EPITAPH FOR DOMITIA PHILOTERA, ROME (?) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.55.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.55 AshLI 54

An unadorned rectangular slab of white marble (0.20 0.244 0.027). It is made up of four fragments of different shapes and sizes stuck together (in a modern mount). Part of the bottom edge is missing, and there are two small gaps in between the fragments.

Both letters and interpuncts are very worn. Line 1 is carefully spaced out.

 0.02. It is of unknown provenance, but probably originates from Rome. possibly 2nd/3rd century AD (from use of DM formula, onomastics) (Solin 2003: vol. 1, p.419 and vol.2, p.958). 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 Domitiae Philoterae Iulia Musa fecit matri bene merenti

To the spirits of the dead. For Domitia Philotera. Iulia Musa set this up for her well-deserving mother.

PHILOTERI (Prideaux); PHILOTEPI (Maittaire); PHILOTER L (Chandler).

The social status of this mother/daughter pair is unclear.

Prideaux (1676) p.264, no.128; Maittaire (1732) p.35, no.59; Chandler (1763) p.135, no.55; CIL VI.3 no.17028 [Hübner] (1886).

Online: EDCS-00600030 [accessed 17/07/14].

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 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 Minvera 10.1 25-28