A BABY’S FUNERARY ALTAR, ROME (?) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.74.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.74 AshLI 73

A small funerary altar of white marble (0.346 0.225 0.22) (not a ‘tabula marmora’, as CIL). There are two rosettes in the pediment, which is flanked on either side by bolsters consisting of a volute containing a rosette. Rear and sides are smoothly finised. It is in good condition, with small breaks at top left, and a break at the bottom right front corner of the base, and some chipping around the edges.

It is inscribed on the front face (inscribed area: 0.155 0.19). Line 3 is centred. There are small triangular interpuncts throughout.

 0.025, with tall I 0.03 (line 1); 0.02 (line 2); 0.012 (lines 3-4), with tall I in line 1, 0.014 Of unknown provenance, it probably originated from Rome. possibly first/second century AD (use of DM formula/ tria nomina/ voting-tribe). It was first recorded in Oxford by Prideaux (1676), as part of the Arundel Collection, given to the University of Oxford by Henry Howard, Earl of Arundel, in 1667. The Arundel marbles were first displayed in the ‘Garden of Antiquities’ outside the new Sheldonian Theatre from 1668/9 (Sturdy and Moorcraft 1999). The marbles 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), since it is included in the archive MS. ‘Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum’ (p.31, no.152), a list of ancient 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 opened in 1894, and finally the University Galleries and Ashmolean were amalgamated by statute in 1908. The inscription is currently in store. Photograph Photograph
diis manibus Lucii Consi Lucii filii Fabia tribu Corneliani vixit menses III dies VII

To the departed spirits of Lucius Consius Cornelianus, son of Lucius, of the Fabian voting-tribe, lived 3 months and 7 days.

At first glance, the commemoration of this baby boy seems over-formal, including his tria nomina and citizen voting-tribe, but perhaps reflects a sense of his unfulfilled potential, as do so many other epitaphs for young children. The setting up of a funerary altar certainly reflects a relatively high financial outlay on the part of the dedicators compared with the simple plaques set up for others.

Prideaux (1676) p.102, no.38; Maittaire (1732) p.43, no.126; Chandler (1763) p.137, no.74; CIL VI.3 no.16075 [Hübner] (1886)

Online: EDCS-12000970 [accessed 01/09/15]

Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities Marbles sent from Ashmolean Museum Chandler R. 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 Minerva 10.1 25-28