EPITAPH SET UP BY CAECILIA IRENA (ROME) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.29.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.29 AshLI 28

A large slab of white marble with a simple wide, moulded border (in a modern mount) (0.465 0.65 0.05). On the front, there is a clamp mark in the centre at the top. On the top surface are three metal-filled holes in the centre and to right and left. The rear has been cut, but lacks a smooth finish. The slab is damaged along its top and bottom edges, and there is some surface damage to the inscription.

There are triangular interpuncts throughout, except at the ends of lines. The letters in lines 5-6 are spaced out. Lines 6-7 are indented by 3 letters.

 0.028(lines 1-2); 0.027 (line 3); 0.023 (lines 4-7); tall I in Irena 0.03 in line 5; tall I 0.027 in line 6, libertis, libertabus; tall I 0.025 in line 7; 0.027 (line 8). Rome It dates from the first century AD, between Tiberius and Nero (Solin, 2003: vol.1, p.404 and vol.2, p.1081). This inscription was found in Rome, on the edge of the Janiculum in the area of S. Pancrazio (St Pancras) on the via Aurelia (de Winghe MS. 17872-3; Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113), in the ‘vinea/vineyard’ (i.e., villa – for its meaning, see Coffin 1979: p.viii) of an individual named as a spice-trader, ‘Giuillelmo aromatario’ (Doni MS. cod. Barb. Lat., Cittadini MS. Bib Marciana). Other inscriptions from the same location are C3-19, C3-25, C3-37, C3-58, C3-60. 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. 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. 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), before being moved 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. . It was then displayed in Arundel House in London (Selden 1629: p.50 no.2, Reinesius 1682), and subsequently given to the University of Oxford by Selden, according to the preface in Prideaux (1676). The inscription is currently in a storeroom. Photograph Photograph
Caeciliae Quinti libertae Euposiae Caeciliae U+0186Gaiae libertae Macariae Quinto Minucio Quinti liberto Salvittoni Caio Iulio Caii liberto Tyranno Caecilia U+0186Gaiae liberta Irena fecit sibi et libertis libertabus suis posterisque eorum vivi

Caecilia Irena freedwoman of a woman, set this up for Caecilia Euposia, freedwoman of Quintus, for Caecilia Macaria, freedwoman of a woman, for Quintus Minucius Salvitto, freedman of Quintus, for Gaius Iulius Tyrannus, freedman of Gaius, for herself and for her own freedmen and freedwomen and for their descendants. In their lifetime.

EPOSIAE (Cittadini MS. Bib. Marc.); EVPETIAE for EVPOSINE {in margin} (Doni MS. cod. Barb. Lat.) Q L (Prideaux, Gude, Maittaire) ; U+0186. L (Cittadini MS. Bib. Marc.; Maittaire p.562; Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113) MINCIO (Muratori); U+0186. L (Prideaux, Maittaire); Q L (Cittadini MS. Bib. Marc.; Maittaire p.562); SALVITONI (Doni MS. cod. Barb. Lat.) U+0186. L (Muratori; Malvasia); LIBERTO (Gude) IRENAE (Cittadini Vat. Lat.); IRANA (Cittadini MS. Bib. Marc.); IRENE (Prideaux, Maittaire, Muratori); IRENA (Gude); LAENA (Doni MS. cod. Barb. Lat.); LIBERTIS / LIBERTABVS (Gude) V at start of line 8 (AEC), noted otherwise only by de de Winghe MS. 17872-3

This inscription, probably dating from the first half of the first century AD, shows a single individual paying for a collective funerary monument for a series of named individuals, as well as (it seems) her own freedmen and freedwomen, together with their descendants.

de Winghe Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique MS. 17872 vol.2, f.42; Ciacconio Raff. {i.e. Alfonso Chacón} f.143, according to CIL, following de Winghe; Cittadini MS. cod. Bib. Marciana Lat. XIV, 116 (= 4661) f.137; Cittadini MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 5253 f.212’; Doni cod. Barb. Lat. 2756 f.134 (from Vatican schedae), Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113 f.53; Gude MS 130, 2 (according to CIL); Prideaux (1676) p.148, no.112; Malvasia (1690) p.485 (from Vatican schedae); Hesselius (= Gude) (1731) p.342 no.2; Maittaire (1732) p.40, no.92 + 562; Muratori (1740) p.1576 no.6 (following Malvasia); Chandler (1763) p.133, no.29; CIL VI.2 no.13807 [Hübner] (1882); CIL VI.4 fasc. 2 (p. 3514) (1902)

Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press Cittadini Celso[Cittadinius] 1553-1627 MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 5253 Cittadini Celso[Cittadinius] 1553-1627 MS. cod. Bib. Marciana Lat. XIV, 116 (= 4661) ‘Inscriptiones antiquae a Celso Cittadini exscriptae cum annotationibus anno 1604 Coffin D.R. 1979 The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome Princeton, NJ Princeton University Press Doni Giovanni Battista [Donius] 1594-1647 MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113 Doni Giovanni Battista [Donius] 1594-1647 MS. cod. Barb. Lat. 2756 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 Malvasia C. 1690 Marmora Felsinea innumeris non solum inscriptionibus exteris hucusque ineditis Bononia Ex typografia Pisariana 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 Muratori L.A. 1739, 1740, 1740, 1742 Novus thesaurus veterum inscriptionum I-IV Milan 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 Minerva 10.1 25-28 Vickers M. 2006 The Arundel and Pomfret Marbles in Oxford Oxford Ashmolean Museum Winghe P. de[Winghius] 1560-1592 Inscriptiones Sacrae et Prophanae Collectae Romae et in Aliis Italiae Urbibus, Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique MS. 17872 vol.1 Warburg facsimile