A FATHER’S EPITAPH, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.121.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.121 AshLI 120

A plain rectangular slab of white marble with grey veins (0.358 0.437 0.024), in a modern mount. There are four metal marks showing oxidisation at top centre, bottom centre, and to left and right. There is minor surface damage and the plaque is slightly chipped around its edges. The rear of the stone is smoothly finished.

The inscription is inscribed on the front face, and the text is roughly centred on each line. There are triangular interpuncts throughout. Long vowels are marked with apices above E and O in ATIMETO (line 2) and the second E in SYNEGDEMVS (line 4).

 0.035 (lines 1-3);0.03 (lines 4-5); 0.028 (line 6) Rome. possibly second century AD (use of DM formula and onomastics) (Solin 2003: vol. 2, p.1062) or third century AD (use of plus minus formula). This inscription was first recorded in the gardens belonging to the Villa Mattei on the Caelian (Marquard Gude [= Gudius] according to CIL), before it ended up in the collection of London antiquary John Kemp (1665–1717: Goodwin 2008) until his death in 1717 (Ainsworth 1720; Muratori 1740). 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 part of the Rawlinson Collection, which was given to Oxford University in 1753 (Chandler 1763: p.xix), 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.35, no.173), 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 plaque is currently in a storeroom. photograph
dis manibus Atimeto patri Caius Br--- Daduchus et Synegdemus filii bene merenti fecerunt vixit annos plus minus LX

To the spirits of the dead. Gaius Br(---) Daduchus and Synegdemus, his sons, set this up to their well-deserving father Atimetus, who lived for 60 years more or less.

omitted (Gude) LXX (Ptolomeus schedae, in Muratori)

The epitaph is set up by two brothers, who may have been freedmen or sons of a freedman (Solin 2003: vol. 2, p.1062). Their abbreviated gentilician name cannot be recovered. The formula plus minus is characteristic of Jewish and Christian epitaphs, but here simply indicates uncertainty about the deceased’s age at death, represented by the rounded number 60 (Laurence and Trifilò 2012). It is understandable that sons might not know their father’s precise age at death: the choice of 60 appears to map onto what it known about significant ages in the Roman life course, since at the age of 60 a man was no longer obliged to undertake military service (Laurence and Trifilò 2012: p.31).

Gude ms. 554, 5; Ptolemaeus sched. 2, 2 (according to CIL; followed by Muratori); Ainsworth (1720) p.43 no.33; Hesselius (= Gude) (1731) p.252 no.4; Muratori (1740) p.1241 no.12 (from de Mazaugues); Chandler (1763) Part 3, Pl.IV.cxxi, with drawing; CIL VI.2 no.12651 [Hübner] (1882)

Online: EDCS-14800861 [accessed 12/11/15]

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 Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum 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 Laurence R. Trifilò F. 2012 ‘Vixit plus minus’. Commemorating the age of the dead: towards a familial Roman life course ? Families in the Imperial and Late Anqituie Roman World M. Harlow L. Larsson Lovén London and New York Continuum 23-40 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 Muratori L.A. 1740 Novus thesaurus veterum inscriptionum II Milan Nichols J. 1812 Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century. 5 London Nichols, son, and Bentley Ptolemaeus (Franciscus Tolomeus) 1666 MS. Biblioteca Siena Solin H. 2003 Die griechischen Personennamen in Rom. Ein Namenbuch (2nd edn) 3 vols Berlin De Gruyter