EPITAPH FOR A MOTHER AND BROTHER, ROME (?) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.57.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.57 AshLI 56

An unadorned rectangular marble slab (0.265 0.35 0.04), with unfinished rear (in a modern mount). Two holes in the centre of the top surface probably relate to its display in modern times. The inscription is somewhat worn away and chipped around the edges, but the slab is otherwise well preserved.

Some attention has been paid to the layout of the inscription, with centring of the first and last lines, but words several times overrun the lines. Triangular interpuncts are irregularly used, even interrupting CARISSIME in line 3. In Line 4, Prideaux (1676) and Maittaire (1732) corrected their texts to reflect the standard dative ending.

 0.024 (lines 1-4); 0.021 (lines 5-6); 0.024 (line 7). It is of unknown provenance, but probably originates from Rome. possibly 2nd/3rd century AD (from use of DM formula, onomastics) (Solin 2003: vol. 2, p.1078) 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 on display in the Reading and Writing Gallery Photograph
dis manibus Ulpiae Hegemo nidi matri carissi mae et Ulpio Domes tico fratri caris simo Ulpius Felicissi mus bene merentibus fecit

To the spirits of the dead. Ulpius Felicissimus set this up for Ulpia Hegemonis, his dearest mother, and for Ulpius Domesticus, his dearest brother, well deserving.

DM omitted (Prideaux, Maittaire); DM (Maittaire 561). MAE (Prideaux, Maittaire).

This epitaph probably belongs to a family of ex-slaves. Both Felicissimus and Domesticus were common slave-names (Kajanto 1965: p.82). It is perhaps unlikely that they were imperial freedmen of Trajan, which might be implied by their nomen Ulpius, since they do not draw attention to what would be comparatively high status, compared with other freedmen. They may instead have been peregrini who had been granted Roman citizenship during Trajan’s reign (cf. Weaver 1972: p. 81, 85). Nevertheless, it is possible that the original location of the epitaph within a household columbarium may have made clear which household they belonged to.

Prideaux (1676) p.115, no.53; Maittaire (1732) p.35, no.58 + 561; Chandler (1763) p.135, no.57; CIL VI.4.1 no.29357 (1894).

Online: EDCS-14803327 [accessed 17/07/14]

ChandlerR. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press Kajanto I. 1965 The Latin Cognomina Helsinki Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum 36.2 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 Weaver P. R. C. 1972 Familia Caesaris: A Social Study of the Emperor's Freedmen and Slaves Cambridge Cambridge University Press