EPITAPH FOR A MOTHER AND GRANDMOTHER, ROME (?) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.56.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.56 AshLI 55

A plain rectangular plaque of grey-veined white marble (in a modern mount) (0.23 0.386 0.065). The rear is not currently visible. On the top surface, in the centre, is a hole with a groove.

The text is roughly centred on each line. There are triangular interpuncts throughout. It seems that two or more probably three letters have been erased at the end of line 2 (as noted by Chandler), where the surface has been cut back. Of these, a trace of the top of a vertical letter (perhaps I or L) in the middle is visible via RTI. The letters are quite worn, especially in the final line of the text.

 0.029 (lines 1-2); 0.021 (line 3); 0.023 (lines 4-5); 0.02 (line 6). It is of unknown provenance, but probably originates from Rome. possibly second century AD (use of DM formula, onomastics) (Solin 2003: vol. 3, p.1336). 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 Ataniae Noe matri et Iuliae Lupae aviae bene merentibus Atania Firmina fecit

To the spirits of the dead. For Atania Noe, mother, and Julia Lupa, grandmother, well-deserving. Atania Firmina set this up.

The social status of these women from three generations of a single family is unclear.

Prideaux (1676) p.91, no.22; Fabretti (1702) p.607 no.58 (following Prideaux); Maittaire (1732) p.36, no.61; Chandler (1763) p.135, no.56; CIL VI.2 no.12571 [Hübner] (1882).

Online: EDCS-14800784 [accessed 28/12/14]

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 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