EPITAPH OF TREBELLIA TERTIA, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.18.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.18 AshLI 17

An unadorned rectangular slab of limestone, with an inscription within a simple moulded frame (in a modern mount) (0.372 0.628 0.10). The rear is roughly finished. It is preserved intact, in a good condition, but the front surface is abraded so that the letters are only faintly legible.

Inscribed on its front face. Some interpuncts are still visible. Lines 2 and 7 are centred and spaced out. In line 5, the stonecutter mistakenly omitted B in COMBVRAT. Mommsen in CIL suggested that QVI was also accidentally omitted before FECERIT in line 6. In line 7, ((│)) indicates the number 10,000. The edition in EDCS includes erroneous line divisions, and is also wrong in suggesting in line 7 <h=II>(oc). The final S in VIRGINIBVS encroaches onto the right-hand frame of the inscription.

 0.048 (line 1); 0.02 (line 2); 0.022 (line 3); 0.02 (lines 4-7). A in ITA in line 4 has no cross-bar. Ligatures in line 6, as stonecutter has run out of space at the end of the line. It is of unknown provenance, but is presumably from Rome, given its reference to paying a fine to the Vestals. first century AD(Solin 1996: vol. 1, p.94) It was first recorded in Oxford by Prideaux as part of the Arundel Collection, which was given to the University of Oxford by Henry Howard, Earl of Arundel, in 1667 (Prideaux 1676). The Arundel marbles were first displayed in the ‘Garden of Antiquities’ outside the new Sheldonian Theatre from 1668/9 (Sturdy and Moorcraft 1999), and were subsequently transferred indoors in 1715 to ‘The Marble School’, an upper gallery in the Bodleian Quadrangle. In 1749, they were 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). 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 Photograph: detail Photograph: detail Photograph: detail Photograph: detail Photograph: detail Photograph
Trebellia U+0186mulieris liberta Tertia sibi et Siliae Lucii et U+0186mulieris libertae Feliclae delicio libertabusque suis ita ne quis ubi ego conquiesco comburat aut cinceres suas ponat quae adversus qui fecerit virginibus damnas esto dare HS ((│)) hoc monumentum heredem non sequetur

Trebellia Tertia, freedwoman of a woman, for herself and for Silia Felicla, freedwoman of Lucius and of a woman, darling, and for her freedwomen, on condition that no-one cremates where I rest nor places his ashes; should anyone do anything contrary to this, he is to give a fine to the Virgins of 10,000 sesterces. This monument will not follow the heir.

IL TERTIA (Prideaux, Maittaire); L.L. (Fabretti). SILIAE .....FELICIAE (Prideaux, Maittaire); SILIAE ..... FELICLAE (Fabretti). LIBERTABVSQVE ..... QVI VBI (Prideaux, Fabretti, Maittaire). CVM VRNA ATAVI CINERES (Prideaux, Fabretti, Maittaire); COMVRAT (lapis); COMBVRAT (Orelli). FECERIT .... (Prideaux, Fabretti, Maittaire); CIL indicates ligatures as VIRGINIBVS. DAMNA SISIO D HS (Prideaux, Maittaire); ESTOD (Orelli); H=II(OC) (EDCS)

This epitaph shows a freedwoman arranging for the burials of herself, a named freedwoman Felicla, and other freedwomen. The reversed C in lines 1 and 3 stands for ‘Gaia’: this was a pseudo-praenomen used to fill the gap where the former owner’s praenomen would normally stand, given that women had no praenomina (Mouritsen 2011: p.39, n.17). Her freedwoman Felic(u)la bears a common slave-name, and is described as delicium, a typical term of affection for a household slave (and pet animals). Delicia, like vernae, were eligible for early manumission and could be freed below the normally prescribed age limit of thirty years old (Mander 2013: p.127). The onomastics and linguistic formulae of this epitaph suggest that it dates from the 1st century AD (Solin 1996: vol. 1, p.94).

There was apparently a problem with tomb violation and misappropriation in the Roman world, to judge from measures taken by individuals anxious to protect their tombs (cf. Toynbee 1971: pp.75-77), both of which are illustrated here. Firstly we find the concern to prevent other people from appropriating the tomb’s space for their own cremations. Concerned parties could threaten offenders with fines, to be paid to the state treasury at Rome (eg, CIL VI 26445, 36364) or to a municipal treasury outside the capital (eg CIL XIV 850 from Ostia), or to a religious treasury, of the pontifices (eg C3-27) or Vestals, as in this case (cf. CIL VI 5175; C3-39). The sum of 10,000 sesterces is a sizeable fine (being an amount which could buy a statue, for example), but is by no means the largest found (compare 20,000 sesterces in CIL VI 13822, 17965a; 30,000 sesterces in CIL VI 26445/ ILS 8216; 50,000 sesterces in CIL VI 22915/ ILS 8221; 100,000 sesterces in CIL VI 13152/ ILS 8229). Secondly, the injunction “this monument will not follow the heir” (commonly abbreviated as HMHNS) reflected a concern that heirs who were not actually related by blood to the deceased might not look after a tomb. This formula prevented the tomb property from being included in a person’s estate, and so passing automatically to heirs as part of the property inheritance. In the case of someone who was of freed status, like Trebellia Tertia, there might have been particular concern to prevent a former owner, who would automatically have been eligible to inherit from a former slave, from acquiring the tomb and transferring it to others not named by the deceased (Carroll 2006: pp.102-03).

Prideaux (1676) p.115, no.57; Fabretti (1702) p.216 no.554; Maittaire (1732) p.41, no.103; Chandler (1763) p.132, no.18; Orelli (1828) II 4393; CIL VI.4.fasc.1 no.27593 [Hübner] (1894); CIL VI.4, fasc.3 p.3918 (1933); ILS 8210 (Dessau 1955)

Online: EDCS-14801550 [accessed 09/07/14]

Carroll M. 2006 Spirits of the Dead. Roman Funerary Commemoration in Western Europe Oxford Oxford University Press Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press Fabretti R. 1702 Inscriptionum antiquarum quae in aedibus paternis asseruantur explicatio et additamentum Rome Gregori G.L. 2004 Si quis contra legem sepulcri fecerit. Violazioni e pene pecuniarie Libitina e dintorni. Libitina e i luci sepolcrali. Le leges libitinarie campane. Iura sepulcrorum: vecchie e nuove iscrizioni Rome Libitina 3/ Quasar 391-404 Maittaire M. 1732, 2nd edn. Marmorum, Arundellianorum, Seldenianorum, Aliorumque Academiae Oxoniensi Donatorum London William Bowyer Mander J. 2013 Portraits of Children on Roman Funerary Monuments Cambridge Cambridge University Press Mouritsen H. 2011 Portraits of Children on Roman Funerary Monuments Cambridge Cambridge University Press 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 Orelli J.C. 1828 Inscriptionum Latinarum Selectarum Amplissima Collectio vols I-II I-II Turici Prideaux H. 1676 Marmora Oxoniensia ex Arundellianis, Seldenianis, aliisque conflata Oxford Solin H. 1996 Die stadtrömischen Sklavennamen Stuttgart Steiner Sturdy D. and N. Moorcraft 1999 Christopher Wren and Oxford’s garden of antiquities Minvera 10.1 25-28. Toynbee J.M.C. 1971 Death and Burial in the Roman World London Thames & Hudson