EPITAPH FOR STABERIA GEMELLA, ROME (?) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.51.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.51 AshLI 50

A white marble stele with rounded pediment, flanked by an acroterion on each side (on a modern mount) (0.551 0.37 0.064). In the middle of the pediment is a wreath tied with ribbons trailing to each side. The rear is unfinished. The surface has suffered some minor damage (scratches and chips), and the ends of lines 6 and 7 are damaged by a sizeable, almost circular, abrasion. The left acroterion is missing its top.

The inscribed text is enclosed within a simple rectangular moulded frame (0.30 0.238). It is elegantly carved and carefully laid out, with shorter lines centred. Even so, in line 2 the final E in GEMELLAE encroaches upon the frame. There are triangular interpuncts throughout, except at some line ends. Damage to line 7 has resulted in misreadings of the husband’s cognomen: following EVCH there is clearly an upright stroke, not a diagonal as would be required for CIL’s reading EVCHARVS; this is followed by a V which is clearly visible. Traces of the lower portion of the final S can be seen faintly. The reading therefore should be EVCHRVS rather than EVCHARVS (for the name Euchrus, see Solin 2003: vol.2, p.748).

 0.028 (line 1); 0.027 (line 2); 0.024 (line 3); 0.023 (line 4); 0.022 (line 5); 0.027 (line 6); 0.022 (line 7); 0.03 (line 8). It is of unknown provenance, but probably originates from Rome. possibly second century AD (use of DM formula/ tria nomina). It was first recorded in Oxford by Prideaux as part of 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). 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
dis manibus Staberiae Gemellae coniugi optimae et bene merenti fecit Titus Staberius Euchrus memoriae causa

To the spirits of the dead. Titus Staberius Euchrus set this up for his excellent and well deserving wife, Staberia Gemella, to preserve her memory.

STRABERIAE (Maittaire) EVCHRV (Prideaux, Maittaire); EVCHARVS (CIL; EDH)

The epitaph is commissioned by a husband for his wife; their shared nomina suggest that they may have been freed by the same patron, although their freed status is not explicitly stated, and so is not certain.

Prideaux (1676) p.114, no.51; Maittaire (1732) p.36 no.62; Chandler (1763) p.135, no.51; CIL VI.4.1 no.26726 [Hübner] (1894).

Online: EDCS-14200916 [accessed 16/07/14]

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 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 Minvera 10.1 25-28