EPITAPH OF AN IMPERIAL FREEDMAN, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.39.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.39 AshLI 38

A white marble slab, with a moulded frame (0.628 0.734 0.042). The rear is smoothed. On the top edge in the centre is a clamp mark, with slight oxidisation. It is in a good condition, with some damage on the right side of the frame.

Inscribed on the front face, there are triangular interpuncts throughout. The first section of text naming commemorated and commemorators is emphasised by spacing and letter-size, with the second section of the text from line 8 much smaller and squeezed in. Line 6: PP to indicate plural Publii. Tall K in line 12. Some letters encroach upon the frame (Line 5, A in AEMILIA; Line 10: last letter in MVNIMENTVM).

 : 0.047 (line 1); 0.037 (lines 2-3); 0.035 (lines 4-7); 0.019 (lines 8-14). Line 6: tall I, 0.04; line 8: tall I, 0.023. Rome roughly mid-second century AD (Hadrianic freedman). This slab was found on the Janiculum in Rome (according to Langermann, as reported by Reinesius 1682; Chandler 1763: p.xvii). The inscription was then brought to England to join the Arundel Collection in London (Selden 1629: p.52, no. 5), 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 this particular inscription can be seen as part of that display on a proof-engraving in the papers of Henry Aldrich (Vickers 2006: pp.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 inscription is currently in a storeroom. Photograph Photograph Photograph: inscription detail Photograph: inscription detail
dis manibus Publio Aelio Augusti liberto Erasino dulcissimo et pientissimo Aemilia Helene coniunx et P Publii Aelii Augusti liberti Musicus et Helenus filii fecerunt et sibi et suis libertis liber tabusque posterisque eorum ita ne liceat hunc munimentum vendere vel donare quod si factum fuerit uterrisque arkae pontificum U+10198 XXX milia nummum poenae nomine inferet huic monumento dolus malus abesto

To the spirits of the dead. To Publius Aelius Erasinus, freedman of the emperor, sweetest and most devoted. Aemilia Helene, wife, and Publius Aelius Musicus and Publius Aelius Helenus, freedmen of the emperor, his sons, set this up and for themselves and for their freedmen and freedwomen and for their descendants, on condition that it is not permitted to sell or give away this monument. If this is done, payment will be made by both parties of 30,000 sesterces as penalty to the treasury of the pontifices. Let this monument suffer no deliberate harm.

ERASINO (Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113, Sirmond, Selden, Maittaire p.562, Muratori); ERASINIO (Prideaux, Maittaire). Lines 3-4 recorded as a single line (Muratori, Malvasia). CONIVNX (Selden, Reinesius; Prideaux, Maittaire); COIVX (Muratori); COIVNX (Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113, Sirmond); CONIVX (Doni MS. cod. Barb. Lat.) ET P. P. (Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113, Doni MS. Barb. Lat., Sirmond, Selden). Doni and Sirmond mark the long I in AeliI. FILII (Selden, Reinesius) FILI (Sirmond) ITA VT NON HOC MONVMENTVM (Muratori; Malvasia); MVNIMENTVM (Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113, Selden); MONVMENTVM (Prideaux) VTRISQVE (lapis) in place of VTERQVE (Dessau); VTRINQVE (Maittaire p.562); VTRISQ (Muratori) XXXM, with supralineate line (Malvasia, Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113); PAENAE (Prideaux); POENAE (Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113, Sirmond) two lines, with break after INFERET (Muratori) ; INFERT (Malvasia, who also adds line break here)

This epitaph commemorates an imperial freedman, Publius Aelius Erasinus, who was manumitted by the emperor Hadrian (Weaver 2005: Aelii Augusti Liberti: no.1508, P. Aelius Aug. lib. Erasinus). His two sons, Helenus and Musicus, are also imperial freedmen manumitted by Hadrian, whilst his wife, Aemilia Helene, by contrast, appears to come from a different background, which poses the problem of how the sons came initially to be imperial slaves themselves, and then imperial freedmen. In principle, Aemilia Helene could be a freedwoman from a different household or perhaps even freeborn (Solin 2003: vol. 1 p.588), but Weaver (1972: pp.156-69) offers extensive discussion of this problem, observing that the sons should share the family nomen of the mother, whether she were freeborn or freed. He concludes that the most likely scenario is that the mother, Aemilia Helene, was in fact freeborn, but that under the terms of the SC Claudianum of AD 52, her children born whilst their father was still an imperial slave, and so would themselves also have taken on the status of imperial slaves. In this case, Aemilia Helene would legally have held the status of an imperial slave, but retained her original freeborn name.

The dedicators of the epitaph take some pains to protect the tomb plot which they have bought by imposing a fine in case of the tomb being intentionally damaged (Mommsen 1887-1888: pp.70-72). The earliest known fines of this kind were paid to the aerarium populi Romani, with the treasury of the pontifices only being involved from the mid-second century AD. On the interpretation and emendation adopted here (following Dessau and Weaver), they impose a substantial monetary penalty upon both buyer and seller, should the tomb be sold or given away (Dessau compares this with ILS 8226; the maximum sum known for such a fine is 350,000 sesterces – CIL VI 13387, 3rd century). This interpretation seems preferable to paying a penalty ‘to both treasuries of the pontifices’ (suggested by Mommsen 1887-1888: p.70 n.8), which would involve a payment of 30,000 sesterces to both the treasury of the pontifices and to that of the Vestals. For other protective penalties, see C3-18, C3-27 (overview in Gregori 2004: pp.391-404).

Sirmond Paris suppl. Lat. 1419 = Lat. 10808, no. 260; Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113 f.42 (following Menestrier); Doni MS. cod. Barb. Lat. 2756 f.156 (following Menestrier); Doni BN Naples, MS G.XII.75 fol.355 no.1 (following Menestrier); Gude MS. 129, 1 (according to CIL); Selden (1629) p.52, no. 5; Malvasia (1690) p.482 (following Vatican schedae); Muratori (1740) p.989 no.1 (following Malvasia); Reinesius (1682) section 9 p.548 no.1 (following Selden and Langermann); Prideaux (1676) p.148, no.113; Maittaire (1732) p.38, no.79 + 562; Chandler (1763) p.134, no.39; CIL VI.2 no.10682 [Hübner] (1882); CIL VI, 4.2 (1902) p.3507; ILS 8227 (Dessau 1955)

Online: EDCS-17200408 [accessed 21/07/15]

Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press Doni Giovanni Battista [Donius] 1594-1647 MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113 Doni Giovanni Battista [Donius] 1594-1647 MS. cod. Barb. Lat. 2756 Doni Giovanni Battista [Donius] 1594-1647 BN Naples, MS G.XII.75 GregoriG.L. 2004 Si quis contra legem sepulcri fecerit. Violazioni e pene pecuniarie Libitina e dintorni. Libitina e i luci sepolcrali. Le leges libitinarie campane. Iura sepulcrorum: vecchie e nuove iscrizioni Rome Libitina 3/ Quasar 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 MommsenT. 1887-1888, 3rd edn Römisches Staatsrecht Leipzig S. Herzel 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 Reinesius T. 1682 Syntagma inscriptionum antiquarum Leipzig J.E. Hahn Selden J. 1629 Marmora Arundelliana London J.Billius Sirmond J. [Sirmondus] 1559-1651 Recueil d'inscriptions copiées par Sirmond. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Paris suppl. Lat. 1419 = Latin 10808 [consulted online 10/06/14 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 Vickers M. 2006 The Arundel and Pomfret Marbles in Oxford Oxford Ashmolean Museum Weaver P. 1972 Familia Caesaris: A Social Study of the Emperor's Freedmen and Slaves Cambridge Cambridge University Press Weaver P. 2005 Repertorium Familiae Caesarum [http://www.uni-koeln.de/philfak/ifa/altg/eck/weaver.htm accessed 24/07/15]