Funerary Altar for Mystes and Dorius

Place of OriginItaly, Rome, Monument of the Volusii on the Via Appia

Dateafter 87-89 CE

Dimensions34 1/4 × 23 1/8 × 15 1/2 in. (87 × 58.7 × 39.4 cm)

Mediumwhite marble

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds given by Georgia E. Welles and Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, by exchange

Object number

2022.40

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

DescriptionA marble funerary altar featuring ram heads with garlands at the corners, crouching sphinxes below, and an eagle with outspread wings holding an inscription on the front. The side panels display a jug, bowl, and eagles, while the front showcases the Capitoline She-Wolf with Romulus and Remus. Inscription (CIL VI, 22811): Diis Ma(nibus) Mysti L(uci) Volusi Saturnini ser(vo) Volusia Irene et Dorio filio vixit an(nis) XV m(ensibus) VI permissu Q(uinti) n(ostri) Translation: “To the spirits of the departed. Volusia Irene [dedicates this] to Mystes, slave of Lucius Volusius Saturninus, and to son Dorius, who lived fifteen years and six months. By permission of our [master] Quintus.”

Label TextRoman slavery allowed for mixed-status families, whose grave monuments document relationships between freed and enslaved family members across generations. With this altar, a woman called Volusia Irene commemorated the deaths of Mystes, likely her husband, and her fifteen-year-old son Dorius. All three were related through a powerful Roman slaveowning family, the Volusii Saturnini, but their names reveal very different fates. Irene's name, with the inclusion of the family name Volusia, marks her as freed. Mystes, in contrast, is explicitly identified as a slave (servus) of a leading Roman official, while the status of young Dorius remains uncertain. The ownership history of this altar dates back to 1509, when it was drawn in Rome, making it one of the longest-documented ancient objects in North America. Although its back was restored in the 18th century, the altar originally stood flat against the wall of a communal tomb for the enslaved, freed, and freeborn members of the Volusii Saturnini.Published ReferencesBrunelleschi, Battista, Biblioteca Marucelliana, Florence, Ms. A 78, 1, fol. 38r, 1509-1513 [drawing of entire altar].

Mazochius, Jacobus (Giacomo Mazzocchio), Epigrammata antiquae Urbis, 1521, p.93 verso: “in domo domini Petripauli de Mellinis”.

Smetius, Martinus (Martin Smet), Inscriptionum antiquarum quae passim per Europam liber, Leiden, 1588, fol. 122, no. 4 “in aedibus Ioh. Baptistae. Millini, ad Agonem: in ara marm. Eleganti”.

Boissard, Jean-Jacques, Pars Romanae Urbis Topographiae & Antiquitatum, vol. III: Topographia Romanae Urbis, vol. III, Frankfurt, 1597, pl. 77: “apud Card. Caesianum”.

Gruter, Jan, Inscriptiones antiquae totius orbis romani, vol. II, Amsterdam, 1707, p. 986, no. 4 [engraving after Boissard on the next page].

Bernard de Montfaucon, L’antiquité expliqueé et représenteé en figures, vol. 5, 1, Paris, p. 92g, engraving after Boissard.

Maffei, Scipione, Museum veronense, Verona, 1749, p. 445, no. 8: “In villa Southampton”.

Marini, Gaetano, Gli atti e monumenti de Fratelli Arvalli scolpiti già in tavola di marmo, Rome, 1795, p. 123.

Bachofen, “La lupa romana su monumenti,” Annali dell’Instituto di correspondenza archeologica, vol. 40, 1868, p. 426, no. 5.

Dessau, Hermann, and Paul von Rohden, eds., Prosopographia Imperii Romani, vol. III, Berlin, G. Reimer, 1898, pp. 485–486.

---- 20TH CENTURY BIBLIOGRAPHY: --- Altmann, Walter, Die römischen Grabaltäre der Kaiserzeit, Berlin, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1905, p. 51, no. 3.

Carter, Jesse Benedict, "Romulus and Remus," in Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie, ed. Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher, Leipzig, Teubner, 1909–1915, col. 204, no. 14.

CIL VI, 22811. Vermeule, Cornelius C, The Dal Pozzo–Albani Drawings of Classical Antiquities in the British Museum, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1960, p. 26, no. 348.

Davies, Glenys M., Fashion in the Grave: A Study of the Motifs Used to Decorate the Grave Altars, Ash Chests and Sarcophagi Made in Rome in the Early Empire (to the Mid Second Century A.D.), Doctoral Thesis, University of London, 1978, vol. 2, p. 85, no. 4.

Manacorda, Daniele, "Volusio ritrovato. Le reliquie dei martiri nel sepolcro del 'sacerdos Geni'," Bollettino dei Musei Comunali di Roma, vol. 25, 1978–1980, pp. 80–81, no. 9.

Dulière, Cécile, Lupa Romana: recherches d'iconographie et essai d'interprétation, vol. I, p. 278; vol. II, p. 26, no. 51, Bruxelles, Institut Historique Belge de Rome, 1979.

Solin, Heikki, Die griechischen Personennamen in Rom: Ein Namenbuch, Berlin, Walter de Gruyter, 1982, pp. 422, 573, 1020.

Aichholzer, Peter, Darstellungen römischer Sagen, Vienna, 1983, p. 92.

Buonocore, Marco, Schiavi e liberti dei Volusi Saturnini, Rome, 1984, p. 94, no. 46.

Flory, Marleen Boudreau, “Where Women Precede Men: Factors Influencing the Order of Names in Roman Epitaphs,” The Classical Journal, vol. 79, no. 3, 1984, p. 216.

Boschung, Dietrich, Antike Grabaltäre aus den Nekropolen Roms, 1987, p. 62, no. 653, rep. pl. 17.

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Stenhouse, William, Ancient Inscriptions, London, The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo, 2002, p. 186.

Hasegawa, Kinuko, The Familia Urbana during the Early Empire: A Study of Columbaria Inscriptions, Oxford, Archaeopress, 2005, pp. 86–87.

Di Stefano Manzella, Ivan, “Q(uinti) n(epos) o Q(uinti) n(ostri)? Tre are della famiglia degli Antigoni nel Monumentum Volusiorum, fra datio loci e permissus,” in M. L. Caldelli, G. L. Gregori, and S. Orlandi (eds.), Epigrafia 2006: Actes du XIV Rencontré sur l’épigraphie du monde Romain (Roma 18–21 Octobre 2006), Roma, 2008, pp. 306, 313.

Rissanen, Mika, “The Lupa Romana in the Roman Provinces,” Acta Archaeologica, vol. 65, no. 2, 2014, p. 355, n. 144.

Sotheby’s London, Ancient Sculpture & Works of Art, 29 November 2017, p. 80, lot no. 65.

"Acquisition of the Year: Short List", in Apollo, January 2023, repr. col. p. 60. Borbonus, Dorian, “Permissu Decurionum: Freed Persons and Burial Management in the Collective Tomb of the Volusii,” in Synclair Bell, Dorian Borbonus, and Rose MacLean (eds.), Freed Persons in the Roman World: Status, Diversity, and Representation, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2024, pp. 35, 43, 46.

Exhibition HistoryMaastricht, Netherlands TEFAF Art Fair, 2018.