ASH CHEST OF SERVAEUS SAGARIS, ROME (?) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.32.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.32 AshLI 31

An ash chest, with lid, of white marble (overall, 0.32 (including lid, 0.075) 0.32 0.255), decorated with sculpted reliefs (not a tabula marmorea, contra CIL). At each top corner appears a ram’s head, with an eagle below. These motifs spread across onto the sides of the chest. On the front, in the centre beneath the inscription is a bird feeding. Hanging beneath the inscription is a garland with fruit, held by two eagles. The lid is shaped with volutes and a rosette at each side at the top, with a rosette in a separate section in the centre. Its rear is roughly finished. It is in a good condition.

Inscribed area (0.14 0.07). Guiding lines for the stonecutter are faintly visible. In line 3, there is a blank space between C and INGONIA.

 0.012 (line 1); 0.01 (line 2); 0.012 (line 3); 0.008 (lines 4-5). It is of unknown provenance, but probably originates from Rome. 2nd century AD (Solin 2003: vol.1, p.699). It was first recorded in Oxford by Prideaux 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.140), 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 ash chest is currently in a storeroom. Photograph Photograph Photograph: front and right side detail Photograph: lid
Servaeo Sagari Cingonia Eucarpea marito optimo

For Servaeus Sagaris. Cingonia Eucarpea (set this up) for her excellent husband.

C.INGONIA (Fabretti, Maittaire); CINGONIA (Maittaire p.562).

Servaeus Sagaris and Cingonia Eucarpea are of uncertain social status (Solin 2003: vol.1, p.699).

Prideaux (1676) p.83, no.11; Fabretti (1702) p.31 no.151; Maittaire (1732) p.38, no.77 + 562; Chandler (1763) p.133, no.32; CIL VI.4.1 no.26362 [Hübner] (1894)

Online: EDCS-14200542 [accessed 22/07/14]

Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press Fabretti R. 1702 Inscriptionum antiquarum quae in aedibus paternis asseruantur explicatio et additamentum Rome 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