Latin inscription on marble, 130 x 175 x 20 mm. Set within a heavy metal presentation pedestal. Traces of former mounting on reverse. In excellent condition.

Under Roman law, slaves had no personhood and enjoyed legal protection mainly as their master's property. They were paid a wage (peculium) which they could save up to buy themselves freedom. A slave who had been manumitted (freed, enfranchised) was a "libertus" (or "liberta") and a citizen, customarily taking the former owner's family name.

"Feliclae" is most likely the abbreviated form of "Feliculae", rather than a misspelling of "Feliciae"; the name "Pylodamus" is not attested and probably refers to "Philodamus" (or possibly "Polydamus"). The "retrograde c" found here after "Quiriniae" can stand for various words beginning with the letter c ("centurio", "Gaius"); in the case of women it can also denote an unspecific placeholder praenomen rendered either as "Gaia" ("Jane Doe") or, more commonly, as the abstract "mulier" - a usage well attested in Roman onomastic practice not only in epigraphy, but also in literary sources since the late years of the Republic.

The plaque would have been created in the earlier years of the rule of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, apparently coming from a Roman columbarium tomb discovered in the vineyard of the Clementine College, Rome, ca. 1733.

Provenance: said to have been found in the Vigna San Cesareo, later absorbed into the gardens of the Collegio Clementino, Rome, 1733-35. Later owned by Francesco Ficoroni (1664-1747), Rome, ca. 1733-35; William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough (1704-93), Parkstead House, Roehampton; William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale (1787-1872), Lowther Castle, Lowther, Penrith. Sold at Sotheby’s, London, 29 June 1970, 172-176; Folio Fine Art Ltd., London, 1970.

CIL VI 4 Pasc 1. 25338 (1). H. Solin, Analecta Epigraphica 1970-1997 (1998) p. 159 (3). A. Teatini, I marmi Reksten e il collezionismo europeo di antichità tra XVIII ex XIX secolo (2003), pp. 31 ff.; pp. 124-129 (for the Lowther Castle collection), at p. 128. Epigraphic Database Roma, EDR129669. Trismegistos Database, no. 587590. Exhibited: Writing and Lettering in Antiquity, Folio Fine Art Ltd., London, 9-20 October 1970, no. 52 (illus.).

Provenance: said to have been found in the Vigna San Cesareo, later absorbed into the gardens of the Collegio Clementino, Rome, 1733-35. Later owned by Francesco Ficoroni (1664-1747), Rome, ca. 1733-35; William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough (1704-93), Parkstead House, Roehampton; William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale (1787-1872), Lowther Castle, Lowther, Penrith. Sold at Sotheby’s, London, 29 June 1970, 172-176; Folio Fine Art Ltd., London, 1970.