DELLIA ANTIOCHIS PROVIDES FUNERARY FURNITURE, ROME (?) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.22.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.22 AshLI 21

A large plain slab of white marble (in a modern mount) (0.508 0.658 0.022). The rear is not currently visible because of the modern mount. It consists of seven contiguous fragments, with one gap, and the inscribed surface is rather worn.

The text is unevenly cut, with variable letter dimensions sloping within each line. The words are centred on each line. The editors of CIL considered that Delliae on line 2 had been deliberately erased. From our autopsy and RTI of the stone, however, the letters appear worn away rather than erased on purpose. Similarly worn letters are also visible in the next line directly below, where only the two upright strokes of the first N in Cononis are visible. Given that the inscription has been pieced together from three small fragments at this point, it seems that the damage is accidental. There are triangular interpuncts throughout.

 0.042-0.048 (line 1); 0.048 (lines 2-3); 0.038-0.042 (lines 4-5); 0.038 (line 6). Of unknown provenance, it probably originated from Rome. first century AD (Solin 2003: I pp. 188 + 216; formula Sp. f. most common during this period – Rawson 1989: p.37). It was first recorded in Oxford by Prideaux (1676), as part of the Arundel Collection, given to the University of Oxford by Henry Howard, Earl of Arundel, in 1667. 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 inscription is currently in store.
Dellia Spurii filia Antio chis Delliae Qunti Dellii Cononis uxor Primigeniae matri suae et suis abacum donum dedit

Dellia Antiochis, daughter of Spurius, gave as a gift a decorative table to Dellia Primigenia, wife of Quintus Dellius Conon, her mother and to her family

DELLIAE (Maittaire); [[DELL[I]AE]] (CIL). DELLI F COITIONIS (Prideaux, Maittaire).

Dellia Antiochis is the freeborn daughter of Dellia Primigenia, but her filiation, ‘daughter of Spurius’, suggests that she was of illegitimate birth – in other words, that her mother had not been in a legally recognised marriage at the time of her birth (Rawson 1989). A likely scenario is that Antiochis is the daughter of a freeborn mother and a slave. Primigenia, however, is described as ‘wife of Dellius Conon’, emphasising their legitimate marriage: he is most likely a freedman, and could have become Antiochis’ father before he had been manumitted, or perhaps Antiochis’ father was another individual. An abacus is some sort of funerary equipment, perhaps a decorative table, to be connected with funerary dining (see OLD s.v. 1; cf. Sidonius Apollinaris, Letters 2.2.11 who mentions in hac stibadium et nitens abacus in the context of a dining-room; Ausonius, Epigram 19.2.2; Varro On the Latin Language 9.33.46).

Prideaux (1676); p.272, no.134 Maittaire (1732) p.36, no.60; Chandler (1763) p.132, no.22; CIL VI.3 no.16801 [Hübner] (1886).

Online: EDCS-12001698 [accessed 11/06/14]

Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press Maittaire M. 1732, 2nd edn. Marmorum, Arundellianorum, Seldenianorum, Aliorumque Academiae Oxoniensi Donatorum London William Bowyer 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 Prideaux H. 1676 Marmora Oxoniensia ex Arundellianis, Seldenianis, aliisque conflata Oxford Rawson B. 1989 Spurii and the Roman view of illegitimacy Antichton 23 10-41 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 Minvera 10.1 25-28.