ASH CHEST FOR PUBLILIA SPES, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.11.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.11 AshLI 10

An ash chest of white marble, with its lid (overall 0.26 0.345 with lid 0.23). It is decorated to left and right on the front with two naked boys carrying a festoon bearing fruit, which hangs down beneath the inscribed panel. On both sides is a garland with ribbons. The rear surface of the chest is smoothly finished. On the front of the lid are two torches, which meet in the centre of the chest beneath its apex. In the centre of its top surface is a sunken circle, with a small hole in its centre. It is currently in quite a good condition, but repairs are visible to the back. A portion of the lid (rear left) is missing, and the lid itself also bears a number of cracks.

The epitaph is inscribed within a separate frame, at top centre. Inscribed area: 0.09 0.12 Text is centred. Interpuncts are faintly visible, but there may have been more which have been worn away.

 0.01 (throughout). The lettering in the epitaph is rather faint. It is of unknown provenance, but probably came from Rome. perhaps second or third century AD (based on use of DM formula; lack of filiation) 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), and 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 ash chest is included in the archive MS. ‘Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum’ (p.28, no.13), 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. The ash chest is currently in a storeroom. Photograph: front face Photograph: front face Photograph: side Photograph: lid Photograph: inscription
dis manibus Publiliae Spei vixit annos >XVI menses VIIII dies XVIIII

To the spirits of the dead. For Publilia Spes; she lived for 16 years, 9 months, 19 days.

RVBELLIAE (Prideaux; Maittaire) M VIII (Prideaux; Maittaire)

The status of the deceased is unclear. The small hole in the lid was used to pour libations into the ash chest.

Prideaux (1676) p.124, no.66; Maittaire (1732) p.43, no.125; Chandler (1763) Part 3, Pl. II.xi, with drawing; CIL VI.4 fasc.1 no.25197 [Hübner] (1894); Michaelis (1882) p.590, no.215

Online: EDCS-13801449 [accessed 11/06/14]; Arachne no.50780: http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/item/objekt/50780 [accessed 03.03.14]

Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Clarendon Press Oxford Maittaire M. 1732, 2nd edn. Marmorum, Arundellianorum, Seldenianorum, Aliorumque Academiae Oxoniensi Donatorum London William Bowyer Michaelis A. 1882 Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, translated by C.A.M. Fennell Cambridge Cambridge University Press 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 Prideaux H. 1676 Marmora Oxoniensia ex Arundellianis, Seldenianis, aliisque conflata Oxford Sturdy D. and N. Moorcraft 1999 Christopher Wren and Oxford’s garden of antiquities Minvera 10.1 25-28.