TOMB INSCRIPTION OF SESTIUS SOTERICUS (ROME) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.21.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.21 AshLI 20

A rectangular stele of white marble, with a pediment etched at the top by a squiggly line (in a modern mount) (0.704 0.36 0.059). The top is moulded and curved; there is a hole in the centre of the top edge. The rear is rough, but carefully moulded at its top. The right side is smoothed and curved; the left has been cut into a straight edge.

There are interpuncts in the shape of commas throughout. The final letter in line 3 is squeezed onto the edge of the stele.

0.046 (line 1); 0.035 (lines 2-3); 0.031 (lines 4-5); 0.028 (line 6); 0.031 (line 7); 0.029 (lines 8-9); 0.026 (lines 10-11); 0.024 (line 12); 0.02 (lines 13-14); 0.016 (line 15). it originated from somewhere on the via Appia (also according to Gude [= Gudius], in CIL). first or second century AD (Solin 2003: vol.1, p.453). It was seen and copied by Giovanni Zaratino Castellini (1570-1641) (Minasi 1893) at the Palazzo of Cardinal Crescenzi (died 1645), near the Pantheon in Rome, between 1611 (when Pier Paolo Crescenzi was created cardinal: Polverini Fosi 1984) and 1627 (by which time the stone had been transferred to England: Selden 1629). Three of Castellini’s folios were bought by Garrucci in around 1858, and subsequently published by Minasi in Civiltà Cattolica of 1893 (Ferrua 1958). This location in Rome was also noted by Reinesius, who stated that the inscription was seen there by Sirmond, but, according to Langermann (as recorded by Reinesius), it originated from somewhere on the via Appia (also according to Gude [= Gudius], in CIL). It was then brought to England to join the Arundel Collection in London (Selden 1629), 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. It is currently on display in the Randolph Gallery. Photograph
Lucius Sestius Sotericus sibi et Sestiae Priscae collibertae et coniugi suae bene merenti cum qua vixit annis XXX de qua nihil doluit nisi morte et Tito Titio Basso amico suo homini optimo et singularis exsempli et libertis libertabus que suis posterisque eorum in fronte pedes XII in agro pedes XII

Lucius Sestius Sotericus for himself and for Sestia Prisca his fellow freedwoman and well-deserving wife, with whom he lived for 30 years, and about whom he had no reason for sadness except through her death; and for Titus Titius Bassus his friend, an excellent man of remarkable conduct; and for his freedmen and freedwomen and for their descendants; 12 feet wide, 12 feet deep.

ETI TTIO (Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113; Doni MS. Lat Barb 2756) EXEMPLI (Sirmond) EORV (lapis); EORVM (Selden, Prideaux)

Sestius Sotericus and Sestia Prisca had been freed by the same patron. This inscription would probably have been displayed in front of their tomb, defining who had the legal right to burial there. It includes the husband and wife, a friend, and their household (including descendants). The praise given by Sestius Sotericus for his wife, that she had caused him no sadness whilst she lived, is echoed in other epitaphs, where martial harmony (or concordia) is celebrated. This gives a rather different impression of the virtues appreciated in a marriage from those which would appear in modern contexts (Bradley 1991: pp.6-8). The final line relates to the dimensions of the tomb-plot, which is their property.

CCastellini, G. Zaratino (published by Minasi in 1893) p.210 no.29; Sirmond MS. BNF Paris suppl. Lat. 1419 = Lat. 10808, no. 269; Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113 f.42’, Doni BN Naples MS G.XII.75 fol. 354, 7 (according to CIL – scanned MS not legible here); Doni Barb. Lat. 2756 f.155 from Menestrier; Gude MS. 240, 1 from schedae of Holstenius (according to CIL); Selden (1629) 53 no.8; Prideaux (1676) p.91, no.23; Reinesius (1682) p.760, no.137 (following Selden); Fabretti (1702) p.275 no.161;Maittaire (1732) p.36, no.65; Chandler (1763) p.132, no.21; CIL VI.4 fasc.1 no.26467a [Hübner] (1894); CIL VI.4, fasc.2 p.3533 (1902)

Online: EDCS-14200649 [accessed 03/07/15]

Bradley K. 1991 Discovering the Roman Family: Studies in Roman Social History New York/London Oxford University Press Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Clarendon Press Oxford Doni Giovanni Battista [Donius] 1594-1647 MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113 Doni Giovanni Battista [Donius] 1594-1647 MS. Barb. Lat. 2756 Fabretti R. 1702 Inscriptionum antiquarum quae in aedibus paternis asseruantur explicatio et additamentum Rome Ferrua A. 1958 Giovanni Zaratino Castellini raccoglitore di epigrafi Epigraphica 20 121-60 Maittaire M. 1732, 2nd edn. Marmorum, Arundellianorum, Seldenianorum, Aliorumque Academiae Oxoniensi Donatorum London William Bowyer Minasi G. 1893 Archeologia La civiltà cattolica 15 7 208-28 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 Polverini Fosi I. 1984 Crescenzi, Pier Paolo Dizionario biografico degli italiani A.M. Ghisalberti and M. Pavan Rome Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana 648-49. Prideaux H. 1676 Marmora Oxoniensia ex Arundellianis, Seldenianis, aliisque conflata Oxford Reinesius T. 1682 Syntagma inscriptionum antiquarum Leipzig J.E. Hahn Selden J> 1629 Marmora Arundelliana London Sirmond J. [Sirmondus] 1559-1651 Recueil d'inscriptions copiées par Sirmond. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Paris suppl. Lat. 1419 = Lat. 10808 http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b9077728w [accessed 10/06/2014] Solin H. 2003 Die griechischen Personennamen in Rom. Ein Namenbuch (2nd edn) 3 vols Berlin De Gruyter Sturdy D. and N. Moorcraft 1999 Christopher Wren and Oxford’s garden of antiquities Minerva 10.1 25-28