A MOTHER’S EPITAPH, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL >ANChandler.3.58.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.58 AshLI 57

A white marble funerary altar (not a ‘tabula’, as stated in CIL), in two separate pieces (overall 0.71 0.45 0.325). The main part of the altar contains a circular cavity which extends down into the interior of the altar. The altar is topped by a curved pediment, with an eagle in relief, flanked by bolsters on either side to the right and left, which are decorated with rosettes. The text is inscribed on the front face, within a moulded frame (inscribed area: 0.345 0.31). The rear is smoothly finished. On the left side of the altar is a jug, and on the right side is a patera. It is in good condition, with some minor damage on the front, at top left, and on the left side at the lower rear corner.

The text is roughly centred on each line. There are small triangular interpuncts throughout.

 0.04 (line 1); 0.033 (lines 2-3); 0.022 (line 4); 0.03 (line 5); 0.026 (line 6); 0.023 (line 7) Rome possibly second century AD (use of DM formula/ tria nomina). This inscription was found in Rome, on the edge of the Janiculum, in the area of S. Pancrazio (St Pancras) on the via Aurelia (de Winghe MS.), in the ‘vinea/vineyard’ (i.e., villa – for its meaning, see Coffin 1979: p.viii) of an individual named by some sources as ‘Gulielmo pasticcerio’, a pastry-chef (Cittadini MS. Bib Marciana; Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113), and by others as a spice-trader, ‘Giuillelmo aromatario’ (Ciacconio, according to CIL). Other inscriptions from the same location are C3-19, C3-25, C3-29, C3-37, C3-60. It was published by Prideaux (1676) 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. 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). It is included in the archive MS. ‘Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum’ p.30 no.246, a list of antique 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 a storeroom. Photograph: side (patera) Photograph: front face Photograph: front face Photograph: side (jug) Photograph: lid
dis manibus Billeniae Sabinae matri pientissimae Caius Iulius Sabinus filius et sibi posterisque suis

To the spirits of the dead. Gaius Iulius Sabinus, her son, set this up for Billenia Sabina, most devoted mother, and for himself and his descendants.

BELLENIAE (Prideaux, Maittaire); BILLENIAE and BILLIENAE (Maittaire p.561) PIISSIMAE (Prideaux, Maittaire); PIENTISSIMAE (Maittaire p.561); PIENTISSMAE (Cittadini MS. cod. Bib. Marciana Lat. XIV, 116 [= 4661]) much larger lettering (Chandler) FEC ET SIBI (Cittadini MS. cod. Bib. Marciana Lat. XIV, 116 [= 4661]) POOSTERISQ (Cittadini MS. cod. Bib. Marciana Lat. XIV, 116 [= 4661])

This altar was set up by a son to his mother. They appear to be freeborn citizens, with the son deriving his cognomen from his mother.

Cittadini MS. cod. Bib. Marciana Lat. XIV, 116 (= 4661) f.138; Cittadini MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 5253 f.213’; de Winghe Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique MS. 17872 vol.2, f. 42’; Ciacconio Raff. {i.e. Alfonso Chacón} f.145, according to CIL, following de Winghe; Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113 f.53 (following Cittadini); Doni BN Naples, MS G.XII.75 f.356, no.10 (from Vatican schedae, according to CIL); Doni, ed. 11, 31 (from Vatican schedae, according to CIL); Prideaux (1676) p.153, no.120; Maittaire (1732) p.35, no.57 + 561; Muratori (1740) vol.3, p.1245, no.3 (following Doni); Chandler (1763) p.135, no.58; CIL VI.2 13588 [Hübner] (1882); CIL VI. 4 fasc. 2 (p.3513) (1902)

Online: EDCS-15400388 [accessed 11/08/15]

Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum ChandlerR. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Clarendon Press Oxford Cittadini Celso[Cittadinius] 1553-1627 MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 5253 Cittadini Celso[Cittadinius] 1553-1627 MS. cod. Bib. Marciana Lat. XIV, 116 (= 4661) ‘Inscriptiones antiquae a Celso Cittadini exscriptae cum annotationibus anno 1604 (from scan kindly provided by Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana). Coffin D.R. 1979 The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome Princeton, NJ Princeton University Press Doni Giovanni Battista [Donius] 1594-1647 cod. Vat. Lat. 7113 Doni Giovanni Battista [Donius] 1594-1647 BN Naples, MS G.XII.75 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 Muratori L.A. 1739, 1740, 1740, 1742 Novus thesaurus veterum inscriptionum I-IV Milan Prideaux H. 1676 Marmora Oxoniensia ex Arundellianis, Seldenianis aliisque conflata Oxford Sturdy D. and N. Moorcraft 1999 Christopher Wren and Oxford’s garden of antiquities Minvera 10.1 25-28 Winghe P. de[Winghius] 1560-1592 Inscriptiones Sacrae et Prophanae Collectae Romae et in Aliis Italiae Urbibus, Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique MS. 17872 vol.1 Warburg facsimile