617 A ROMANO BRITISH ALTARSHAPED TOMBSTONE, the top with a swept pediment and a circular depression flanked by “bolsters”, the front with a Latin inscription, on a moulded plinth base, probably 1st/2nd century AD, 15” wide x 22½” high
Provenance: Dr. Gordon Scott (born 1905) and thence by descent.
Probably acquired from Roger Warner in the 1950’s and thence by descent in the family.
Private collection Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.
£2,000-4,000
The inscription of six lines of Roman capitals begins D[IS] M[ANIBUS] S[ACRUM (Sacred to the spirits of the departed). The following three lines have several clear letters, which probably give the name and status of the departed, the second line ends with CIVIS (citizen), the third is SECVNDIANVS, then N[VN] C. POTEST which may translate as ‘now obtains a temple’, the fifth line is VIX[IT] ANN[OS] XXXIIII ‘Lived thirty-four years’. The final line as H[IC] S[ITA] E[ST] ‘is placed here’. A Romano-British origin has been suggested, but there is no precedent recorded in R.G. Collingwood and R.P. Wright “The Roman Inscriptions of Britain I, Inscriptions on Stone”, Oxford (1965). If it does come from one of the major cities of Britain, it is a curious escapee. It could have come from the Continent, but tomb stones were not generally items that were thought important enough to merit being collected, unlike sarcophagi, which attracted the attention of gentlemen on the Grand Tour from 17th century.
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