EPITAPH OF HOUSEHOLD SLAVE IANUARIUS, ROME (?) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.122.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.122 AshLI 121

An unadorned rectangular slab of white marble imitating a tabula ansata (0.10 0.23 0.03) (in a modern mount). It consists of three contiguous fragments, one comprising the majority of the stone, and the other two being the right and left bottom corners, which had broken off at points where clamps had been. A circular mark still with traces of metal and oxidisation occurs half way up on the left of the front surface, and remnants of a similar mark may be seen to the right, where the stone has fractured. The rear is hardly visible in its modern mount, but was perhaps smoothly finished. The right side of the front surface has two fairly deep scratches, and a small fragment of the slab is missing on the right edge, where the metal clamp originally was.

The text is inscribed on the front face, within an incised tabula ansata frame. The carving of this inscription displays a curious blend of care for its overall decorative effect and lack of concern for the clarity of its text. Words at the end of lines 1, 3, and 4 overspill onto the following line. The interpuncts serve a decorative function rather than serving as an aid to comprehension. They are decorative in form: a leaf in line 2, then curly motifs rather like the number 3. They are included at the ends of lines 3 and 4, even though they break into a word, and similarly at the start of line 5. The number at the end of line 2 encroaches on space beyond the inscribed campus. TRYPOSA in line 4 appears to be a stonecutter’s error for TRYPHOSA. The last line is centred.

 0.017 (line 1); 0.011 (line 2); 0.01 (line 3); 0.011 (line 4); 0.009, with S 0.012 (line 5). Of unknown provenance, it probably originated from Rome. perhaps first or second century AD (Solin 1996: vol 1, p.138). 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 54 on 6th April 1749, after his death. Lot 54 comprised a Greek inscription and seven Latin inscriptions (also C3-108; C3-109; C3-120; C3-123; C3-129; C3-133). 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.35, no.174), 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 on display in the Reading and Writing Gallery. Photograph
Ianuario vern ae quae vixit annos XXII menses V fecit Clau dia Tryphosa vern ae suo

For Ianuarius household slave, who lived for 22 years and 5 months. Claudia Tryphosa set this up for her household slave

TRYPOSA (lapis); TRYFOSA (CIL).

This epitaph records the commemoration of a slave by his owner. The name of the dedicator is more probably supposed to be Tryphosa than Tryfosa (in CIL), with the H omitted in error, a name that is found among freedwomen and slaves in Rome (Solin 2003: vol. 2, p.852; Solin 1996: vol. 2, p.430). The term verna is usually interpreted as referring to a slave who was born and brought up within a household (Herrmann-Otto 1994) (see also C3-65, C3-90).

Chandler (1763) Part 3, Pl.IV.cxxii, with drawing; CIL VI.3 no.19633 [Hübner] (1886).

Online: EDCS-12101541 [accessed 09/03/15]

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) Herrmann-Otto E. 1994 Ex Ancilla Natus Stuttgart Franz Steiner 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. 1996 Die stadtrömischen Sklavennamen Stuttgart Steiner Solin H. 2003 Die griechischen Personennamen in Rom. Ein Namenbuch (2nd edn) 3 vols Berlin De Gruyter