EPITAPH OF CHRESTENIS PONTIA, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.97.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.97 AshLI 96

None is available from autopsy, since the stone has been missing since at least 1763. Neither Prideaux nor Maittaire offers a description, either.

The inscription was reported found on the via Appia beyond the gate (Gude MS. 284, 4, according to CIL; Gude in Hesselius 1731). Solin (2003: vol. 3, p.1207) suggests a date during the first or second century AD for this inscription. The inscription was reported found on the via Appia beyond the gate (Gude MS. 284, 4, according to CIL; Gude in Hesselius 1731). ). It was then seen and copied by Giovanni Zaratino Castellini (1570-1641) at the Palazzo of Cardinal Crescenzi (who died in 1645), near the Pantheon in Rome, some time after 1611 (when Pier Paolo Crescenzi was created cardinal: Polverini Fosi 1984) (see also C3-12, C3-30, C3-37). Three of Castellini’s folios were bought by Garrucci in around 1858, and subsequently published by Minasi in Civiltà Cattolica of 1893 (Ferrua 1958). This location in Rome was also noted by Reinesius, and was probably where Sirmond had also seen the inscription. Three of Castellini’s folios were bought by Garrucci in around 1858, and subsequently published by Minasi in Civiltà Cattolica of 1893 (Ferrua 1958). 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 inscription had gone missing by 1763, when Chandler (1763: p.xviii) had to derive his edition of it from Maittaire.
Chrestenis Pontiae ossa heic requiescunt Auctus suae conservae et Oecunramene soror fecit

The bones of Chrestenis Pontia rest here. Auctus set this up for his fellow-slave, and Oecumene, her sister.

CHRESIENIS (Prideaux, Maittaire) OECVNRAE (Castellini; Gude; Reinesius, who suggests correcting this reading to OECVMENE) SORORI (Reinesius)

This epitaph appears to illustrate the world of slaves. Auctus, perhaps the deceased’s husband, describes Pontia as conserva, so it seems that Chrestenis Pontia certainly started out as a slave, even if by the time of her death she had been freed (as suggested by her nomenclature). The suggestion that the name of the deceased’s sister, who also appears to be a slave, should be read as Oecumene instead of Oecunra makes sense, but cannot be verified.

Castellini, G. Zaratino (published by Minasi in 1893: p.219 no.48); Sirmond Paris suppl. Lat. 1419 = Lat. 10808, no.277; Gude MS. 283, 4 (probably following Holstenius, according to CIL); Prideaux (1676) p.102, no.31; Reinesius (1682) section 15 p.589, no.19 (following Sirmond and Lambecius, who followed Sirmond); Hesselius (= Gude) (1731) p.361 no.8; Maittaire (1732) p.38, no.82; Chandler (1763) p.138, no.97 (following Maittaire); Garrucci (1877) p.389 no.1428 (following Castellini); CIL VI.2 no.14765 (1882); CIL VI.4 fasc.2, p.3516 (1902); CIL VI.4 fasc.3 p.3913 (1933)

Online: EDCS-15600660 [accessed 08/09/15]

Chandler R. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Clarendon Press Oxford Ferrua A. 1958 Giovanni Zaratino Castellini raccoglitore di epigrafi Epigraphica 20 121-60 Garrucci R. 1862 Sylloge Inscriptionum Latinarum Aevi Romanae Rei Publicae usque ad C. Iulium Caesarem Plenissima Turin Paravia 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 Minasi G. 1893 Archeologia La civiltà cattolica ser.15 7 208-28 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 Polverini FosiI. 1984 Crescenzi, Pier Paolo Dizionario biografico degli italiani A.M. Ghisalberti and M. Pavan Rome Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana 648-49. Prideaux H. 1676 Marmora Oxoniensia ex Arundellianis, Seldenianis, aliisque conflata Oxford Reinesius T. 1682 Syntagma inscriptionum antiquarum Leipzig J.E. Hahn Sirmond J. [Sirmondus] 1559-1651 Recueil d'inscriptions copiées par Sirmond. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Latin 10808 consulted online 10/06/14 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