EPITAPH FOR FREEDMAN CANINIUS TERTIUS AND FREEDWOMAN CANINIA TERTIA, ROME (?) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.31.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.31 AshLI 30

An unadorned slab of white marble (in a modern mount) (0.173 0.48 d. 0.03). It consists of two contiguous fragments, with a large chip missing from the bottom left corner of the right-hand fragment. The rear is not visible because of the modern mount. Two small round holes in the top surface probably relate to the epitaph’s display in modern times.

Inscribed on the face. There are interpuncts throughout, except at the ends of lines 1-2. The whole text is of poor workmanship: in line 2, the stonecutter has altered the wrongly inscribed letters CAT to CAN; possibly too the stonecutter mistakenly started with an upright stroke in cutting the A in TERTIAE, and then had to compensate by carving the rest of the letter at an odd angle.

 0.032-0.025 (line 1), 0.021-0.026 (line 2), 0.025-0.022, with tall I 0.04, tall B in SIBI 0.038 (line 3). The lettering is rather roughly cut, and there is considerable variation in letter-size within individual lines. Q in line 3 is damaged, but clear from context. It is of unknown provenance, but probably originates from Rome. second century AD (Solin 1996: vol.1, pp.153-54). It was first recorded in Oxford byPrideaux (1676), as part of the Arundel Collection, 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), and this particular inscription can be seen as part of that display on a proof-engraving in the papers of Henry Aldrich (Vickers 2006: p.40-41). 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, 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 epitaph is currently in a storeroom. Photograph Photograph
Caio Caninio Cai liberto Tertio et Caniniae Cai libertae Tertiae sibi posterisque suis

To Gaius Caninius Tertius, freedman of Gaius, and to Caninia Tertia, freedwoman of Gaius, for themselves and their descendants.

The epitaph is set up for two ex-slaves (husband and wife) freed by the same patron. Their servile names ‘third (male)’ and ‘third (female)’ remind us of the objectification of slaves in Roman society (for a list of slave-names at Rome derived from numbers, see Solin 1996: vol.1, pp.142-55). The poor quality of lettering suggests that this epitaph would have been at the cheap end of the market. Consequently, dating from the lettering is not possible, but it may perhaps be placed roughly within the 2nd century AD on onomastic grounds.

Prideaux (1676) p.147, no.110; Maittaire (1732) p.41, no.100; Chandler (1763) p.133, no.31; CIL VI.2 no.14342 [Hübner] (1882).

Online: EDCS-15600246 [accessed 08/07/14].

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. 1996 Die stadtrömischen Sklavennamen. Ein Namenbuch Stuttgart Steiner 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