DEDICATION TO THE EMPEROR CLAUDIUS, ALEXANDRIA TROAS Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.15.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.15 AshLI 14

A large block of white marble, which has been extensively recut for reuse (0.51 0.59 0.27). Its sides consist of a smooth section c.0.08 deep, which is then cut away. A cross has been carved on its rear sloping surface, above a ledge. Its original form is difficult to conjecture, but it was presumably a statue base of some sort. Its present condition is good, although the top right corner is damaged.

The first four lines spread across the whole width of the stone; the fifth line leaves a gap in the middle between the emperor’s titles; the three letters on final line are roughly centred. In line 6, one expects the specific identity of the vicus to be included, and there is a faint trace of a line above the level of the text, as would be usual in indicating a numeral (cf. line 4), but there is no trace now of a number having been inscribed. It seems possible that there once was a number here, and that it has been worn away remarkably smoothly, leaving no other trace. Hearne (1717: p.119) was suspicious of the authenticity of the last two words.

 0.052 (line 1); 0.045 (line 2); 0.04 (lines 3-6). There are triangular interpuncts throughout AD 49/50 According to Hearne (1717: Editoris praefatio, p.119), the inscription had been in the room of Samuel Palmer, at Christ Church, Oxford (who matriculated in 1709, received his MA in 1716, ans was in residence between 1709 and 1721/2). Christ Church rent records show that Palmer was in residence in a ground floor room, Peckwater Quad 6 (rebuilt in 1707) from Michaelmas term 1716 until 1720 (information courtesy of Judith Curthoys, college archivist). The stone was given to the Ashmolean, however, in 1717 by Thomas Sprat (1679-1720) (Chandler 1763: Syllabus pars tertia, p.xvi), archdeacon of Rochester (1704-1720), who had been awarded BA from Christ Church in 1701, followed by his MA in 1704, and was in residence 1697-1707 (details from Morgan 2004, on his more illustrious father Thomas Sprat, bishop of Rochester). On being donated in 1717, the stone may have been displayed in ‘The Marble School’, an upper gallery in the Bodleian quadrangle. In 1749, the collection was transferred downstairs to the ground floor in the former School of Moral Philosophy, and at some point then ended up in the basement of the (Old) Ashmolean Museum on Broad Street (now the Museum of the History of Science) (Munby 2013). This inscription is included in a list of antique marbles transferred from the Ashmolean Museum basement room to the marble rooms of the Randolph Building in January 1888: Archive MS. ‘Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum’, p.29 no.138. 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 inscription is currently in a storeroom. Photograph Photograph
Tiberio Claudio Drusi filio Caesari Augusto Germanico pontifici maximo tribunicia potestate VIIII imperatori XVI consuli IIII patri patriae censori vicus

To Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, son of Drusus, supreme pontiff, holder of tribunician power for the 9th time, hailed victorious general for the 16th time, consul for the 4th time, father of his county, censor. The [-] district (set this up).

GERM(ANICO) seems likely rather than GERM[AN](ICO), as given in CIL/ IK, since the available space does not seem to justify the longer expansion of the abbreviation.

Its provenance is uncertain, but Mommsen (CIL) considered that it probably originated in Alexandria Troas because of its reference to its dedication by a vicus. IK comments that, given that T.A.B. Spratt is known to have been active in the Troad, this origin ‘should be considered as certain’, but this comment has confused our donor – archdeacon of Rochester – with the much later Vice Admiral Thomas Spratt (1811-1888), who was on duty in the Royal Navy in the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea regions. This ‘fact’ therefore is not conclusive proof of the inscription’s provenance, although the flavour of its text does still point towards Alexandria Troas (modern Türkmenlı), in the province of Asia, which was founded by Antigonos Monophthlamus, but was made a Roman veteran colonia between 41 and 30 BC, and was later reinforced with additional colonists between 27 and 12 BC, becoming Colonia Augusta Troadensis. Although located in the Greek East, the colonia had some striking Roman characteristics. It received a grant of ius Italicum, giving it status equivalent to that of coloniae in Italy. Like other Roman coloniae in the Greek East, inscriptions were set up in both Latin and Greek. According to IK p.13, 44% of all the inscriptions found in the city are in Latin (80 out of 180). These tend to be official and honorific in character (what might be dubbed ‘high’ status in a diglossic society), whereas Greek tended to be used for more private (or ‘low’ status) inscriptions, notably votive and funerary ones.

This dedication honouring the emperor Claudius dates from AD 49/50, since Claudius held tribunician power for the 9th time between December 49 and December 50. Two other inscriptions honouring Claudius have been found in the colonia: a statue set up in AD 37-41 before his accession by a local magistrate, C. Norbanus Quadratus (IK 15/ CIL III 381); and a dedication for his welfare set up by an unidentifiable individual (IK 17), AD 41-54.

Other statue bases set up by vici (city districts) have been found in Alexandria Troas dating from the first century. Four bases honouring C. Antonius Rufus were set up by four different vici (2nd, 7th, 8th, 9th) during AD 41-68 (IK 36), and a statue base was set up for Sex. Quinctilius Valerius Maximus by the 10th vicus at some time during AD 97-100 (IK 39).

Hearne (1717) I p.cxix; Chandler (1763) p.131, no.15; CIL III.3 no.6060 [Hübner] (1873); IK (1997) 53.16; IMT 440 = PH287918; Højte (2005) p.311, ‘Claudius 112’

Online: EDCS-27800829 [accessed 25/08/14]

Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum Barth M. Stauber J. 1996 Inschriften Mysia & Troas [IMT] Leopold Wenger Institut. Universität München. Version of 25.8.1993 (Ibycus). Packard Humanities Institute CD #7 Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press Hearne T. 1717 Guilielmi Camdeni Annales Rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum Regnante Elizabetha Oxford Højte J.M. 2005 Roman Imperial Statue Bases from Augustus to Commodus Arahus Aarhus University Press Morgan J. 2004 Sprat, Thomas (bap. 1635, d. 1713) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press online edn, Jan 2008: http://ezproxy.ouls.ox.ac.uk:2204/view/article/26173 [accessed 9/7/2014] 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 M. Vickers BAR Int. ser. 2512 Oxford 75-85 Ricl M. 1997 The Inscriptions of Alexandreia Troas Bonn Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien vol. 53 = IK vol.53