FUNERARY ALTAR FOR CARTORIA ELPIS (ROME) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.24.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.24 AshLI 23

A funerary altar of white marble with decorative relief-work sculpted on its sides (not a marble tablet, as in CIL) (0.66 0.375 0.27). In the top surface of the altar is a circular cavity, which reaches down about half the depth of the altar. To the right and left on top are cylindrical bolsters, and there is probably a rosette at the front, but this is rather damaged. In between, on the front are two small birds, with something between them, which cannot now be discerned. The rear remains rough and unfinished. On the left side of the altar is a jug, and on the right side is a patera. The altar has suffered some damage. There is minor damage to the top right side of the plinth and to the left front side of the moulded frame. Otherwise the scrolls are poorly preserved, esepcially on the left. Four small holes are drilled through in line 2 of the inscription and above on the moulded frame. Fabretti (following Doni) mistakenly joined this up to the start of 3-27.

Inscription on the front face, within a rectangular moulded frame: 0.28 0.25. Line 2 is damaged by some small holes, which have in the past caused problems in reading the text here. Each line is centred. There are small triangular interpuncts throughout.

0.03 (line 1); 0.025 (lines 2-3); 0.023 (line 4); 0.02 (line 5); 0.025 (line 6); 0.023 (lines 7-8); 0.026 with tall I (line 8). This inscription is recorded by an MS. of Menestrier as found on the via Flaminia, in 1610, near the Milvian bridge. The inscription dates from the first century AD (Solin 2003: vol.3, p.1294 + vol.2, p.741). This inscription is recorded by an MS. of Menestrier as found on the via Flaminia, in 1610, near the Milvian bridge (Menestrier, MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 10545 f.169’; CIL VI p.3515). It was also recorded in Rome by Sirmond. It was published by Prideaux (1676) 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). The inscriptions 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. 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.29, no.139), 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. The inscription is currently in a storeroom. Photograph
Cartoriae Elpidi Caius Cartorius Horaeus uxori optumae et Martialis Augusti libertus et Elpistus Caesaris matri piissmiae

For Cartoria Elpis. Gaius Cartorius Horaeus (set this up) for his excellent wife; and Martialis freedman of the emperor and Elpistus slave of Caesar for their most loyal mother.

....... (Prideaux, Maittaire); LLIB (Gude) OPTIMAE (Prideaux, Maittaire) AVG LIB (Prideaux, Maittaire)

This inscription provides some insight into the changing fortunes of a family at Rome. Cartoria Helpis and her husband Cartorius Horaeus are probably both of freed status (Solin 2003: III p.1294 + II p.741); possibly Helpis was herself a freed slave of Horaeus, or both were manumitted by the same patron. Of their two sons named in the inscription, one – Martialis – is an imperial freedman whilst the other – Elpistus – remains an imperial slave. This means that their two sons must have been born as slaves, before their parents’ manumission, and sold to the emperor (Rawson 1966: p.80). This was not an entirely negative fate, however. Martialis had clearly earnt his freedom by the time of his mother’s death, and, as an imperial freedman, would have enjoyed higher status than either of his parents. Even Elpistus would have enjoyed some prestige as a slave of the imperial house. The fact that the father and his two sons could afford to set up an elaborate funerary altar for Cartoria Helpis demonstrates that the family’s fortunes were in the ascendancy. Alternatively, Helpis may have been originally an imperial slave, who was sold to Horaeus who subsequently manumitted her (Weaver 1972: p.138n.).

Sirmond Paris suppl. Lat. 1419 = Lat. 10808, no.258; Menestrier, MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 10545 f.169’; Doni MS. Vat. Lat. 7113 f.42 correctly, repeated on f.42’, where he adds on C3-27 in error; Doni MS. Barb. Lat. 2756 f.156 (following Menestrier, and again adding on C3-27 in error); Doni MS. BN Naples, MS G.XII.75 fol.355, no.4 (following Menestrier); Gude MS. 129, 2, ed. ind. CV (according to CIL); Prideaux (1676) p.144, no.89; Fabretti (1702) p.92 no.190 (following Barberini schedae); Hesselius (= Gude) (1731) Index nominorum p.105; Maittaire (1732) p.37, no.74; Chandler (1763) p.132, no.24; CIL VI.2 no.14452 [Hübner] (1882); CIL VI.4 fasc.2 p.3515 (1902)

Online: EDCS-15600353 [accessed 03/07/15]

Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Clarendon Press Oxford Doni Giovanni Battista [Donius] 1594-1647 MS. Vat. Lat. 7113 Doni Giovanni Battista [Donius] 1594-1647 MS. Barb. Lat. 2756 Doni Giovanni Battista [Donius] 1594-1647 BN Naples, MS G.XII.75 [digital scan] Fabretti R. 1702 Inscriptionum antiquarum quae in aedibus paternis asseruantur explicatio et additamentum Rome Hesselius F. 1731 Antiquae Inscriptiones quam Graecae tum Latinae olim a Marquardo Gudio collectae Leovardia Maittaire M. 1732, 2nd edn. Marmorum, Arundellianorum, Seldenianorum, Aliorumque Academiae Oxoniensi Donatorum London William Bowyer Menestrier MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 10545 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 RawsonB. 1966 Family life among the lower classes at Rome in the first two centuries of the empire Classical Philology 61.2 71-83 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 10/06/14] 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 Weaver P. R. C. 1972 Familia Caesaris: A Social Study of the Emperor's Freedmen and Slaves Cambridge Cambridge University Press