EPITAPH OF PERSANIA GRAPTE, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.128.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.128 AshLI 127

An unadorned rectangular slab of white marble (in a modern mount) (0.138 0.287 0.032). Well preserved, with just a small fragment missing from the bottom right corner and some minor chipping around the edges. The rear is not visible because of the modern mount. There are two small circular holes at the top left and bottom right corners on the front surface, which would seem to be for attaching the plaque to a wall, but there is no trace of metal or of oxidisation.

The text is carefully laid out, with centring of lines 1 and 4. There are simple interpuncts throughout, except at line ends. Faint traces of guiding lines for the stonecutter are discernible. The last letter in line 3 is slightly shorter than the rest of the line, giving the impression that the stonecutter did not quite manage to plan the spacing of this line accurately.

0.021 with tall I 0.023 (line 1); 0.02 (lines 2-4). It is of unknown provenance, but probably originates from Rome. AD c.100-c.150 (from use of DM formula and from onomastics: Solin 2003: vol.2, p.1257). 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 64 on 4th April 1749, after his death. Lot 64 comprised seven marble inscriptions (also C3-110; C3-113; C3-117; C3-118; C3-132; C3-134). 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.178), 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. Although CIL commented ‘nunc periit aut latet’, it is not lost, but is currently in a storeroom. photograph
dis manibus Persaniae Grapte Marcus Mattienus Firmus bene merenti de se fecit

To the spirits of the dead. Marcus Mattienus Firmus set this up for Persania Grapte who deserved well of him.

From its appearance, this inscription appears to be a columbarium plaque. Together with the use of the formula dis manibus, this points to a date at some time during the second half of the first century to the mid-second century AD, whilst the female name suggests the second century. It seems that the stonecutter has omitted the word se, in the formula bene merenti de se (for parallels from Rome, see AE 1912 no.138; AE 1966 no.53; AE 1973 no.89; AE 1973 no.104; AE 1988 no.120; AE 1995 no.193; AE 2005 no.236; AE 2009 no.141). The use of the formula suggests a husband-wife relationship, as is the case explicitly for all of the parallels cited above; it otherwise tends to be used in the context of patron/freed commemoration, but the names here exclude that possibility.

Chandler (1763) Part 3, Pl.IV.cxxviii, with drawing; CIL VI.3 no.23957 [Chandler] (1886)

Online: EDCS-13301155 [accessed 24/11/15]

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) 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