlerR. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press Fabretti R. 1702 Inscriptionum antiquarum quae in aedibus paternis asseruantur explicatio et additamentum Rome MaittaireM. 1732, 2nd edn Marmorum, Arundellianorum, Seldenianorum, Aliorumque Academiae Oxoniensi Donatorum London William Bowyer MunbyJ. 2013 A rare collection: Oxford museums past and present Excalibur: Essays on Antiquity and the History of Collecting in Honour of Arthur MacGregor H.Wiegel and M.Vickers Oxford BAR Int. ser. 2512 75-85 PrideauxH. 1676 Marmora Oxoniensia ex Arundellianis, Seldenianis aliisque conflata Oxford Rawson B. 1989 Spurii and the Roman view of illegitimacy Antichton 23 10-41 Solin H. 1971 Beiträge zur Kenntnis der griechischen Personennamen in Rom I Helsinki Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum 48 SturdyD. and N.Moorcraft 1999 Christopher Wren and Oxford’s garden of antiquities Minerva 10.1 25-28