1971.04

Double-Sided Marble Funerary Inscription

Purchased; formerly in Lowther Castle (Westmoreland); said to have been found in Rome. Ht 19.5cm; width 35cm; thickness 3cm.

Broken vertically into two pieces and re-joined without restoration. Somewhat grey marble, very smoothly finished.

The findspot is not recorded: the CIL simply notes ‘originis urbanae’ but that could well be supposition based on lettering and style.

(a)

               D M

               M. SERVILIO GEMELLO

               VIXIT.ANNIS.VIIII.M.II.D XXVII

               FECERVNT.PARENTES.STEPHANVS

               ET FORTVNATA FILIO PIISSIMO

               SIBI ET POSTERISQ.EORVM

“To the departed spirit of M. Seruilius Gemellus, who lived for nine years, two months and twenty-seven days: set up by his parents Stephanus and Fortunata for their dutiful son and for themselves and for their descendants.”

The parents, who have only a single name each, may be slaves; but the son has Roman citizenship, indicated by the tria nomina (“the three names”). If his parents are slaves, he has attained citizenship by manumission and is a freedman. For other examples of the name Gemellus, see H. Solin, Die stadtrömischen Sklavennamen. Ein Namenbuch (Stuttgart 1996) i, 119-120.

The inscription is set within a grooved rectangle. There are traces of fine guidelines for the lettering. Probably first or second century AD.

(b)

               D M

               ANTONINAE.SATVRNINA[E]

               SEMPRONIA.EPICTESIS

               FECIT.VERNAE.SVAE

               LIB. LIBERTABVS

               POSTERISQ. EORVM

"To the departed spirit of Antonina Saturnina: set up by Sempronia Epictesis for the girl raised as a slave in her house since childhood; also for their freedmen and freedwomen and for their descendants."

There is a slight moulding above, set off by a groove. This side has no preserved guidelines for the lettering (presumably they were done in charcoal or the like), but the lettering on this side is somewhat better and more regular. It is perhaps the earlier side. Probably first or second century AD.

A uerna was a slave born in a household or reared there from an early age. Such slaves were often raised with the child(ren) of their master and had a privileged place. See recently K. Hasegawa, The Familia Urbana during the Early Empire: a Study of Columbaria Inscriptions (BAR S1440, Oxford 2005). For other examples of the name Saturnina, Solin, op.cit. i, 26.

The inscription on side (b) has recently aroused interest for its anomalous nomenclature, as the uerna does not bear the family name (nomen) of her patron. See P. Weaver, “Reconstructing Lower-Class Roman Families”, in: S. Dixon (ed.), Childhood, Class and Kin in the Roman World (Oxford 2001) 101-114; and B. Rawson “Degrees of Freedom. Vernae and Junian Latins in the Roman Familia”, in: V. Dasen and T. Späth (eds), Children, Memory, and Family Identity in Roman Culture (Oxford, 2010).

Funerary and other tablets were not infrequently re-used. The inscription on this side was on the back of the tablet as it hung on a wall in Lowther Castle for many years. For the inscription on side (a), note the discussion by M. King, “Commemoration of Infants on Roman Funerary Inscriptions”, in: G.J. Oliver (ed.), The Epigraphy of Death: Studies in the History and Society of Greece and Rome (Liverpool 2000) 117-154, on some of the issues surrounding infant mortality. There are several relevant articles in L. Brink and D. Green (eds), Commemorating the Dead: Texts and Artifacts in Context. Studies of Roman, Jewish and Christian Burials (Berlin – New York 2008), including discussion of the patronage of women and of the move from columbaria to catacombs.

The collection at Lowther Castle (in Westmoreland, not far from Penrith, now part of Cumbria) was a major one in its time. William Lowther, the second Earl of Lonsdale (1787-1872) had acquired most of it between 1848 and 1868, building two special galleries to house it in 1866. It included some important sculpture: see A. Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain (Cambridge 1882) 487-500. At 497 under item 61, he recorded that, “in the passage leading from the East Gallery to the Billiard room”, there were 123 sepulchral inscriptions from the Bessborough Collection (the second Earl of Bessborough [1704-1793] at Roehampton), in addition to some others. The greater part of the collection was sold in 1947 (Maple and Co. Ltd and Thomas Wyatt, Lowther Castle, near Penrith, Cumberland. The Major Part of the Earl of Lonsdale’s Collection, April 29th – May 1st, 1947). See also J. Scott, The Pleasures of Antiquity. British Collectors of Greece and Rome (New Haven 2003) 263-4.

Two other pieces formerly at Lowther Castle are now in the Logie Collection at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, CIL VI, nos 23324 and 27856, inv. nos 112/71 and 113/71, Green, Cat. Logie Coll. nos 176-177.

CIL VI.4a (1894), no. 26409 (side a only); Folio Fine Art Ltd (London), Writing and Lettering in Antiquity (October 1970) no. 42 (ill.); J.R. Green with B. Rawson, Catalogue of Antiquities in the Australian National University, A.N.U. (Canberra, 1981) 118; A Collection of Classics from the Holdings of the Australian National University Classics Department Museum. Drill Hall Gallery, The Australian National University, 20 March - 28 April 1996 23 (ill.).