EPITAPH, WITH PROVISIONS AGAINST TOMB VIOLATION (ROME) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.27.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.27 AshLI 26

: A plain slab of white marble (in a modern mount) (0.31 0.59 0.044). The rear is not visible because of the modern mount. The stone’s front face is not flat (possibly a sign of re-use or of poor workmanship). The top of the stone has been cut away, and it is unclear how many lines of text are missing from the start. Two broken pieces have been joined together; a further missing piece has been replaced with modern plaster at the top left. Doni and Fabretti mistakenly joined this fragmentary inscription up to the end of 3-24, as a result of not working from the monuments themselves.

The text is not engraved with great care, and the level of literacy shown is also somewhat lacking. EORVM in line 3 seems to be a later addition to the text, inserted in between the longer lines and in smaller letters. Line 4 lacks the letter T in POST. In line 5, BENDERE HAC DONARE probably stands for the common formula VENDERE AVT DONARE (compare CIL VI 10876, 13074, 18107, 20989, 22116, 24378, 33900). In line 6, the stonecutter has added a much smaller letter E on a line of its own in order to correct the word below it, VOLVRIT, to VOLVERIT (as on the previous line), and the dative form ARCAE is inscribed as ARCE. The final M in PONTEFICVM is much smaller, squeezed in at the end of the line. There are simple interpuncts.

 2.5cm (line 1); 2.6cm (line 2); 1.5cm variable (line 3); 2.8cm (line 4); 2.6cm (line 5); 2.7cm with E of VOLVERIT 1.4cm (line 6); 2.1cm (lines 7-8). It probably originated from Rome perhaps mid-second to third century AD. Of unknown provenance, it probably originated from Rome, given its reference to the treasury of the pontifices. 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). The marbles 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 on Beaumont Street, 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
se vivo sibi et suis libertis libertabusque posterisque eorum itaque si post obitum nostrum voluerit vbendere authac donare voluerit inferet arcae ponteficum U+053 U+0336 U+0053 U+0336sestertium centumilia nummum hoc monumentum heredibus non sequetur

…in his lifetime for himself and for his freedmen and freedwomen and for their descendants. Therefore if after our death anyone shall wish to sell or shall wish to give, he shall pay 100,000 sesterces to the pontifices’ treasury. This monument will not follow the heirs.

SE VIVOS SIBI (Sirmond; Doni Lat. Barb. 2756); VIVOS (Fabretti); **BI (Chandler); SIBI (Prideaux; Maittaire) POST OBITVM (Doni MS. cod. Lat. Barb. 2756) BENDERE HAC DONARE (lapis; Doni MS. cod. Barb. Lat. 2756); VENDERE AC DONARE (Sirmond) VOLVERIT INFERET ARCAE PONTIFICVM (Sirmond; Doni BN Naples MS MS G.XII.75 fol.355, no.4); VOLVERIT INFERET ARCE PONTIFICVM (Doni MS. cod. Barb. Lat. 2756); PONTIFICVM (Fabretti; Doni BN Naples MS G.XII.75 fol.355, no.4) CENTVMILLIA (Doni BN Naples MS G.XII.75 fol.355, no.4; Doni MS. cod. Barb. Lat. 2756); CENTVM MILIA (Sirmond, Prideaux, Maittaire); CENTV (Maittaire p.562)

The beginning of the inscription has been lost; its extant part begins with threatening a large fine, to be paid to the pontifices, in the event of the tomb property being sold at a later date. Such a payment to the treasury of the pontifices suggests a date from the mid-second century or later (Mommsen 1887-1888: p.70). The large sum is rather unexpected, perhaps, on an inscription whose quality of carving and literacy are somewhat questionable. See also commentary on C3-18, C3-39 for other concerns about heirs not upkeeping a tomb properly (HMHNS), and for other threats of fines (overview in Gregori 2004: pp.391-404).

Sirmond MS. BNF Paris suppl. Lat. 1419 = Lat. 10808, no. 270; Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113 f.42’ (added on to end of C3-24, in error); Doni BN Naples, MS G.XII.75 fol.355, no.4 (repeats the same error); Doni Lat. Barb. 2756 f.156; Prideaux (1676) p.148, no.115; Fabretti (1702) p.92 no.190 (following Barberini schedae); Maittaire (1732) p.40, no.93 + 562; Chandler (1763) p.133, no.27; CIL VI.4.fasc.1 no. 29925 [Hübner] (1894)

Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press Doni Giovanni Battista [Donius] 1594-1647 cod. Vat. Lat. 7113 Doni Giovanni Battista [Donius] 1594-1647 BN Naples, MS G.XII.75 [digital scan] Doni Giovanni Battista [Donius] 1594-1647 MS. cod. Barb. Lat. 2756 Fabretti R. 1702 Inscriptionum antiquarum quae in aedibus paternis asseruantur explicatio et additamentum Rome GregoriG.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 Maittaire M. 1732, 2nd edn. Marmorum, Arundellianorum, Seldenianorum, Aliorumque Academiae Oxoniensi Donatorum London William Bowyer MommsenT. 1887-1888, 3rd edn Römisches Staatsrecht Leipzig S. Herzel Prideaux H. 1676 Marmora Oxoniensia ex Arundellianis, Seldenianis, aliisque conflata Oxford Sirmond J. [Sirmondus] 1559-1651 Recueil d'inscriptions copiées par Sirmond. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Paris suppl. Lat. 1419 = Lat. 10808 [consulted online 10/06/14 at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b9077728w] Sturdy D. and N. Moorcraft 1999 Christopher Wren and Oxford’s garden of antiquities Minvera 10.1 25-28.