A FATHER’S ASH CHEST, ROME (?) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.53.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.53 AshLI 52

An undecorated white marble ash chest, without its lid (0.338 0.27 0.26). It has a circular cavity 19cm in diameter, with a small hole in the bottom. Its rear surface is rounded. It is in a good condition.

The text is inscribed on the front face, within an incised tabula ansata frame. The front surface has been well smoothed. There are small triangular interpuncts. Guiding lines for the stonecutter are faintly visible in lines 1, 4-7. The first and last lines are centred, but words in the rest of the text overlap the line divisions.

0.026 (line 1); 0.03 (lines 2-3); 0.028 (lines 4); 0.027 (line 5); 0.025 (line 6); 0.017 (line 8). It is of unknown provenance, but probably originates from Rome. possibly second century AD (from use of DM formula/tria nomina) (Solin 2003: vol.2, p.1054). 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), and this inscription is visible in the proof-engraving depicting this display in the papers of Henry Aldrich (Vickers 2006: p.40-41). The marbles 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.145), 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 store. Photograph Photograph Photograph: top and interior
dis manibus Lucio Mamio Trophimae patri Mami us Fortuna tianus filius

To the departed spirits. To Lucius Mamius Trophimas, father. Mamius Fortunatianus, son (set this up).

The social status of the deceased is unclear.

Prideaux (1676) p.147, no.105; Fabretti (1702) (following Prideaux); Maittaire (1732) p.35, no.54 p.630, no.258; Chandler (1763) p.135, no.53; CIL VI.3 no.21902 [Hübner] (1886).

Online: EDCS-12600968 [accessed 12/02/15].

Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press Fabretti R. 1702 Inscriptionum antiquarum quae in aedibus paternis asseruantur explicatio et additamentum Rome 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 SolinH. 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 Vickers M. 2006 The Arundel and Pomfret Marbles in Oxford Oxford Ashmolean Museum