EPITAPH OF AURELIUS DIOGENES, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler3.71.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler3.71 AshLI 70

A plain marble plaque (0.2980.230.045), on a modern mount, with rough sides and smoothed rear surface. The front surface is very worn, and is pitted and damaged in places; there is a slight break at the top left.

The lettering is fairly unevenly carved, on the front face. There are some interpuncts. The first and last lines are roughly centred. The numeral in line 7 is supralineate.

 Letter heights are irregular: 0.025 (line 1); 0.018 (line 2); 0.015 (line 3); 0.013 (line 4); 0.02-0.014 (line 5); 0.021-0.017 (line 6); 0.023 (line 7). Rome second/third century AD (from DM formula, onomastics: Solin 2003: vol.1, p.249) The inscription was reported found on the via Appia beyond the gate (Gude MS. 284, 2, according to CIL). It was then seen and copied by Giovanni Zaratino Castellini (1570-1641) at the Palazzo of Cardinal Crescenzi (who died in 1645), near the Pantheon in Rome, some time after 1611 (when Pier Paolo Crescenzi was created cardinal: Polverini Fosi 1984) (see also C3-12, C3-30, C3-37). Three of Castellini’s folios were bought by Garrucci in around 1858, and subsequently published by Minasi in Civiltà Cattolica of 1893 (Ferrua 1958). According to Reinesius, this inscription was also seen in the same location by Sirmond. It was then brought to England to join 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 Aurelio Dio genei qui vi xit annis XXII mensibus VII di ebus XIIII horis II

To the departed spirits. To Aurelius Diogenes who lived for 22 years, 7 months, 14 days, 2 hours.

CENO (Prideaux, Maittaire) XXI (Prideaux, Maittaire) Line divisions differ from line 2: Aurelio/ Diogenei / qui vixit ann / XII mens VII / diebus XIIII / H II (Sirmond)

The deceased is of unknown social status.

Castellini, G. Zaratino (published by Minasi in 1893: p.215 no.37); Sirmond MS. BNF Paris suppl. Lat. 1419 = Lat. 10808, no.284; Gude MS. 284, 2 (probably following Holstenius, according to CIL); Prideaux (1676) p.103, no.42; Reinesius (1682) part 17 p.821 no.26 (following Sirmond); Fabretti (1702) p.182 no.392 (from Barberini schedae, in error according to CIL); Maittaire (1732) p.42, no.107; Chandler (1763) p.136, no.71; CIL VI.2 no.13069 [Hübner] (1882); CIL VI.4 fasc. 3 (1933) p.3911

Online: EDCS-15200253 [accessed 01/09/15]

Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press Fabretti R. 1702 Inscriptionum antiquarum quae in aedibus paternis asseruantur explicatio et additamentum Rome Ferrua A. 1958 Giovanni Zaratino Castellini raccoglitore di epigrafi Epigraphica 20 121-60 Maittaire M. 1732, 2nd edn. Marmorum, Arundellianorum, Seldenianorum, Aliorumque Academiae Oxoniensi Donatorum London William Bowyer Minasi G. 1893 Archeologia La civiltà cattolica ser.15 7 208-28 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 Polverini FosiI. 1984 Crescenzi, Pier Paolo Dizionario biografico degli italiani A.M. Ghisalberti and M. Pavan Rome Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana 648-49. Prideaux H. 1676 Marmora Oxoniensia ex Arundellianis, Seldenianis aliisque conflata Oxford Reinesius T. 1682 Syntagma inscriptionum antiquarum Leipzig J.E. Hahn Sirmond J. [Sirmondus] 1559-1651 Recueil d'inscriptions copiées par Sirmond. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Paris suppl. Lat. 1419 = Lat. 10808 [consulted online 10/06/14 at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b9077728w] 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 Minerva 10.1 25-28