BILINGUAL FUNERARY ALTAR, RHENEIA Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHLI ANChandler.3.7.xml 177442 Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.7 AshLI 06 ANMichaelis.209

An elegant round altar of white marble, with simple moulding at both top and base, inscribed with similar texts in both Latin and Greek (0.84 0.70). It is decorated with four bulls’ heads, draped from which hangs a continuous garland bearing swathes of cloth, leaves, fruits, and flowers. A bunch of grapes hangs down from the centre of each section of the garland. The top surface is currently not visible. It is in quite good condition, with minor damage around its edges.

The Latin inscription is carved at the top, separated from the Greek below (beneath the décor) by the garland and bulls’ heads. The Greek inscription is quite worn.

 Latin – irregular in size, 0.017-0.025; Greek – 0.02. Given the type of text and monument combined, this funerary altar is most probably originally from Rheneia (Michaelis 1882). 125-100 BC (from comparative material, and linguistic formulae). It was given to the University of Oxford by Henry Howard, Earl of Arundel, as part of the Arundel Collection in 1667 (Prideaux 1676). Similar circular funerary altars from Rheneia were popular among later collectors of antiquities in Britain too, with examples being displayed in Wrest Park (Bedfordshire), the British Museum, and Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (Noy 2010). At various stages, it must have been on display from 1715 in ‘The Marble School’, an upper gallery in the Bodleian Quadrangle, and then it ended up in the basement of the (Old) Asmolean Museum on Broad Street. Now the Museum of the History of Science), since it is listed in the archive MS., ‘Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum’ p.28, no.133 – a list of ancient marbles transferred from the Ashmolean Museum basement room to the marble rooms of the Randolph Building in January of 1888. It is now on display in the Randolph Sculpture Gallery. Photograph Photograph: Latin Inscription detail Photograph: Greek Inscription detail Photograph: Greek Inscription detail Photograph: Greek Inscription detail Photograph: Greek Inscription detail Photograph Photograph Photograph Photograph
Quinte Avili Caii filie Lanuvine salve
Κοΐντε Ἀυίλλιε Γαΐου υἱὲ Ρωμαῖε χρηστὲ χαῖρε

(Latin) Quintus Avilius, son of Gaius, of Lanuvium, greetings.

(Greek) Quintus Avillius, son of Gaius, Roman, honest man, greetings.

AVLICI (Prideaux, Maittaire); C. AVILI (Maittaire p.560); Q AVILIC FLANV IN L SALVE (Chandler) ΑΟΥΙΛΛΙΕ (Mommsen in CIL III); ΑΥΛΛΙΕ (EDH: Cowey)

The small island of Delos, in the middle of the Cyclades, was an important trading centre (particularly for slaves) in the later second and early first centuries BC. It was placed under Athenian control by the Romans and granted the status of a free port in 166 BC. The cosmopolitan community included groups of prosperous Italian businessmen (negotiatores).The neighbouring island of Rheneia was used as its necropolis. Round altars like this one are typical of the island (Le Dinahet 1974: p.219); this is the only inscribed example in the Ashmolean, which has a series of other similar (uninscribed) round altars.

The inscriptions on this altar commemorate one of the many Romans active in trading on Delos. As is often the case in bilingual inscriptions, the two texts are not exact equivalents, but they are influenced both by standard Latin epigraphic language and by local epigraphic traditions. In the first instance, the inclusion of υἱὲ to express the filiation rather than simply using a genitive betrays the impact of Latin conventions. In the latter case, χρηστέ χαῖρε with a name in the vocative case, is the standard formula found in funerary inscriptions from Rheneia (Hicks 1890: p.265). The description of Avilius’ origins in Latin as Lanu(v)ine/ ‘from Lanuvium’ contrasts with the much more imprecise ‘Roman’ (Ρωμαῖε) in the Greek text. Lanuvium was a town in Latium, just over 30 km to the south-east of Rome. In fact, someone from Lanuvium at this date before the Social War would not actually have been a Roman citizen, so this description tells us more about Greek perceptions of Italians from Latium, as being ‘Roman’, than it does about the juridical/political status of Avilius (Forni 1962: p.206; cf. Solin 1982: p.114). It is more usual in bilingual inscriptions from Delos to refer to the Italians as Ρωμαῖοι or Ἰταλικοί/ Italici (see Adams 2002: esp. pp.108-15; Adams 2003: pp.642ff., esp. 652-53) rather than specifying a home town in this way.

Prideaux (1676) p.286, no.150; Maittaire (1732) p.33, no.41+ p.51 (picture of altar) + p.560; Chandler (1763) Part 3, Pl. I.vii, with drawing; Michaelis (1882) p.589, no.209; Eph.Ep. 5.186 (Mommsen, 1884, following Michaelis); CIG IV 6894 (Greek text only) (Curtius and Kirchhoff 1877); CIL VI.2 no.12904 (1882) + p.3512; CIL III.Suppl.1 no.7242 [Michaelis] (1902); CIL I2.2 fasc.1 no.2259 [Michaelis] (1918); Hatzfeld (1912) p.20; ILS 6203 (Dessau 1955); ILLRP 961 (Degrassi 1963); ILLRP Imagines (Degrassi 1965) nos 335a-c (photographs); Le Dinahet (1974) p.221 no.495 + pl.87; CIL I2.2 fasc.4 p.1100 (1986).

Online: EDCS-24400428 (Latin text only) [accessed 10/03/14]; EDH HD056985 [last updated 20/05/11; accessed 10/03/14]

Adams J.N. 2002 Bilingualism at Delos Bilingualism in Ancient Society. Language Contact and the Written Text J.N. Adams M. Janse S. Swain Oxford Oxford University Press 103-27 Adams J.N. 2003 Bilingualism and the Latin Language Cambridge Cambridge University Press Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Clarendon Press Oxford Degrassi A. 1965 Inscriptiones Latinae Liberae Rei Publicae. Imagines [=ILRRP Imagines] Berlin De Gruyter Forni G. 1962 Le tribù romane nelle bilingui etrusco-latine e greco-latine Studi in onore di E. Betti vol. 3 Milan Giuffrè 195-207 Hatzfeld J. 1912 Les italiens residant à Délos mentionnés dans les inscriptions de l’île Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 36 5-218 Hicks E.L. 1890 The Collection of Ancient Marbles at Leeds Journal of Hellenic Studies 11 255-70 Le Dinahet M.-Th. 1974 Les monuments funéraires de Rhénée Paris de Boccard Maittaire M. 1732, 2nd edn. Marmorum, Arundellianorum, Seldenianorum, Aliorumque Academiae Oxoniensi Donatorum London William Bowyer Michaelis A. 1882 Ancient Marbles in Great Britain (translated by C.A.M. Fennell) Cambridge Cambridge University Press Noy D. 2010 From the central Aegean to rural England Minvera 21.3 20-23 Prideaux H. 1676 Marmora Oxoniensia ex Arundellianis, Seldenianis, aliisque conflata Oxford Solin H. 1982 Appunti sull’ onomastica romana a Delo Delo e l’Italia F. Coarelli D. Musti H. Solin Rome Bardi Editore 101-17