EPITAPH OF MEMBERS OF THE FLAVIAN IMPERIAL HOUSEHOLD, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.130.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.130 AshLI 129

: The right side of a fragmentary rectangular slab of white marble (in a modern mount) (0.172 0.218 0.02). The rear is smoothly finished.

The inscription is placed within a single-line frame. At least half of the inscription is missing on the left. There is damage on the front surface, with four small holes in lines 4-5. The first and last lines of the inscription are centred. Simple interpuncts occur throughout, even at line ends. Guiding lines for the stonecutter are clearly visible. In line 3, there seem to be traces of a letter begun in error (perhaps M?) beneath the first N, which has then been corrected and partially erased.

 0.018 (line 1); 0.015 (line 2); 0.018 (line 3); 0.015 (lines 4-6). Rome AD c.70-c.125 (DM formula and Flavian context). The extant stone in the Ashmolean is recorded in CIL VI under no. 27910. It seems likely, however, that this is actually the right hand side of an epitaph recorded in an earlier fascicle of CIL VI as no.18238, although the editors of CIL have not made this connection. If the identification of this as the right hand side of CIL VI 18238 is correct, the inscription was found on 16th August 1708 ‘in vinea Galli’ outside the Pincian gate in Rome and purchased by Francesco Bianchini (MS. Bianchini). At some point, the stone must have been damaged and only the right hand side has ended up in Oxford. This inscription was one of a collection of Latin inscriptions given by Richard Rawlinson to Oxford University in 1753 (Chandler 1763: p.xx), and at first kept in the University Collection in the Bodleian Library (Enright 1956: p.340). Subsequently, the inscription ended up in the basement of the (Old) Ashmolean Museum on Broad Street (now the Museum of the History of Science) (Munby 2013), since in the archive MS. ‘Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum’ (p.36, no.181), 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 epitaph is currently in a storeroom. photograph photograph
dis manibus Titus Flavius Augusti libertus Valens et Flavia Saturnina fecerunt sibi et suis libertis libertabusque posterisque eorum

[To the spirits] of the dead. [Titus Flavius] Valens, [emperor’s] freedman, [and Flavia Sa]turnina [have set this up] for themselves [and their freedmen and freedwomen,] and their descendants.

Underlined letters are derived from CIL VI no.18238.

This epitaph commemorates two members of the imperial household under the Flavians, probably a husband and wife. The most likely date range is therefore the last quarter of the first century AD, but could reach into the first quarter of the second century, since imperial freedmen, unlike slaves, retained their identification as ‘freedman of the emperor’ even after the emperor’s death.

Bianchini cod. Veron. 347 f.17 (according to CIL); Chandler (1763) Part 3, Pl.IV.cxxx, with drawing; CIL VI.3 no.18238 [Bianchini] (1886) + CIL VI.4 fasc.1 no.27910 [Hübner] (1894)

Online: EDCS-10200437/ EDCS-14801865 [accessed 20/10/15]

Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Clarendon Press Oxford Enright B.J. 1956 Richard Rawlinson: collector, antiquary, and topographer (Bod. MS. D.Phil. d.1786) 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