Ancient Words

Ancient Words Material becomes words. Words become thoughts. Thoughts become men.

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Marble slab from the family tomb of a castellarius

The inscription reads:

D(is) M(anibus) / Cleme(n)ti Caesar/um n(ostrorum) / servo caste/llario aquae Cl/audiae fecit Clau/dia Sabbathis et si/bi et suis

The deceased, Clemens, controlled the distribution tanks (castella) of the Aqua Claudia (initiated by Caligula in 38 and completed by Claudius in 52), mentioned in the epigraph of the arches (now Porta Maggiore) incorporated in the Aurelian Walls (the final part of a 69 km path fed by springs from the upper valley of the River Aniene). The massive water system that served the capital of the Empire, described in a monograph by Frontinus, alone offers an indication of the magnificence of the city, divided into 14 regions and filled with fountains and thermal baths. Clemens was buried by his wife who bears, alongside a name of Semitic origin (Sabbathis), the same family name as Claudius. Perhaps the deceased (referred to generically as “slave of our Caesars”) belonged to this emperor and others who succeeded him rather than to the two co-reigning emperors: Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus (161-169 A.D.), M. Aurelio and Comodo (177-180 A.D.) or Septimius Severus and Caracalla (198-209 A.D.).

From Rome, unknown burial monument Second half of the first – late second century A.D.

© Roma, Musei Vaticani, Galleria Lapidaria

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Venere di Capua

II century AD

Napoli, Museo Archeologico Nazionale

Photo: Luigi Spina

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“Need an inscription carving or anything else in marble? Here you have it”

Engraved on a marble slab, the text indicated to locals and passers-by the presence of a marble worker’s workshop, where marble was carved and epigraphs were also engraved, as the expression scribere titulus attests: 

D(is) M(anibus) / titulos scri/bendos vel / si quid ope/ris marmor/ari(i) opus fu/erit hic ha/bes.

In a sign from Palermo we instead read: "Here inscriptions can be ordered and carved" (tituli heic ordinantur et sculpuntur), while another text, mutilated, possibly commemorates a Vitalis scriptor titulorum, “engraver of epigraphs”. The poor quality of the item, the messy style of the text and the mediocre engraving of the characters suggest a small shop, frequented by customers with little money and few pretensions. We do not know the location, but it may originate from the area of Campus Martius which is known to have had a high concentration of marble workshops.

II-III century A.D., from Rome

© Roma, Musei Vaticani, Galleria Lapidaria

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The so-called Psyche di Capua (actually a Venus), is a statue found in 1726 in the Campano amphitheater in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, where it decorated the front porch of the summa cavea together with other sculptures.

Napoli, Museo Archeologico Nazionale

Photo: Luigi Spina

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Silver skillet, with a highly decorated handle and some gilding.   The bowl is deep, with slightly incurving walls forming a constriction in the line of the profile below the small everted rim.

The general theme of the decoration is the traditional one of acanthus scrolls and flowers, with some elements picked out by gilding.  The central area of the handle carries the inscription MATR FAB / DVBIT in bold, neat lettering.  The outlines of the letters are filled with a roughened surface to provide a key for the heavy gilding, perhaps more accurately termed 'gold inlay', which survives on the V, B and T of 'DVBIT'.

The skillet, part of the Backworth Hoard, bears a votive inscription dedicated to the Mother-Goddesses by a Fab(ius) Dubit(atus?).

The history of this hoard is obscure. We know that it was found around 1811, but not where it was found. The hoard was said to have included about 280 coins, but all but one of these, and probably other objects, were dispersed before The British Museum was able to acquire what was left of the treasure in 1850. The surviving coin is a denarius of Antoninus Pius  (reigned AD 138-161) issued in AD 139. The treasure was probably a votive deposit at a shrine of the Mother-goddesses near the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall.

1st - 2nd century AD

© The Trustees of the British Museum

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Statua femminile di Concordia

I sec. d.C.

Napoli, Museo Archeologico Nazionale

Photo: © Luigi Spina 

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Gold finger-ring with slight flattening of the shoulders.  The hoop is slightly bevelled in cross-section.  The almost circular gem-setting is empty, and encircled at the rim with applied beaded wire, which is heavily worn.  The floor of the setting has been scraped flat, but not polished, and bears a three-line inscription:  MATR/VM CO/COAE.   Although the exact translation is uncertain, this is certainly a votive gift  to the Mother Goddesses. The inscription is probably secondary, engraved after a gemstone setting had been lost.

Found in Backworth (England), part of the Backworth Hoard.

The history of this hoard is obscure. We know that it was found around 1811, but not where it was found. The hoard was said to have included about 280 coins, but all but one of these, and probably other objects, were dispersed before The British Museum was able to acquire what was left of the treasure in 1850. The surviving coin is a denarius of Antoninus Pius  (reigned AD 138-161) issued in AD 139. The treasure was probably a votive deposit at a shrine of the Mother-goddesses near the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall.

1st - 2nd century AD

© The Trustees of the British Museum

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Flora Farnese

Roman marble sculpture based on a Greek model from the 5th century BC

2nd century AD

Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli

© Ph. Luigi Spina

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Ercole Farnese

Roman marble copy of a bronze original by Lysippos (4th c. BC)

3rd century AD

Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli

© Ph. Luigi Spina

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Afrodite Sosandra

Roman marble copy of an original attributed to the Greek sculptor Calamis (ca. 460 BC).

2nd century AD

National Archeological Museum, Naples

© Ph. Luigi Spina

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Funerary stele, made of limestone, of the freedman and sevir Q. Valerius Restitutus. Still alive, he erected the funeral monument for himself, for his wife and for Lucius Metellus Niceros. The structure has two columns on the sides with corinthian capitals, a pediment with Gorgon's face, and perhaps two corner acroteria in the shape of lions. There is a bass-relief in the lower part with an artisan, maybe an aurifex brattiarius, a jewellery maker, or a lanius, butcher. The second hypothesis is supported by the discovery of a boundary stone with the figure of a bull on the pediment and an inscription which indicates the same dimensions of the funerary area (20 x 20 roman feet).

The text reads:

V(ivus) f(ecit) / Q(uintus) Valerius / Q(uinti) l(ibertus) Restitutus / VIvir sibi et / Gaviae Cogitatae / uxori et / L(ucio) Metello Niceroti / q(uo)q(uo)v(ersus) p(edes) XX

First half of 1st century AD

@ Archaeological Museum of Bologna

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Sword-belt decoration (phalera), worn on the breast as an ornament by soldiers, especially as a military decoration, or used to adorn the harness of horses.

The inscription reads LG X FR FEL, abbreviated form for the name of the Tenth Legion “Fretensis Felix”.

Early 3rd century AD

© The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

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Marble funerary Inscription of Caecilius Hilarius, physician to the famous Caecilia Metella. Her circular tomb is still seen as a large monument on the Appian Way south of Rome.

The inscription reads:

Q(uintus) Caecilius Caeciliae / Crassi〈uxoris〉 l(ibertus) Hilarus, medicus, / Caecilia duarum / Scriboniarum l(iberta) / Eleutheris, / ex partem dimidiae sibi êt suis. meaning: “Quintus Caecilius Hilarus, a doctor, / Freedman of Caecilia, wife of Crassus. / Caecilia Eleutheris, freedwoman of / two Scriboniae. With the share of a half. / For himself (themselves?) and their (family).”

The doctor's praenomen Quintus was taken from the name of Caecilia Metella's father. Caecilia Eleutheris was Hilarus' wife. She was the freedwoman of the two "Scriboniae," one of whom was the first wife of Augustus (40-39 BC) and mother of his only child, Julia. The other sister was married to the son of Pompey the Great, Sextus Pompeius, who was defeated by Augustus/Octavian in 36 BC.

In the second line, the inscriber ran out of space and put the final "us" of "medicus" in small letters.

27 BC / 14 AD.

Found in Rome on the via Salaria in the so-called “Monumentum Caeciliorum“.

© Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA

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Marble funerary altar, carved in high relief with the figure of the deceased, named in the accompanying, elegantly carved Latin inscription as Anthus. The altar was set up by his father, L(ucius) Iulius Gamus. Although Anthus’ age is not given, he clearly died while still a child, since he is referred to as “(his) sweetest son,” and a personal touch is given to the relief by showing Anthus with his pet dog.

The inscription reads: Diis Manib(us) / Anthi / L(ucius) Iulius Gamus pater fil(io) dulcissim(o), meaning “To the Spirits of the Departed. Lucius Iulius Gamus, father, to Anthus, (his) sweetest son”.

1st half of 1st century A.D.

© The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Fragment of roman brick with the orbicular stamp

Duor(um) [Le]sagor(um)

meaning   

“(Brick Stamp) of the Two Lesagori”.

The "two Lesagori" were probably brothers. The name of one of them, Lucius Lesagius Tritogenes, is known from another stamp.

2nd century AD

© Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA

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Greek theatre of Aphrodisias: one of a series of inscriptions on the columns forming a portico and supporting the architrave on the stage.

The greek text, deep-cut, well-aligned and elegant, records a list of the names of the Muses:

[Κλι]ώ                                                                                                                     Ε̣ὐτέρπη                                                                                                                 Θαλία                                                                                                                     Μελπομένη                                                                                                           Τερψιχόρη                                                                                                             Ἐρατώ                                                                                                                   Πολυμνία                                                                                                               Οὐρανία                                                                                                                Καλλιόπη

Klio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polymnia, Ourania, Kalliope

All the inscriptions are on the stage side of the columns, and were presumably only visible to those using the stage.

Third to fifth century A.D.

© Inscriptions of Aphrodisias, (Aphrodisias, Aydın Province, Turkey)

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Marble lid of a cinerary chest, fashioned to look like the roof of a barrel-vaulted building with acroteria at the corners in the form of theatrical masks and palmettes. The inscription on the front panel reads:

D(is) M(anibus) / Sex(ti) Flavi / Pancarpi / q(ui) vix(it) ann(os) LXVII

meaning “To the spirits of the dead, [of] Sextus Flavius Pancarpus, who lived 67 years.”

Despite the fact that the inscription mentions only a man, the lunettes at the sides show both male (globe and box of scrolls) and female (mirror and spindle) attributes, indicating that the chest also may have contained the remains of Pancarpus’ wife.

Late 1st century AD

© Metropolitan Museum of Arts, New York