EPITAPH OF HUSBAND AND SON, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.114 Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.114 AshLI

An unadorned rectangular slab of white marble, its top edge rounded off rather than cut straight across (0.144 0.215 0.034) (in a modern mount). The rear is smoothly finished, but rough at the bottom. It is in a good condition, with traces of red dye still visible in the lettering.

The inscription is carefully laid out, with variable spacing of letters (especially in lines 2, 6) and use of centring to aid reading of the text. Triangular interpuncts occur except at line ends, but sparingly in line 3 where space is short. Guiding lines for the stonecutter are visible throughout.

 0.012 (lines 1-4), with tall I 0.014 in lines 1 and 3; 0.014 (lines 5-6) Rome first or second century AD (Solin 2003, vol. 1: p.480). According to CIL, this inscription was first recorded seen in Rome in the mid-seventeenth century by Marquard Gude [= Gudius], in the possession of the painter Giovanni Angelo Canini at piazza di Spagna. It is then mentioned (Ainsworth 1720; Muratori 1740, with information sent by Henri Joseph de Thomassin de Mazaugues) as having been in the collection of the London antiquary John Kemp (1665–1717: Goodwin 2008) until his death in 1717 (Ainsworth 1720), and it may earlier have been part of the collection of John Gailhard, much of whose collection was bought by John Kemp in 1695 (Nichols 1812: p.249). In his will, Kemp stipulated that Robert Earl of Oxford or his son should inherit the collection and books for 2,000 pounds, but the bequest was not accepted on these terms. Kemp’s collection was subsequently sold in 293 lots for £1090 8s. 6d in total at an auction in the Phoenix Tavern, Pall Mall, Westminster between 23rd-25th and on 27th March 1721: the auctioneer’s catalogue for March 1721 includes several entries for ‘Latin inscriptions’ (Online Catalogue, Sir John Soanes Museum). It is subsequently 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 50 on 5th April 1749, after his death. Lot 50 comprised seven marble inscriptions in frames (but only six listed in the catalogue: also C3-107, C3-115, C3-119, C3-124, C3-125). 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). It is included in a list of antique marbles transferred from the Ashmolean Museum basement room to the marble rooms of the Randolph Building in January 1888 (Archive MS. ‘Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum’ p.34, no.166). It is currently in a storeroom photograph
Caio Iulio U+0186mulieris liberto Fortunato Manilia Tyche coniugi fidelissimo idem et Caio Manilio Fortunato filio qui hic situs est

Manilia Tyche set this up for Gaius Iulius Fortunatus, freedman of a woman, her most loyal husband, and also for Gaius Manilius Fortunatus her son, who is buried here.

The epitaph relates to the family of Manilia Tyche. Her son, C. Manilius Fortunatus, whose status as either freeborn citizen or freedman is not mentioned in the epitaph (and so we might suspect the latter is more likely), has taken his gentilician name from his mother and his cognomen from his father, who was a freedman. His parents at the time of his birth could not therefore have been married by law: either his mother (whose status as freeborn or freedwoman remains uncertain: Solin 2003, vol.1: p.480) or father (or both of them) was freed only after he had been born.

Gude ms. 395, 2 (according to CIL); Ainsworth (1720) p.40 no.19; Hesselius (= Marquard Gude) (1731) p.275 no. 11; Muratori (1740) p.1359 no.6 (from de Mazaugues); Chandler (1763) Part 3, Pl.III.cxiv, with drawing; CIL VI.3 no.20018 [Hübner] (1886).

Online: EDCS-12200699 [accessed 29/10/15]

Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum Sir John Soane's Museum, Collection Online / Monvmenta vetustatis Kempiana http://collections.soane.org/b9499 [accessed 29/10/15] Ainsworth R. 1720 Monumenta vetustatis Kempiana London Vaillant Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press Enright B.J. 1956 Richard Rawlinson: collector, antiquary, and topographer (Bod. MS. D.Phil. d.1786) Goodwin Gordon 2008 Kemp, John (1665–1717) rev. Philip Carter, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press (online edn) [accessed 24/07/14] Hesselius F. 1731 Antiquae Inscriptiones quam Graecae tum Latinae olim a Marquardo Gudio collectae Leovardia 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 Muratori L.A. 1739, 1740, 1740, 1742 Novus thesaurus veterum inscriptionum I-IV Milan Nichols J. 1812 Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century. Vol. 5 London Nichols, son, and Bentley Solin H. 2003 Die griechischen Personennamen in Rom. Ein Namenbuch (2nd edn) 3 vols Berlin De Gruyter