About the Inscription
Inscription for Lucius Calpurnius Rufus
Marble
Roman Period (71–214 CE)
Misenum, Italy. G. De Criscio collection, 1899. KM 878
Inscription:
D(is) M(anibus) / L(ucio) Calpurnio Rufo / scribae Cl(assis) Pr(aetoriae) Mis(enensis) / hic Epheso in munere missus / defunctus est ibi sarcophago / marmoreo situs est / M(arcus) Sittius Africanus municeps et / heres ad castra memoria(m) fecit
Translation:
To the Shades of the Underworld: for Lucius Calpurnius Rufus, an officer [scriba] of the Praetorian fleet of Misenum. This man, sent to Ephesus on duty, died and was laid [to rest] there in a marble sarcophagus. Marcus Sittius Africanus, his fellow countryman and heir, made this memorial at the camp.
Rufus’s Story
Browse Objects
Scroll down to explore some items in the Kelsey Museum that would have been familiar to Rufus.
Amphora
This amphora, which was recovered from the bottom of the Bay of Naples near Puteoli (notice all the barnacles!), likely held wine and was the kind of thing that Rufus’s family would have imported to Italy for sale. Like modern shipping containers, amphorae such as this one were used to move goods all around the Roman Empire. But unlike shipping containers, their styles vary, meaning that archaeologists can identify where they were made and what they carried. Can you figure out why amphorae had such a peculiar shape that made them good for shipping?
Relief of Caelestis
The goddess Caelestis was worshiped in North Africa, where Rufus’s family originated. She is a great example of how people in different parts of the Roman Empire mixed and merged Roman religion and deities with Indigenous gods and spiritual traditions. In this example, Caelestis is a fusion of the Roman goddess Juno (whom a soldier like Rufus may have worshiped because of her associations with war) and the local Carthaginian goddess Tanit.
Augustus
The naval fleet in which Rufus served—based at Misenum, near Puteoli—was closely connected with the emperors of Rome. More than a century before Rufus lived, Augustus founded the fleet and moved it to the Bay of Naples, and Emperor Vespasian gave the fleet a special status of “imperial navy” in the middle of the 1st century CE. Some scholars argue that Rufus’s death in today’s Türkiye may have occurred during a mission guarding an imperial visit to that province.
Sarcophagus
Rufus’s inscription says that he was buried in a marble sarcophagus, which may have looked like this one. The word “sarcophagus” is borrowed from the Greek language, where it literally means “flesh eater”! Burial of the dead, instead of cremation, became a Roman custom around the time that Rufus passed away. Fancy sarcophagi like this one were only accessible to wealthy individuals, so having one made from Ephesian marble—as was the case with Rufus—tells us a lot about his family’s wealth and status.
