A SON’S EPITAPH, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.60.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.60 AshLI 59

A white marble stele, topped by a triangular pediment flanked by an acroterion on each side (in a modern mount) (0.46 0.283 0.075). The rear is smoothed. It is in a good condition, with slight chipping.

The text is inscribed on the front face, within a simple moulded border. There are triangular interpuncts.

 0.035(line 1); 0.024 (line 2); 0.018 (lines 3-8); 0.016 (line 9); 0.013 (line 10) Rome second century AD (use of DM formula; onomastics; (Solin 2003 vol. 2: p.931). 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 a ‘Gulielmo pasticcerio’, a pastry-chef (de Winghe MS. 17872-3; Cittadini MS. Vat. Lat 5253 f.210; Cittadini MS. cod. Bib. Marciana Lat. XIV, 116 [=4661]; Doni MS. Naples). Other inscriptions from the same location are C3-19, C3-25, C3-29, C3-37, C3-58. 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)and 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 inscription is currently in a storeroom. Photograph Photograph
dis manibus Caio Gresio Apo lausto Gresi us Mercator pater et Flavia Bassa mater feilio pientissi mo fecerunt vixit annis X menses XI dies XVIII

To the spirits of the dead. To Gaius Gresius Apolaustus. His father Gresius Mercator and mother Flavia Bassa set this up to their most devoted son, who lived for 10 years, 11 months, and 18 days

DM omitted by Malvasia, Muratori BRESIO (Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113); GRESIO (Doni MS. Naples) LAVSIO BROSI (Doni MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 7113); LAVSTO GRESI (Doni MS. Naples); GRESSI (Malvasia); GRESIO, with O erased (Cittadini) No line division in Malvasia, Muratori EILIO (lapis, in error for FILIO) No line division in Muratori

The family is of uncertain social status (Solin 2003: vol.2, p.931); their names suggest that they could be freeborn, freed, or Junian Latin.

Cittadini MS. cod. Bib. Marciana Lat. XIV, 116 (= 4661) f.136 (based on autopsy); Cittadini MS. cod. Vat.Lat. 5253 f. 211; 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; Doni BN Naples, MS G.XII.75 fol.276 no.7; Prideaux (1676) p.115, no.55; Malvasia (1690) p.426 (following Cittadini MS. cod. Vat. Lat.); Maittaire (1732) p.35, no.52; Muratori (1740) vol. 2: p.955, no.7 (following Malvasia); Chandler (1763) p.136, no.60; CIL VI.3 no.19129 [Hübner] (1886)

Online: EDCS-12101040 [accessed 11/08/15]

ChandlerR. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press 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). Cittadini Celso[Cittadinius] 1553-1627 MS. cod. Vat. Lat. 5253 Coffin D.R. 1979 The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome Princeton, NJ Princeton University Press Doni Giovanni Battista [Donius] 1594-1647 MS 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 Malvasia C. 1690 Marmora Felsinea innumeris non solum inscriptionibus exteris hucusque ineditis Bononia Ex typografia Pisariana 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 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 Winghe P. de[Winghius] 1560-1592 Inscriptiones Sacrae et Prophanae Collectae Romae et in Aliis Italiae Urbibus, Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique MS. 17872-3 vol.2 Warburg facsimile