EPITAPH FOR A MOTHER, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.132.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.132 AshLI 131

Plain rectangular plaque of white marble, consisting of three conjoining fragments (0.34 0.31 0.02), on a modern mount. Rear is smoothed.

Inscribed on the front face. The layout of the text shows some care, with the abbreviations in the first and last lines indented, spaced out, and centred. Triangular interpuncts. Guiding lines for the stonecutter are visible, but only at the bottom of lines; two are unused above the top of the text and two below it. The letters still contain traces of red dye.

Very variable in height within the lines: 0.028 (line 1); 0.023-0.02 (line 2); 0.028-0.016 (line 3); 0.028-0.02 (line 4); 0.028 (line 5) Of unknown provenance, it probably originated from Rome. possibly mid-second century AD (from use of DM formula). Shares some palaeographical similarities with CIL VI no.10235 of AD 149 (Gordon 1964: no.213), but is less neatly inscribed. 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; C3-128; 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.36, no.183), 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 in a storeroom. Photograph
dis manibus Saturninae matri Victori nus filius bene merenti fecit

To the spirits of the dead. Victorinus, her son, made this for Saturnina his well-deserving mother.

SATVRNINF (Chandler).

A simple commemoration of a mother by her son. Their social status is not specified, but they may be freeborn, on the basis of their names: Latin cognomina ending with the suffix –inus/a are most common among the freeborn plebs of the imperial era (Kajanto 1965: p.113).

Chandler (1763) Part 3, Pl.IV.cxxxii, with drawing; CIL VI.4.1 no.25928 [Hübner] (1894).

Online: EDCS-13802184 [accessed 05/06/2014].

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) Gordon A.E. 1964 Album of Dated Latin Inscriptions.Vol.2. Rome and the Neighborhood, A.D. 100-199 Berkeley, Los Angeles University of California Press Kajanto I. 1965 The Latin Cognomina Helsinki Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum 36.2 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. 2003 A rare collection: Oxford museums past and present Excalibur: Essays on Antiquity and the History of Collecting in Honour of Arthur MacGregor H. Wiegel M. Vickers Oxford BAR Int. ser. 2512 75-85