EPITAPH FOR SIBLINGS, ROME (?) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.48.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.48 AshLI 47

A large tablet of white marble, with a moulded frame, in a modern mount (0.59 0.625 0.035). In its current condition, it consists of two contiguous pieces. The left side, which is preserved, is smoothly finished. The right side is missing. The rear is roughly finished.

There are interpuncts throughout. Line 1 is indented (probably centred). Only the upright stroke of R remains at the end of line 2. The end of line 3 has been cut back and the letters MENO inscribed in a different hand on top of an erasure; most of line 4 has also been erased, after the initial CL. There are probably about six letters missing on the right side of the text. The last letter in line 3 seems more likely to be O than C; in line 4 the name CL[[AVDIA]] is visible, though erased; the final letters in lines 5, 6, and 7 have been chiselled out.

0.045 with tall I 0.05 (line 1); 0.04 (lines 2-4); 0.038 with tall I 0.048 (line 5); 0.035 (line 6); 0.032 (lines 7-8) It is of unknown provenance, but probably originates from Rome. late first century AD (from DM formula and onomastics; Solin 2003: vol. 2 p.824 opts for a wider spread, from first to second century AD) It was first recorded in Oxford by Prideaux, as part of the Arundel Collection, 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 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
dis manibus parentes fecerunt Tiberius Claudius Meno Claudia Ancilla Attico filio vixit an et Atticillae filiae vixit ann Primigenius Augusti libertus a peragendum curavit

To the spirits of the dead. Tiberius Claudius Meno(?) and Claudia Ancilla, parents set this up to Atticus, their son, who lived for (x many) years and for Atticilla their daughter who lived for (x many) years. Primigenius, freedman of the emperor, ?, oversaw this being carried out.

DIS MANIBVS....: Prideaux and Maittaire both suggest that something is missing after this formula, which seems extremely unlikely, given the way in which the formula is centred on the line FECIT.... (Prideaux, Maittaire); FECE (Maittaire p.561); FECEI* (Chandler) MEN....(Prideaux, Maittaire); MENC* (Chandler) CL (Prideaux and Maittaire include only two letters at the start of this line); ANCI* (Chandler) ANN... (Prideaux, Maittaire); AN* (Chandler) FVI ...(Prideaux, Maittaire); VI* (Chandler) A... (Prideaux, Maittaire); A* (Chandler) CVR .... (Prideaux, Maittaire); CVR* (Chandler)

In line 3, there are several names possible, including Menophilus, Menogenes, Menodorus, Menocrates, Menopantus, Menomachus, and Menothius. These longer names seem more likely than the current supplement Menon suggested in CIL, where the line length appears to have been slightly miscalculated, by excluding a missing praenomen at the end of line 2. In line 4 the name Ancilla is most likely, but other possibilities, such as Anchialis, cannot be excluded. It is tempting to suggest that Primigenius was freedman of Claudius (as Ti. Claudius Primigenius), and that the parents too had also been freed by the emperor. The damaged phrase at the end of line 7 following his name may well have consisted of a description of his role or job within the imperial household.

Prideaux (1676) p.270, no.131; Maittaire (1732) p.35, no.51 + 561; Chandler (1763) p.135, no.48; CIL VI.3 no.15152 [Hübner] (1886)

Online: EDCS-09600027 [accessed 28/07/15]

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 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