EPITAPHS FOR IMPERIAL FREEDMEN, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.44.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.44 AshLI 43

A plain white marble tablet (0.346 0.37 0.047), with a moulded frame, in a modern mount. It consists of two conjoining fragments, but part of its left side is missing. The rear surface is rough. There is a small hole in the top surface.

The text on the front surface is divided into two sections by a vertical line. A larger part of the stone (two-thirds or more) is allocated to the first epitaph, and only a comparatively narrow space to the second epitaph. There are some interpuncts visible. The left-hand text in Col. A is particularly worn away. There are ivy-leaf interpuncts in Column B in line 1, and at the ends of lines 2-3. Tops of LP in Col. B line 10 are visible from RTI. In line 11, presumably a cognomen should be supplied. There is a tall B at the end of line 13. The lettering in Col. B appears to run out of space completely at the end of the text, leaving the phrase POSTERISQVE EORVM incomplete, with the final S possibly appearing in miniature on the frame. Some traces of letters can be seen in the final lines of Col. B, with the help of RTI, suggesting a formula such as ‘libertis et libertabus posterisque’.

 col. A: 0.017 (line 1); 0.022 (line 2); 0.02 (lines 3-6); col. B: 0.018 (lines 1-2); 0.015 (line 3); 0.016, with tall T encroaching onto frame (line 4); 0.014 (line 5); 0.015 (line 6); 0.012 (line 7); 0.015 (line 8); 0.012 (line 9); 0.014 (lines 10-13) Of unknown provenance, it probably originated from Rome. first half of second century AD (use of DM formula, onomastics) (Solin 1996: vol. 1, p.108). It was first recorded in Oxford by Prideaux (1676), as part of the Arundel Collection, given to the University of Oxford by Henry Howard, Earl of Arundel, in 1667. 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. 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 epitaph is currently in a storeroom. Photograph Photograph
dis manibus Augusti liberto et coniugi et lib ertis libertabus e
dis manibus Marco Ulpio Augcusti liberto Claro fecit Calpurnia Restituta coniugi su o bene me renti et Publio Calpurnio n et lib posterisque eorum

To the spirits of the dead. To ?, freedman of the emperor, and to his wife and to his freedmen and freedwomen.

To the departed spirits. To Marcus Ulpius Clarus, freedman of the emperor. Calpurnia Restituta set this up to her well-deserving husband and to Publius Calpurnius ? and to their freedmen and freedwomen and their descendants(?).

ET (Prideaux, Maittaire) …EVS (Prideaux, Maittaire) …ERE (Prideaux, Maittaire) AUC (lapis) CALPVRNIO (Prideaux, Maittaire, for whom this is the last line) cognomen missing /// V ° EO (CIL) R///ET ° LIB (CIL)

Given the poor state of preservation, it is difficult to be sure of the details, but this is clearly a stone bearing epitaphs for two imperial freedmen and their families, the space being divided unequally between the two texts. Quite a few letters are missing from the left-hand epitaph.

Prideaux (1676) p.272, no.135; Maittaire (1732) p.38, no.80; Chandler (1763) p.134, no.44; CIL VI.4.fasc.1 no.29155 [Hübner] (1894)

Online: EDCS-14803124 [accessed 09/12/14]

Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press 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 Sheldonian Theatre Solin H. 1996 Die stadtrömischen Sklavennamen Stuttgart Steiner Sturdy D. and N. Moorcraft 1999 Christopher Wren and Oxford’s garden of antiquities Minerva 10.1 25-28