EPITAPH OF CLAUDIA EUPHROSYNE, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.43.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.43 AshLI 42

A funerary altar of white marble with grey veins (0.80 0.41 0.24). It is surmounted by a rounded pediment: in its centre is a wreath and trailing ribbons in relief, flanked by acroteria on each side, each decorated with a rosette. The rectangular central part of the monument within a moulded frame has been hollowed into a niche, within which the inscription has been carved. The whole monument sits upon a stepped base. It has a rectangular hole in the centre of its top surface. The rear remains rough. On the sides appear a jug (urceus) (left), and libation-dish (patera) (right). It is in fairly good condition, but there is some damage to the bottom right side of the plinth, all the way to the rear; there is also damage at rear left, as well as minor damage to the acroteria at the top and to the plinth at the top.

The inscription sits within a shallow curved niche (0.38 0.265). The letters DM are carved outside the curved niche, framing it to either side at the top. The text is centred. These features are all recorded in the Menestrier MS. Traces of red paint still remain on the letters. There are small interpuncts.

 0.022 (line 1); 0.027, with tall Y 0.033 (line 2); 0.02 with tall I 0.025 in HIC (line 3); 0.018 (line 4); 0.024 with tall I in NICANOR 0.027 (lines 5-6); 0.015 (line 7) with tall I in CONIVGI 0.018, and tall K 0.02; 0.023 (lines 8-9); 0.015 (line 10), with tall I in PIEN 0.02. The tall letters are recorded by Menestrier MS. Rome possibly first half of the second century AD (DM formula, onomastics, use of tria nomina; Solin 2003: vol. 1 p.120) This inscription was reported found on the via Flaminia in 1610, near the Milvian bridge (Menestrier MS. Vat. Lat. 10545 f. 169’, following schedae of Iulius Roscius). ). 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. At some point it 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.30, no.143) 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
Claudia Euphrosyne Benedicta hic sita est fecerunt Marcus Ulpius Augusti libertus Nicanor coniugi karissimae dulcissimae et Lucius Baebius Onesiphorus matri dulcissimae pientissimae

To the spirits of the dead. Claudia Euphrosyne Benedicta is buried here. Marcus Ulpius Nicanor imperial freedman did (this) for his dearest and sweetest wife and Lucius Baebius Onesiphorus for his sweetest and most devoted mother.

EVPHROSVNE (Prideaux, Maittaire); EVPHROSYNE (Maittaire 562) ET omitted by Menestrier MATPI (Maittaire)

The different names here between family members – mother Claudia Euphrosyne Benedicta, father Marcus Ulpius Nicanor an imperial freedman, and son Lucius Baebius Onesiphorus – suggest that the son may have been adopted, or that he was son of an earlier marriage (Weaver 1972: p.159).

Menestrier MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 10545 f. 169’; Prideaux (1676) p.263, no.125; Maittaire (1732) p.38, no.76 + 562; Chandler (1763) p.134, no.43; CIL VI.3 no.15406 [Hübner] (1886); CIL VI.4.2 p. 3517 [Hülsen] (1902)

Online: EDCS-09600280 [accessed 24/07/15]

Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press 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 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 Weaver P.R.C. 1972 Familia Caesaris: A Social Study of the Emperor's Freedmen and Slaves Cambridge Cambridge University Press