FUNERARY ALTAR OF ANCHARIA AMPELIS, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.40.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.40 AshLI 39

A white marble funerary altar (0.74 0.41 0.29), with images in relief on its sides: a patera on the right side, and a jug on the left. To the right and left on top are cylindrical bolsters, ending in rosettes to the front. On the top surface is carved a two-handled dish, which contains twelve small holes around a single large central hole, for pouring libations. There are remains of a clamp in the centre of the top. The rear surface is smooth. The altar is intact, in good condition, with minor damage to the bottom right corner of its base.

The text is inscribed within a moulded frame (inscribed area: 0.337 0.358). The text is carefully laid out, with centring of each line. There are triangular interpuncts throughout.

 0.022, tall I 0.028 (line 1); 0.022 (line 2); 0.02 (lines 3-5), with tall I 0.023; 0.017 (lines 6-12), with tall I 0.019; 0.015 (line 13); 0.014 (line 14). The tall I letters are noted by Menestrier in MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 10545. Rome late 1st/2nd century AD AD (reference to voting-tribe; use of DM formula/ tria nomina) This inscription is recorded found on the via Flaminia, in 1610, near the Milvian bridge (Menestrier MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 10545), not on the Janiculum as tentatively deduced by the editors of CIL at first (corrected on p. 3509). The inscription was then brought to England to join the Arundel Collection in London (Selden 1629: p.54, no. 9), 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, and in 1749, they were transferred downstairs to the ground floor in the former School of Moral Philosophy. At some point this inscription 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.142), 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 inscription is currently in a storeroom. Photograph
dis manibus Anchariae Ampelidi fecerunt Marcus Antonius Marci Antoni Marci fili Flori liberti Aprilis libertus Pothinus coniugi suae carissimae bene meritae de se et Marcus Antonius Antoni Pothini filius Claudia tribu Iustus matri suae piissimae adque indulgentissimae

To the spirits of the dead. To Ancharia Ampelis. Marcus Antonius Pothinus, freedman of Aprilis, freedman of Marcus Antonius Florus, son of Marcus, set this up to his dearest wife, who was well-deserving of him, and Marcus Antonius Iustus, son of Antonius Pothinus, of the Claudian voting-tribe, to his most loving and indulgent mother.

DM (Menestrier MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 10545, Sirmond) different line division, after M Antonius/ M Antoni M f Flori (Sirmond) BENE omitted (Selden; Reinesius) MERENTI (Selden; Reinesius) INDVLGENDISSIMAE (Reinesius)

The pattern of names is unusual in this epitaph, showing a desire to be able to trace back the connections of M. Antonius Pothinus through a line of patron-freed relationships. The insistence on being able to place the family in the correct social milieu is also evident in including the son’s voting tribe in order to emphasise his freeborn status, using an unusual abbreviation here, CLAVD for Claud(ia tribu), which is normally abbreviated as Cla(udia tribu). The deceased woman, Ancharia Ampelis, however, is of uncertain status (Solin 2003: 2 p.1155).

Menestrier MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 10545 f.168’; Sirmond Paris suppl. Lat. 1419 = Lat. 10808, no.295; Gude MS 130, 6 (according to CIL); Selden (1629) 54 no.9; Prideaux (1676) p.91, no.19; Reinesius (1682) section 14 p.727 no.17 (following Selden); Hesselius (= Marquard Gude) (1731) p.264 no.1 (following Selden); Maittaire (1732) p.37, no.75; Chandler (1763) p.134, no.40; CIL VI.2 no.11617 [Hübner] (1882); CIL VI.4, fasc. 3 (1902) p.3509 Cooley (2012) pp.380-82 no.71 with fig. 3.12

Online: EDCS-17201298 [accessed 24/07/15]

Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press Cooley A.E. 2012 The Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy Cambridge Cambridge University Press Hesselius F. 1731 Antiquae Inscriptiones quam Graecae tum Latinae olim a Marquardo Gudio collectae Leovardia Maittaire M. 1732, 2nd edn. Marmorum, Arundellianorum, Seldenianorum, Aliorumque Academiae Oxoniensi Donatorum London William Bowyer Menestrier MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 10545 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 Reinesius T. 1682 Nova reperta inscriptionum antiquarum Leipzig and Frankfurt 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, 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