Roman
A Roman marble stele for Philotechnus and Felicior, Hadrianic to Antonine, mid - 2nd century AD
Marble
Height: 78 cm; width: 38 cm
Of elegant cuboid, columnar shape, the front is carved with a bordered panel inscribed in bold capitals reading: D(is) M(anibus) Philotechno et (but written as 'FT') Feliciori fecit Aelia Eutychis,...
Of elegant cuboid, columnar shape, the front is carved with a bordered panel inscribed in bold capitals reading: D(is) M(anibus) Philotechno et (but written as 'FT') Feliciori fecit Aelia Eutychis, which translates as: 'To the Shades of the Dead (and) to Philotechnus and Felicior, Aelia Eutychis did (this)'. On the right side of the stele is carved an oinochoe, and on the left a patera. Surmounted with a stepped architrave. The top of the interior is hollowed out.
Provenance
Said to be from OstiaWith Pino Donati, Lugano, Switzerland, acquired circa 1958
With Charles Ede, London, UK, acquired from the above November 2009
Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins, France, acquired from the above
Exhibitions
Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins, 2011-2023 (Inv. no. MMoCA494).Literature
In Ancient Rome the deceased were often honoured and commemorated with funerary altars dedicated to their memory, which could be separate from their resting place, or associated to it. Stelai always bore a dedicatory inscription, and could be paired with a portrait, or images of a more symbolic nature. Funerary monuments such as this were placed along the main roads leading to city gates in the family funeral plot along other monument tombs. They had a double function of mourning the departed while displaying the family's wealth and status in Roman society. The sides of the stele are decorated with an oinochoe, and on the left a patera. These symbols refer to the practice of pouring liquids as an act of commemoration, these two motifs often recur in Roman funerary altars.The stele is inscribed for Philotechnus and Felicior with seven Latin lines. The Aelia component of the dedicator’s name, Aelia Eutychis, indicates that she or her father became a Roman citizen in the reign of Hadrian (Publius Aelius Hadrianus,
AD 117–38), and that they were likely imperial freedmen/women. The high quality of the lettering is typical of the mid to later 2nd century AD, and indicates the the family of Aelia Eutychis were relatively wealthy. For an example of similar form, also with an oinochoe and patera on the side, see the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, acc. no. 23.16.
Publications
Epigraphic Database Roma, no. 165506.H. Dessau, ed., Corpus Inscriptionem Latinorum, vol. XIV, Berlin, 1887, p. 147, no. 1466. According to Dessau the inscription is also recorded in manuscripts Campana and C.L Visconti and its location as 'Romae in suburbano Paccae'.
During the years 1831-35 the Marquis Pietro Campana worked on the orders of the Bishop of Ostia, Cardinal Bartolomeo Pacca. Many hundreds of inscriptions were found at this time and it seems likely that this was one of them.
Carlo Lodovico Visconti also took part in the excavations in Rome and the provinces of the Papal State from 1855. From 1859 he assisted his uncle Pietro Ercole Visconti with his systematic excavations in Ostia initiated by Pius IX, in addition to his work for the Commissariato delle Antichità, and also supported him in his work as a professor of archeology at the then papal university of Rome. In 1883 he became director of the Museo Torlonia and, after the death of Ignazio Jacometti (1819-1883) in 1884, took over responsibility for the Vatican collections and antiquities.
Other epigraphic works are recorded as excavated in Ostia in 1831-1835 by Pietro Campana and later recorded in C.L Visconti in 1864; it is likely therefore that the history of this stele is also thus.
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