EPITAPH OF CORNELIA EXOCHE, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.37.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.37 AshLI 36

A slab of white marble, within a simple moulded frame (0.319 0.535 0.12). The rear and sides are roughly finished. It is generally in a good condition, albeit with some surface damage towards the ends of lines 2-3. There is a hole on its top edge.

Inscribed on the front face, with some thought for layout in the centring of the final line. There are triangular interpuncts throughout.

 0.03 (line 1); 0.026 (lines 2-3); 0.023 (line 4); 0.019 (line 5); 0.016 (line 6) Rome late 1st/2nd century AD (Solin 2003: vol. 3 p.1301) 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; Cittadini MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 5253 f.210; Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113 f.53), in the ‘vinea/vineyard’ (i.e., villa – for its meaning, see Coffin 1979: p.viii) of an individual named by some sources as ‘Gulielmo pasticcerio’, a pastry-chef (Cittadini MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 5253 f.210; Cittadini MS. Bib. Marc.), and by others as a spice-trader, ‘Giuillelmo aromatario’ (Donius MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113, Doni MS. cod. Barb. Lat.). Other inscriptions from the same location are C3-19, C3-25, C3-29, C3-58, C3-60. It was seen, according to Reinesius (1682), by Sirmond at the Palazzo of Cardinal Crescenzi, near the Pantheon in Rome, some time after 1611 (when Pier Paolo Crescenzi was created cardinal: Polverini Fosi 1984), and Chandler (1763: p.xvii) also records this location, although the MS of Sirmond does not itself mention a location (for other inscriptions from this location, see C3-12, C3-17, C3-21, C3-28, C3-30, C3-71, C3-80, C3-90). It was then brought to England to join 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), 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. The inscription is currently in a storeroom. Photograph Photograph Photograph
dis manibus Corneliae Exoche Cornelia Felicla liberta et Clodius Helius patronae bene merenti fecerunt et collibertis collibertabus posterisque suorum

To the departed spirits of Cornelia Exoche. Cornelia Felicla, freedwoman, and Clodius Helius set this up for their well-deserving patron and for their fellow-freedmen and fellow-freedwomen and for their descendants.

opening formula omitted by Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113; CORNELIA Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113; H written on top of E in EXOCHE (Cittadini MS. Bib. Marc.); line division after DIS MAN (Doni MS. cod. Barb. Lat.); EXOCHAE (Doni MS. cod. Barb. Lat.) FELICIA (Sirmond, Reinesius, Prideaux, Maittaire)

This epitaph illustrates the close ongoing relationship that existed between some freedmen and their patrons.

de Winghe Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique MS. 17872 vol.2, 42 (followed by Ciacconio Raff. {i.e. Alfonso Chacón} f.143, according to CIL); Cittadini MS. Cod. Bib. Marciana Lat. XIV, 116 (= 4661) f.137; Cittadini MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 5253 f.212’; Doni Barb. Lat. 2756 f.209, following Vatican schedae; Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113 f.53; Sirmond MS. BNF Paris suppl. Lat. 1419 = Lat. 10808, no. 281; Prideaux (1676) p.127, no.71; Reinesius (1682) section 18, p.869, no.13 (following Sirmond); Gude MS. 129, 3 and 283, 5 (according to CIL); Maittaire (1732) p.39, no.90; Chandler (1763) p.133, no.37; CIL VI.3 no.16385 [Hübner] (1886)

Online: EDCS-12001281 [accessed 21/07/15]

Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press Cittadini Celso[Cittadinius] 1553-1627 MS. cod. Bib. Marciana Lat. XIV, 116 (= 4661) ‘Inscriptiones antiquae a Celso Cittadini exscriptae cum annotationibus anno 1604 (from scan kindly provided by Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana) Cittadini Celso[Cittadinius] 1553-1627 MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 5253 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. Barb. Lat. 2756 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 Polverini FosiI. 1984 Crescenzi, Pier Paolo Dizionario biografico degli italiani A.M. Ghisalberti and M. Pavan Rome Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana 648-49 Prideaux H. 1676 Marmora Oxoniensia ex Arundellianis, Seldenianis, aliisque conflata Oxford Reinesius T. 1682 Syntagma inscriptionum antiquarum Leipzig J.E. Hahn Sirmond J. [Sirmondus] 1559-1651 Recueil d'inscriptions copiées par Sirmond. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Latin 10808 [consulted online 010/06/14 at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b9077728w] 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 Winghe P. de[Winghius] 1560-1592 Inscriptiones Sacrae et Prophanae Collectae Romae et in Aliis Italiae Urbibus, Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique MS. 17872 vol.2 Warburg facsimile