EPITAPH OF CALPURNIA NEREIS, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.41.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.41 AshLI 40

A white marble stele with a rounded top (0.76 0.285 0.09), in a modern mount. The rear and sides of the stele remain rough. The stele is in a good condition.

The text is engraved on the front face within a rather irregularly-cut moulded frame. The style of lettering is also not very even. Furthermore, letters are duplicated by mistake, and some have been squeezed in on a smaller scale, where the stonecutter has not successfully planned out the spacing. There is an ivy-leaf interpunct in line 1 and a couple of round interpuncts in line 10.

 0.032 (lines 1-4); 0.029 (line 5); 0.032-0.035 (line 6); 0.038 (line 7); 0.034 (line 8); 0.032 (line 9); 0.036 (line 10); 0.03 (line 11), becoming smaller towards the line-end; 0.01 (line 12), possibly in a different hand. Line 6: final E is squeezed in as a smaller letter, higher up; line 7: the last letter N remains incomplete, and the following line duplicates it; line 8: the last 2 letters are damaged, with the A slightly squeezed in; line 11: the final T is inscribed on the moulded frame; line 12: B and R are oddly styled, more like the Greek letter lambda, lacking curving strokes, whilst the final S is inscribed on the moulded frame. The final line is either in a different hand or differs in style because of the extreme lack of space. Rome possibly second century AD (Solin 2003: vol. 1 p.428) This inscription was found on the Janiculum (Reinesius 1682). 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). They 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: detail Photograph: detail Photograph: detail Photograph: detail Photograph: detail
dis manibus Calpurn niae Nerei di coniugi sanctae ca rae optimae castae pien entissimae bene meren ti Caius Calpur nius Eros fecit et sibi posterisque suis

To the spirits of the dead. Gaius Calpurnius Eros set this up for Calpurnia Nereis, his virtuous, dear, excellent, chaste, most loving, well-deserving wife, and for himself and his descendants.

CALPVR (Prideaux, Maittaire) NERPIDI (Reinesius) PIENTIS/SIMAE (Reinesius) TISSIMAE (Prideaux, Maittaire) Different line divisions (Sirmond): Calpurniae Nereidi / coniugi sanctae car/ae castae pientis/simae bene merenti/ C Calpurnius Eros fecit / et sibi posterisque suis

The epitaph is commissioned by a husband for his wife; their shared nomina suggest that they may have been freed by the same patron (or possibly Nereis is both freedwoman and wife of Eros), although their freed status is not explicitly stated, and so is not certain.

Sirmond MS. BNF Paris suppl. Lat. 1419 = Lat. 10808, no.298; Gude MS 130, 7 (following Langermann, according to CIL); Prideaux (1676) p.124, no.59; Reinesius (1682) part 14, p.777 no.186 (following Langermann, with different line divisions); Hesselius (= Marquard Gude) (1731) ind. p.CII; Maittaire (1732) p.37, no.68; Chandler (1763) p.134, no.41; CIL VI.2 no.14237 [Hübner] (1882)

Online: EDCS-15600143 [accessed 24/07/15]

Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon 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 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 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 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