Description of Monument

White marble sarcophagus, with lid, (length 2.13). On either side of the central tabella (0.80-0.73 × 0.41) are standing draped figures of a woman (left) and a man. Below the tabella are two roughish downward projections at either side and, between them, a relief scene in which two men sit on either side of what appears to be an oven. The left-hand man holds something rectangular and flat which appears to be fed into the 'oven'; the right-hand one holds a tubular object up to his face and down to the 'oven' perhaps a glass-blower's tube (? or a bellows).

Description of Text

Inscribed on the lid (lines 1-2), on the upper rim (l. 3), on the tabella including its upper and lower mouldings (lines 4 ff). An erased area beside the relief of the woman could have contained an additional short text (perhaps ζῇ, which might have been erased when she died).

Letters

standard forms; l. 1-3, ave. 0.03; ll. 4 ff., very poorly aligned and well below the standard of the sculpture. Line 2 is interrupted by the vertical projections on the lid. Ligatures: l. 1 ΗΝ, l. 2, ΝΗ, ΝΗ, l. 8 ΤΗ, l. 9, ΜΗ, l. 14, ΤΗ, l. 16, ΜΗ. Diairesis in ll. 5, 11, 16

Date

Second to third centuries A.D. (lettering)

Edition ἡ σορός ἐστιν καὶ ἡ περὶ αὐτὴν τόπος Αὐρηλίας Τάτης τῆς καὶ Ἐπιθυμίας ἐν ᾗ σορῷ τέθαπται Αὐρήλιος Ἀκυλεινὸς Πολυχρονίου τοῦ Κλαδέου ὁ γενόμενος ἀνὴρ αὐτῆς κηδευθήσεται δὲ καὶ Αὐρηλία Τάτη ἣ καὶ Ἐπιθυμία καὶ Αὐρήλιος Ἀκυλεινος Ἀκυλεινοῦ ὁ υἱὸς αὐτῆς καὶ Αὐρηλία Ἀπφία Ἀπολλωνίου ἡ θυγάτηρ αὐτῆς ἕτερος δὲ οὐδεὶς ἕξει ἐξουσίαν ἐνθάψαι τινα ἐν τῇ σορῷ ἢ ἐκθάψαι ἐπεὶ ὁ τοιοῦτό τι τολμήσας ἔστω ἀσεβὴς καὶ ἐπάρατος καὶ τυμβωρύχος καὶ προσαποτεισάτω ἱερὰ Ἀφροδείτῃ ἀργυρίου δηνάρια γ ὧν τὸ τρίτον ἔσται τοῦ ἐκδικήσαντος τῆς ἐπιγραφῆς ἀπετέθη ἀντίγραφον εἰς τὸ χρε οφυλάκιον ἐπί Ὑψικλέους τοῦ Ἀδράστου Ἱέρακος τὸ ζ μηνὸς Πανημου

Apparatus

l. 15, ΑΤΡΑ lapis

Translation

The sarcophagus and the area around it is the property of Aurelia Tate, also called Epithymia, in which sarcophagus Aurelius Aquilinos son of Polychronios and grandson of Kladaios who was her husband has been buried, and there shall be buried Aurelia Tate, also called Epithymia and Aurelius Aquilinos son of Aquilinos, her son and Aurelia Apphia daughter of Apollonios, her daughter. No-one else shall have the right to bury anyone in the sarcophagus or to take anyone out of it, since whoever dares to do such a thing is to be sacrilegious, accursed and a tomb-breaker, and in addition to pay as moneys sacred to Aphrodite 3000 denarii, of which the third part will belong to the prosecutor. A copy of the inscription was placed in the Record office in the seventh year of Hypsikles, son of Adrastos Hierax, month of Panemos.

Commentary

The nomenclature suggests that the Edict of Caracalla on citizenship fell within the lifetime of the principals here, after the death of Apollonios (l.6) who must have been Aurelia Tate's first husband. It would be a reasonable conjecture that she commissioned the tomb on the death of her second husband Aurelius Aquilinos (ll.2-3), by which time she had a son by him (ll. 4-5); but there is no way of estimating how long after 212 that will have been. The stephanephorus in whose year a copy of the document was deposited in the Record-Office was certainly holding office post mortem and gives no clue to the date.

The relief may be interpreted as a scene of glass-blowing: on this see see E. Sironen, 8/9 (1990-91), 83-5

Locations

Necropolis, North-east: chamber tomb, with 13.111 (=410), 13.108 (=411), 13.109 (=412), 13.110 (=414). Findspot Museum (1994)

Text Constituted From

Transcription (Reynolds)

History of Recording

Recorded by the NYU expedition in 1994 (Sarcophagus catalogue 415)

Bibliography

Inscription unpublished; sarcophagus published by Smith, , Sarcophagus 6.

Photographs

Sarcophagus (1994)

Sarcophagus (1994)