EPITAPH OF NINETY-YEAR OLD EUPHEMUS, ROME (?) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.92.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.92 AshLI 91

The right-hand side of a fragmentary rectangular slab of white marble ( 0.145 0.232 0.024) (in a modern mount), which may originally have been a columbarium marker. The right side is intact, but the left side has broken off. At least one further line of text is also missing at the bottom, where traces of the tops of letters can be discerned. The rear is smoothly finished. A small hole on the top surface probably relates to its modern display.

The inscription is placed within a single-line frame. The text is centred on each line. Guiding lines for the stonecutter are still faintly visible.

 0.029 (line 1); 0.026 (line 2); 0.022 (line 3). It is of unknown provenance, but probably originates from Rome. possibly second or third century AD (from use of DM formula and onomastics) (Solin 2003: vol. 1, p.519). 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
dis manibus Euphemo vixit annis LXXXX

To the spirits of the dead. To Euphemus [who lived] 90 [years]---.

The whole text is centred, but without the D in line 1 it is not possible to estimate the total line length. In line 2, it is likely that we are lacking the praenomen and nomen of the deceased. In line 3, at least some statement of years lived might be expected. The name of a dedicator may be missing from the end of the inscription. A small triangular interpunct is visible in line 3, indicating that another word preceded what now remains. The claim to have lived for 90 years is typical of the tendency towards age-rounding commonly found in epitaphs (cf. Hopkins 1966).

Prideaux (1676) p.146, no.95; Maittaire (1732) p.42, no.110; Chandler (1763) p.138, no.92; CIL VI.3 no.17370 [Hübner] (1886).

Online: EDCS-00600368 [accessed 21/07/14].

Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press Hopkins K. 1966 On the probable age structure of the Roman population Population Studies 20.2 245-64 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 Solin H. 2003 Die griechischen Personennamen in Rom. Ein Namenbuch (2nd edn) 3 vols Berlin De Gruyter