EPITAPH OF EUTYCHIS, ROME (?) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.77.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.77 AshLI 76

An unadorned rectangular slab of white marble (0.203 0.198 0.028) (in a modern mount). The rear is smoothly finished. The front surface is alternately smoothed and abraded. There are some traces of oxidisation (probably relating to its display in modern times) on the front, and to the sides at top and bottom. Some letters are rather worn, particularly the final upright stroke in the numeral at the end of the text.

Inscribed on the front face. Line 1 is centred. There are triangular interpuncts, several of which are now very faint. The inscription as a whole is unevenly carved. In line 2 the letters CH are inscribed very close together.

 0.037 (line 1); 0.032 (line 2); 0.03 (line 3); 0.024 (line 4). Of unknown provenance, it probably originated from Rome. perhaps second or third century AD (from use of DM formula and onomastics) (Solin 1996: vol. 2, p.437). It was first recorded in Oxford by Prideaux 1676 as part of the Arundel Collection, which was given to the University of Oxford 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 inscriptions 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 store. Photograph
dis manibus Eutuchidi vixit annis XXI mensibus VI diebus X III

To the spirits of the dead. For Eutychis (who) lived 21 years, 6 months, 13 days.

DM omitted (Prideaux, Maittaire); DM (Maittaire p.562).

The use of the single name, Eutychis, which is known as a slave-name in other contexts (Solin 1996: vol. 2, pp.436-37), probably indicates that the deceased is a slave, even though this is not explicitly stated

Prideaux (1676) p.146, no.101; Maittaire (1732) p.43, no.128 + p.562; Chandler (1763) p.137, no.77; CIL VI.3 no.17451 (1886); CIL VI.4.2, add. p.3521 (1902: seen by Hübner, but only obscurely).

Online: EDCS-00600451 [accessed 28/12/14]

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 Solin H. 1996 Die stadtrömischen Sklavennamen Stuttgart Steiner Sturdy D. and N. Moorcraft 1999 Christopher Wren and Oxford’s garden of antiquities Minerva 10.1 25-28 Vickers M. 2006 The Arundel and Pomfret Marbles in Oxford Oxford Ashmolean Museum