DONATION OF A DINING-ROOM, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.88.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.88 AshLI 87

Left-hand fragment of a plain slab of marble which is white with faint grey veins (in modern mount) (0.197 0.213 0.027cm). The top edge at the rear is carefully moulded. There are traces of a metal clamp in the centre of the left edge, and there is a hole in the middle of the top surface.

: About half of the original inscription is now preserved: the left edge is intact, but the inscription has broken off to the right. Sirmond recorded the right side of the text, which is now missing. The underlined words are also attested by Gude, who reported that the stone was broken, and considered that there were three or four letters missing. There are triangular interpuncts and a vacat beneath the inscribed text. The text is centred on each line.

 0.031 (line 1); 0.024 (line 2); 0.022 (lines 3-4) This inscription was once seen in an unspecified location at Rome, where Sirmond recorded the complete text, but only half of it now remains. Late first century BC/early first century AD, if the Alfenus Varus mentioned is the consul of AD 2 (as suggested by PIR2 A523). An Augustan date is also suggested by Solin 2003: vol. 1, p.10 s.v. ‘Agathopus’. It was recorded in its damaged state 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), and this inscription is visible in the proof-engraving depicting this display in the papers of Henry Aldrich (Vickers 2006: p.40-41). 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, 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 on Beaumont Street, was opened in 1894, and finally the University Galleries and Ashmolean were amalgamated by statute in 1908. The inscription is on display in the Rome Gallery. Photograph
Lucrio Alfeni Vari et Caius Fabius Caii et U+0186mulieris libertus Agathopus magistri tertium triclinium expolitum dederunt

Lucrio, slave of Alfenus Varus, and Gaius Fabius Agathopus freedman of Gaius and of a woman, officials for the third time, gave an elegant dining-room.

The underlined letters are derived from Sirmond and Gude.

This records the donation of a tricilinium by a slave and a freedman, while they were serving as officials, presumably in a funerary collegium or within a cult association. The triclinium would have provided dining facilities where the members of the association would meet in order to commemorate deceased members of the club or in order to honour the gods; banqueting was an integral part of the activities of burial clubs (cf. CIL VI.10332) and cult associations (cf. 3-13 for dining within the cult of Cnidian Venus). It is unusual to find a slave’s name preceding that of a freedman, but this may be indicative of his master’s elevated status, if the Alfenus Varus mentioned is either the famous jurist who was consul in 39 BC or the consul of the same name in AD 2 (PIR2 A523) (cf. C3-93, C3-98, C3-102 for the same household).

Sirmond MS. BNF Paris suppl. Lat. 1419 = Lat. 10808, no. 291; Gude MS. 129, 1 (according to CIL); Prideaux (1676) p.146, no.100; Hesselius (= Gude) (1731) p.218 no.10; Maittaire (1732) p.42, no.111; Chandler (1763) p.137, no.88; CIL VI.2 no.10315 [Hübner] (1882)

Online: EDCS-16100524 [accessed 07/09/15]

Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press Hesselius F. 1731 Antiquae Inscriptiones quam Graecae tum Latinae olim a Marquardo Gudio collectae Leovardia 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 Sirmond J. [Sirmondus] 1559-1651 Recueil d'inscriptions copiées par Sirmond. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Latin 10808 [consulted online 03/10/13 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 Vickers M. 2006 The Arundel and Pomfret Marbles in Oxford Oxford Ashmolean Museum