A JOINT EPITAPH SET UP BY SATELLIUS FLORUS, ROME (?) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.26.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.26 AshLI 25

A slab of white marblewith a moulded frame (in a modern mount) (0.328 0.67 0.057). The rear is rough and unfinished. There are three clamp marks along the top, to left and right and in the centre. It is in a good condition.

The text is centred, inscribed on the front face. There are interpuncts in the shape of commas throughout.

 0.042 (line 1); 0.037 (lines 2-3), with tall T (FECIT) 0.049 (line 3); 0.032 (line 4); 0.023 (line 5). Of unknown provenance, it probably originated from Rome. The inscription dates from the 1st/2nd centuries AD (Solin 2003: vol.1, p.263) 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. Photograph Photograph
Caio Vetteno Socrati et Vettenae Primae Marcus Satellius Florus fecit et sibi posterique suis et eorum

Marcus Satellius Florus set this up for Gaius Vettenus Socrates and for Vettena Prima and for himself, and his own descendants and theirs.

Given that husband and wife Vettenus Socrates and Vettena Prima share the same nomen, they may both have been freed by the same master, although we cannot be certain whether they were full citizens or Junian Latin in status. No relationship is specified between them and Satellius Florus; it is possible that they were friends rather than family.

Prideaux (1676) p.147, no.111; Maittaire (1732) p.41, no.101; Chandler (1763) p.133, no.26; CIL VI.4, fasc.1 no.28658 [Hübner] (1894).

Online: EDCS-14802615 [accessed 25/06/14]

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 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. Vickers M. 2006 The Arundel and Pomfret Marbles in Oxford Oxford Ashmolean Museum