EPITAPH OF FREEDWOMAN LOLLIA HELENA, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.83.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.83 AshLI 82

A fragmentary slab of white marble (in a modern mount), originally a rectangular columbarium marker ( 0.196 0.26 0.02). A simple frame decorated with a wavy line surrounds the inscribed area, and circular motifs can be seen at top and bottom left corners. The right side of the slab is missing, where the slab has suffered a diagonal break.

Close examination of the layout, spacing, and lettering of this epitaph via RTI suggests a new interpretation of this slab, namely that it originally bore two epitaphs (with only four traces of letters now remaining of the one on the right) (cf. C3-85/86). The top of the thin line dividing off the two texts can be faintly discerned at the top right of the inscribed area, where the stone is broken. The first letter of the right-hand epitaph is carved a little higher up the stone than its counterpart for the epitaph on the left. In addition, the heights of the letters differ between the two epitaphs: in line 3, the letters FA are much larger than the letters to their left, and occur after a vacat. Of the first letter of the right-hand epitaph, only a slanting upright stroke remains, possibly M. In Line 2, there appears to be a tiny trace of an upright stroke right at the edge of the stone, where it has broken off on the right. This would be consistent with a centring format for a second inscription to the right. The inscribed text is at times very worn, especially at the start of line 3. RTI, however, reveals traces of VI (perhaps a tall I) at the start of line 3, beneath the start of line 2, suggesting that there may be a gap left blank between VIX[I]T and ANN. These traces are consistent with the readings of the text found in Prideaux, Maittaire, and Chandler; presumably the lettering has faded further since they published their editions of the inscription.

 0.03 (line 1); 0.025 (line 2); 0.013 (left) + 0.025 (right) (line 3). It is of unknown provenance, but probably originates from Rome, given its columbarium context. first century AD, from columbarium context and on onomastic grounds (Solin, 2003: vol.1, p.587). Columbaria began to be constructed in Rome from the 20s BC, flourishing until the Hadrianic period. By the end of the second century AD, there had been a shift away from cremation to inhumation in burials at Rome (Bodel 2008). It was first recorded in Oxford by Prideaux as part of 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). 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 epitaph is currently in a storeroom. Photograph Photograph
Lollia Marci liberta Helena vixit annis XXV
FA

Lollia Helena, freedwoman of Marcus, lived for 25 years. {Another epitaph on the right}.

Line 1: LOLLIA A….. (Prideaux, Maittaire) Line 2: HELENA .. (Prideaux, Maittaire) Line 3: VIX . ANN . XXV (Prideaux, Maittaire); VIXIT ANN XXV (Maittaire p.562); VIX.T. ANN. (Chandler, CIL)

The suggestion that this plaque probably bore two epitaphs was not made in CIL, but it seems that Hübner had limited access to the stone. Several things (see above, Text) point to its dual function, suggesting that we should abandon the interpretation of the epitaph as for an individual Lollia A. et M. l. Helena as suggested by Solin, 2003: vol.1, p.587).

Prideaux (1676) p.146, no.94; Maittaire (1732) p.43, no.129 + 562; Chandler (1763) p.137, no.83; CIL VI.3 no.21486 [Hübner] (1886)

Online: EDCS-12600549 [accessed 07/07/14].

Bodel J. 2008 From columbaria to catacombs: communities of the dead in pagan and Christian Rome Commemorating the Dead: Texts and Artifacts in Context L. Brink O.P.Green and D. Green Berlin/ New York De Gruyter 177-242 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. 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