RIGHTS TO BURIAL IN A SHARED TOMB, ROME (?) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.33.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.33 AshLI 32

An unadorned rectangular slab of white marble, with an inscription within a simple moulded frame, and a small hole in the centre on its top surface (0.336 0.495 0.025). The rear is smoothly finished. It is in a good condition (in a modern mount).

This plaque has three separate inscriptions upon it. The majority of the plaque is taken up by a neatly engraved text in large letters, whilst a second text is squeezed in to the right of this, in much smaller letters, some of which encroach upon the frame. A third text then follows beneath this one, after an empty space.

Some letters (I and L) in the left-hand text are given more prominence through being taller than the rest. Line 4 is more generously spaced out, and centred. There are small triangular interpuncts throughout, except at line ends. In the last line, EORVM is rather unevenly spaced out, with the final three letters gradually becoming wider apart.

The lettering in the right-hand column is much smaller than in the left. The text on the right-hand side has been squeezed in, encroaching upon the slab’s moulded frame (lines 1-4, 6, 10, 12-13). ET at the end of line 4 is puzzling; most likely it has been misplaced given the way in which it has been inscribed squeezed onto the frame (as suggested in the translation below). The same thing then appears to happen two lines later: in line 6, the ET splits up the freedwoman’s name Orchivia Saturnina. Solin (2003: vol.1, p.194) suggests, however, that we should read C. Orchivio CL Alexandro. This second text does not appear to be a later addition, however, given that the text in the left-hand column leaves this sizeable space free. It must have been regarded as of secondary importance, however. In line 7, the stonecutter has omitted the final E of SATVRNINAE. There are triangular interpuncts throughout, except at line ends. A third text is then added beneath this one.

 Column a:0.026 with tall I 0.03 (line 1); 0.022 with tall I 0.03 + 0.024 (line 2); 0.024 with tall I 0.026 (line 3); 0.023 with tall I 0.028 (line 4); 0.023 with tall L and tall I 0.028 (line 5); 0.022 (line 6). Column b: 0.012 with tall L 0.015 (line 1); 0.01 (lines 2-13) with tall I 0.012 (lines 8, 13). It is of unknown provenance, but probably originates from Rome. The plaque probably dates from the first century AD (Solin 2003: vol.1, p.194, 295, 357, 505; vol.2, p.1005). 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. It was not located by the editors of CIL, who commented ‘nunc periit aut latet’. The epitaph is currently in a storeroom. Photograph
Marcus Iunius Marci libertus Achilles Iunia Marci liberta Palladio liberti Marco Iunio Marci liberto Fausto patrono sibi et suis libertis libertabusque posterisque eorum
Lucius Crimillius Lucii libertus Chrestus sibi et Caio Orchivio Eroti et Caio Orchivio Alexandro et Orchiviae Saturninae posterisque eorum Vettia Cai liberta Sabina sibi et Tito Vecilio Felici posterisque eorum

Marcus Iunius Achilles freedman of Marcus, Iunia Palladio freedwoman of Marcus, ex-slaves, (set this up) for Marcus Iunius Faustus freedman of Marcus, patron, for themselves and for their freedmen and freedwomen and for their descendants.

Lucius Crimilius Chrestus freedman of Lucius for himself and for Gaius Orchivius Eros, and for Gaius Orchivius Alexander, and for Orchivia Saturnina and for their descendants.

Vettia Sabina freedwoman of Gaius for herself and for Titus Vecilius Felix and for their descendants.

CRIMILLVS (lapis), emended as CRIMILIVS (Solin). C ORCHIVIO ET (lapis), emended as ET C ORCHIVIO; C ORCHIVIO L (Solin) ORCHIVIAE ET (lapis), emended as ET ORCHIVIAE. SATVRNINA (lapis). 2 T. VICILIO (Prideaux, Maittaire).

This plaque presents to us three sets of texts (column a; column b lines 1-9, which are separated from lines 10-13 by a vacat of one line), relating to three different groups of freedmen and freedwomen. Each group has bought space in a shared tomb; the function of this inscription is not to act as an epitaph as such, but to define the legal rights which allowed these different individuals to be buried in this shared tomb.

The first group consists of a patron Marcus Iunius Faustus (himself a freedman), who is commemorated by his freedman Achilles and freedwoman Palladio. In column a, lines 2-3, the final L and P are unexpected; CIL suggests expanding the abbreviations as L(iberti) and P(atrono), adopted above. This would mean that the reason for repeating the freed status of Iunius Achilles and of Iunia Palladio was to clarify their relationship to Iunius Faustus, their patronus.

The second group consists of two freedmen, Lucius Crimilius Chrestus and Gaius Orchivius Eros, followed by a husband and wife, Gaius Orchivius Alexander and Orchivia Saturnina, along with their descendants. The nomen Crimillus in column b, line 1 is otherwise unattested; Solin suggests that we should emend it as Crimilius, adopted above.

The third group is another wife-husband pair, Vettia Sabina and Titus Vecilius Felix, and their descendants. In this last group, the woman takes the lead in setting up the inscription, perhaps because she has been pre-deceased by her husband.

Prideaux (1676) p.102, no.34 (left side only), no.35 (right side only); Fabretti (1702) p.475 no.123 (left side only); Maittaire (1732) p.40, no. 91 (left side only), no. 98 (right side only); Chandler (1763) p.133, no.33; CIL VI.3 no.20750 (1886)

Online: EDCS-12201429 [accessed 22/07/14].

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