EPITAPH OF P. ALFENUS PHILOMUSUS, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.93.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.93 AshLI 92

The left-hand side of a fragmentary unadorned rectangular slab of white marble (0.078 0.142 0.019) (in a modern mount). Part of the stone is missing to the right. Roughly half way up on the left of the front surface is a hole with traces of metal, possibly an original fixing-hole. It is in a fairly good condition, with some surface abrasion at the top left corner.

There is a triangular interpunctin line 1.

 0.02 (line 1); 0.017 (line 2). It is of unknown provenance, but probably originates from Rome. Late first century BC/early first century AD, if this probable freedman was part of the household of Alfenus Varus who was consul of AD 2 (as suggested by PIR2 A523). An Augustan date is also suggested by Solin (2003) vol. 1, p.169. 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
Publius Alfenus Philomusus

Publius Alfenus Philomusus.

Line 1: ALFEN…. (Prideaux, Maittaire).

This epitaph is one of a handful of inscriptions in our collection which all appear to relate to members of the senatorial household of P.Alfenus Varus, who is either the famous jurist who was consul in 39 BC or the consul of the same name in AD 2 (PIR2 A523) (cf. C3-88, C3-98, C3-102). Philomusus was probably a freedman from this household.

Prideaux (1676) p.143, no.85; Maittaire (1732) p.42, no.119; Chandler (1763) p.138, no.93; Orelli (1828) I 1201; CIL VI.2 no.11430 [Hübner] (1882).

Online: EDCS-17201119 [accessed 21/07/14]

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 Orelli J.C. 1828 Inscriptionum Latinarum Selectarum Amplissima Collectio vols I-II Turici 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