EPITAPH OF L. MUSSIUS DEXTER, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.104.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.104 AshLI 103

A white marble stele (on a modern mount) with rounded pediment flanked on each side by an acroterion decorated with curved lines (0.415 0.255 0.06). In the middle of the pediment is a wreath tied with ribbons trailing to each side. The rear is smoothly finished. Its present condition is good, with only slight damage to the acroterion at top left.

The inscription on the front surface is enclosed within a simple moulded rectangular frame (0.22 0.195). The whole text is roughly centred. Some care has been given to the layout of the inscription so as to emphasise the name of the deceased, but after this no attempt is made to avoid words overlapping different lines. Triangular interpuncts occur fairly consistently.

 0.022cm (lines 1-2); 0.021 (line 3); 0.018 (lines 4-5); 0.017 (line 6); 0.016 (lines 7-8) Of unknown provenance, it probably originated from Rome, possibly from the Vigna Codini columbarium (see commentary below; Ferrua 1970-1971: p.72). possibly second century AD (use of DM formula/ tria nomina) (Solin 2003: vol. 1 p.288). It is first recorded in Oxford according to CIL, but is in fact listed in the sale catalogue (Langford 1749) for the collection belonging to Christopher Wren, Esq., of Hampton Court (son of Sir Christopher Wren) sold at auction in London as lot 49 on 5th April 1749, after his death. Lot 49 comprised six marble inscriptions (also C3-105, C3-106, C3-111, C3-112, C3-116). This lot was bought by Richard Rawlinson: he is listed in the sale catalogue as one of the buyers at the auction, and also himself writes later that year of having bought Latin inscriptions from Mr Wren’s sale (Enright 1956: p.306 - Rawlinson Bod. MS. C 989 f.123, 16 Nov 1749, letter to Bodleian’s librarian). All of these Latin inscriptions are in the Ashmolean as part of the Rawlinson Collection, which was given to Oxford University in 1753, and at first kept in the University Collection in the Bodleian Library (Enright 1956: p.340). At some point it then ended up in the basement of the (Old) Ashmolean Museum on Broad Street (now the Museum of the History of Science) (Munby 2013), since it is included in the archive MS. ‘Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum’ (p.32, no.156), a list of ancient marbles transferred in Jan. 1888 from the (Old) Ashmolean Museum basement room to the marble rooms of the Randolph Building on Beaumont Street, which had been built alongside the University Galleries. The Ashmolean Museum in its current location was built behind the University Galleries, was opened in 1894, and finally the University Galleries and Ashmolean were amalgamated by statute in 1908. It is currently in a storeroom. Photograph
dis manibus Lucio Mussio Dextro Mussia Athe nais filio be ne merenti fe cit qui vixit an nis XXVIII

To the spirits of the dead. Mussia Athenais did (this) for Lucius Mussius Dexter, her well deserving son, who lived for 28 years.

It may be the same mother, Mussia Athenais, who also set up an epitaph for another son, L. Mussius Verecundus (AE 1975 no.22), from the Vigna Codini columbarium on the via Appia during the first century AD: in this case, the son’s status as freedman is recorded. Verecundus may have been the elder son, who, dying aged 30, had been born whilst his mother was still a slave, but had reached the legal age for formal manumission, whereas Dexter, who died aged only 28, might by contrast have been freeborn, born after she had been manumitted (Weaver 1990: p.294).

Chandler (1763) Part 3, Pl.III.civ, with drawing; CIL VI.3 no.22759 [Hübner] (1886)

Online: EDR-145408 (S. Orlandi) [accessed 02/02/15]; EDCS-13201043 [accessed 02/02/15]

Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Clarendon Press Oxford Enright B.J. 1956 Richard Rawlinson: collector, antiquary, and topographer (Bod. MS. D.Phil. d.1786) Ferrua A. 1958 Giovanni Zaratino Castellini raccoglitore di epigrafi Epigraphica 20 121-60 Langford A. 1749 A catalogue of the genuine and entire collection of medals and statues of Christopher Wren Esq, late of Hampton Court, deceased; together with the collection of drawings of architecture of the late Sir Christopher Wren, his father (London 1749) http://artworld.york.ac.uk R. Stephens The art world in Britain 1660 to 1735 Munby J. 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 Solin H. 2003 Die griechischen Personennamen in Rom. Ein Namenbuch (2nd edn) 3 vols Berlin De Gruyter Weaver P. R. C. 1990 Where have all the Junian Latins gone? Nomenclature and status in the early Empire Chiron 20 275-305