A FRIEND’S EPITAPH, ROME(?) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.69.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.69 AshLI 68

A stele of white marble (in a modern mount) (0.66 0.31 0.06), with a rounded pediment, within which is engraved a wreath tied with a ribbon. The top of the pediment is damaged, but there appear to have been acroteria decorated with palmettes on either side of the rounded top. The top has a small rectangular hole in its centre. There is a clamp mark and remains of oxidisation at the top of the pediment in the front centre. The rear remains rough, whilst the sides are smoothed. It is in good condition, apart from the damage at the top of the pediment.

The inscription is inscribed with a moulded frame (inscribed area: 0.443 0.22). There are triangular interpuncts. The text is neatly arranged, with each line roughly centred.

0.034 (line 1); 0.036 (line 2); 0.032 (line 3); 0.025 (line 4); 0.023 (line 5); 0.021 with tall I 0.026 (line 6); 0.026 (line 7) It probably originated from Rome. possibly second century AD (from use of DM formula and tria nomina). The stele belongs to the Arundel Collection, given to the University of Oxford by Henry Howard, Earl of Arundel, in 1667 (Prideaux 1676). It probably originated from Rome. 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 Photograph: pediment detail
dis manibus Lucio Seio Severo Lucius Conetanius Proculus amico bene merenti

To the departed spirits. To Lucius Seius Severus. Lucius Conetanius Proculus set this up to his well-deserving friend.

This epitaph illustrates the practice of a friend rather than member of a family commemorating a deceased person.

Prideaux (1676) p.115, no.56; Maittaire (1732) p.39, no.84; Chandler (1763) p.136, no.69; CIL VI.4 fasc.1 no.26118 [Hübner] (1894)

Online: EDCS-14200289 [accessed 12/08/15]

ChandlerR. 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 Sturdy D. and N. Moorcraft 1999 Christopher Wren and Oxford’s garden of antiquities Minvera 10.1 25-28