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.
“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’sworkshop, 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.
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.
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.
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
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“.
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”.
Marble cinerary chest with lid. Above the inscription is a scene in which the deceased, standing on a pedestal, is making an offering to a female figure, perhaps Tellus (mother earth), who reclines on a couch bedecked with flowers. They are attended by two young servants, holding food and wine. The chest is in the form of a pedimental building, with flaming torches taking the place of columns at the corners.
The latin inscription reads:
Dis Manibus. / M(arcus) Domiti/us Primigenius fecit sibi / et suis, libertis libertabusq(ue) / posterisque eorum.
It translates: “To the spirits of the dead. M. Domitius Primigenius made [this] for himself, his freedmen and freedwomen, and their descendants.”
This relief originally formed part of the funerary monument of Lucius Antistius Sarculo, a free-born Roman, master of the Alban college of Salian priests, and his wife and freedwoman Antistia Plutia. The relief was dedicated by two freedmen, Rufus and Anthus, in recognition of their patron’s good deeds. The inscription reads:
L(ucius) Antistius Cn(aei) f(ilius) Hor(atia) Sarculo, / Salius Albanus ìdem mag(ister) Saliorum. Antistia / L(uci) l(iberta) Plutia. Rufus, l(ibertus), Anthus, l(ibertus), imagines de suo fecerunt patrono et patronae pro meritis eorum.
And translates: “Lucius Antistius Sarculo, son of Gnaeus, member of the Horatia tribe, priest of the Alban Salian Order, as well as Master of the priests. Antistia Plutia, freedwoman of Lucius. The freedman Rufus (and) the freedman Anthus had these portraits made out of their own funds for their patron and patroness in recognition of their worthy deeds.”
The lined eyes, the slightly hollowed cheeks and prominent earsof Antistius, and the thin-lipped, severe countenance of his wife are typical of the realistic style characteristic of the period. The couple’s hairstyles indicate a date towards the end of the first century BC. During the Republic, large numbers of slaves were brought to Rome and Italy following the conquests of territories such as Spain and Greece. Augustus gave freedmen and women many rights and privileges, including (happily for Antistius) the right to marry Roman citizens. Antistia’s rise, from humble slave to wife of a Salian, underlines the extent of Augustus’ social revolution. The roads around Rome and other cities in the empire were lined with monuments from which similar reliefs of freedmen and their families looked out, proudly proclaiming their full membership of Roman society.
Retrospective cataloguing work recently turned up a book inscribed to the founder of our library Alexander Horsburgh Turnbull (1868-1918) when he was just sixteen.
The inscription, found in an 1867 edition of Alain-René Lesage’s picaresque novel Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, reads:
Neuilly 14 Novembre [18]84.
14 rue Borghese
A Manoury.
A mon cher élève [i.e. To my dear student]
A Turnbull.
Thanks to some detective work by Anthony Tedeschi, our Curator Rare Books and Fine Printing, the inscriber has been identified as Arthur Maximilien Manoury (1849–1900), who is listed in the 1891 Paris electoral roll as living in 14 Rue Borghese in the commune of Neuilly (officially Neuilly-sur-Seine from May 1897) in the department of Hauts-de-Seine, just west of Paris.
By November 1884, Turnbull was no longer enrolled as a student at Dulwich College, London, having left at the end of the Lent term in March. Manoury was presumably hired as a private tutor so Turnbull could continue his French education. His comprehension of the language as a student at Dulwich is described in Eric McCormick’s biography as ‘rather better than average’ (p. 59) and, while not exactly a glowing endorsement, young Alexander must have improved and impressed Manoury enough to be given such a kind gift.
This book is one of just two books from Turnbull’s youth found in the collection to date. The other volume is an 1883 edition of works by the English poet and intellectual John Milton (1608-1674).
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Alain-René Lesage, Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane. Paris: Garnier frères, 1867, Alexander Turnbull Library, R407877.
This is another way of saying that the archive, as printing, writing, prosthesis, or hypomnesic technique in general is not only the place for stocking and for conserving an archivable content of the past which would exist in any case, such as, without the archive, one still believes it was or will have been. No, the technical structure of the archiving archive also determines the structure of the archivable content even in its very coming into existence and in its relationship to the future. The archivization produces as much as it records the event. This is also our political experience of the so-called news media.
Idalion Tablet, Cypriote syllabary, 5th century BCE. Cabinet des médailles, Paris.
“The Cypriot or Cypriote syllabary is a syllabic script used in Iron Age Cyprus, from about the 11th to the 4th centuries BCE, when it was replaced by the Greek alphabet. A pioneer of that change was King Evagoras of Salamis. It is descended from the Cypro-Minoan syllabary, in turn a variant or derivative of Linear A. Most texts using the script are in the Arcadocypriot dialect of Greek, but also one bilingual (Greek and Eteocypriot) inscription was found in Amathus.”
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“The Idalion Tablet is a 5th-century BCE bronze tablet from Idalium (Greek: Ιδάλιον), Cyprus. It is kept in the Cabinet des médailles, Paris.
It is of exceptional importance for the history of the Cypriot kingdoms.
It is engraved on both sides with a long inscription recording a contract entered into by ‘the king and the city’ and gives a reward to a family of physicians who provided free health services for the casualties when the city was besieged by the Persians and the Kitionites in 478-470 BC. It tells us about the political system and socio-economic conditions during the war. The joint decision by the king and citizens shows the democratic nature of the city, similar to Greek models. It also tells of the most ancient social welfare system known.
It was kept in the ancient official depository of the temple of Athena on the western acropolis of Idalion where it was discovered in 1850 by a farmer from the village of Dali.
The script of the tablet is in the Cypriot syllabary and the inscription itself is in Greek.”
SPQR “Senatus Populusque Romanus” (Senate and people of Rome)
This phrase was the source of all authority for the actions of the Roman Republic. The date of establishment of the official monogram of the Republic is unknown (but it cannot be dated earlier than the foundation of the Republic). It first appears in inscriptions of the Late Republic and continued in use under the Roman Empire.
The Senate and the Roman people, the two entities mentioned, are sovereign when combined. However, where Populus is sovereign alone, Senatus is not. The Romans believed that all authority came from the people; the Roman people appear very often in law and history. SPQR was a reminder of the new republic after noblemen overthrew the corrupt kings. SPQR made Roman citizens feel as if they had a voice and control in the government but it also masked all the unresolved tensions between the strong and the weak, the powerful and the powerless.
SPQR was inscribed on Ancient Roman public buildings, on the base of the legion’s eagle standards, money, and public places.
The initials are used as an official emblem of the modern-day municipality of Rome and can still be seen all over the city today.
TheRes Gestae Divi Augusti, (The Deeds of the Divine Augustus) is the political testament, official autobiography and funerary inscription of the first Roman emperor, Augustus (63 BC – 14 AD
The text, written by Augustus himself, gives a first-person record of his life and accomplishments and tell us us how he wanted to be remembered. The work is very impersonal and selective; he doesn’t mention his failures, only his achievements. He wrote it as an Elogium (formal funerary oration) and as propaganda. Augustus may have intended it to be read out in the Senate after his death. In accordance with his wishes, it was inscribed on two bronze pillars in front of his mausoleum in Rome.
The achievements of the Divine Augustus were copied and inscribed on monuments throughout the empire. The best preserved version is on the Temple of Rome and Augustus in Ancyra, Galatia (modern Ankara, Turkey), known as the Monumentum Ancyranum.
‘VNG.TEMPS.VIANDRA’ 'Un temps viendra’ or 'a time will come’
'MON DESIR ME VAILLE’ 'My longing keeps me awake’
Posy rings, the name deriving from poesy ('poetry’), are rings with inscriptions that express affection, friendship and love. Rhyming or cryptic inscriptions were fashionable from around 1200-1500. This particular one was given by Dame Joan Evans and made around 1500. More info and images
![Fragment of roman brick with the orbicular stamp Duor(um) [Le]sagor(um)meaning “(Brick Stamp) of](https://64.media.tumblr.com/4d46411311596b8212ae63ae5abdeaac/40761ccac4a4a369-55/s1280x1920/dbaf76ef45bcc4e1e8b9167aba353c1c0d3158c5.jpg "Fragment of roman brick with the orbicular stamp Duor(um) [Le]sagor(um)meaning “(Brick Stamp) of")
