ROMAN GARLAND SARCOPHAGI — WARD PERKINS 457 



structure, with medium-sized crystals. The body, which measures 

 7 feet long by 3 feet 6 inches wide by 3 feet 1 inch high, is carved 

 on all four faces, with moldings at top and bottom and, between them, 

 a formal design of looped garlands, variously supported and enriched 

 with small decorative motifs in the spaces above each loop. The 

 massive gabled lid, with acroteria at the four corners and slightly 

 irregular in shape, measuring 7 feet 4^ inches (7 feet 5y 2 inches) long 

 by 3 feet 10 inches (3 feet 10y 2 inches) wide by 2 feet 1 inch (2 feet 

 iy 2 inches) high, is carved only on the front and ends; it was fastened 

 to the body with six iron cramps, sealed into place with lead. The 

 contents of the sarcophagus were looted in antiquity through a hole 

 cut in the upper part of the left-hand end, but apart from various 

 clean breaks at the back and ends it is otherwise intact and in good 

 condition. Its companion at Bryn Mawr (pi. 3) is of identical marble 

 and carved to a very similar design. Its proportions are such that it 

 appears rather less bulky than the Smithsonian sarcophagus, although 

 the dimensions of the body are in fact slightly larger than those of 

 its fellow (7 feet long by 3 feet 6 inches wide by 3 feet high) and 

 those of the lid almost the same (7 feet 5 inches by 3 feet 10 inches by 

 2 feet 2 inches). It, too, was looted in antiquity through a hole cut 

 in the rear right corner of the lid, which the thieves evidently found 

 too heavy to move, even although it had not been fastened with 

 metal cramps; as it now stands, the lid has been placed back to 

 front. Both sarcophagi have a panel reserved for an inscription, but 

 only the Bryn Mawr sarcophagus was actually inscribed. The text, 

 ivlia. c. til. mamaea. vix. ann. xxx (2) , records that the sarcophagus 

 contained the body of Julia Mamaea, daughter of Gaius, who lived to 

 the age of 30. The name, Julia Mam(m)aea, is the same as that of 

 the Syrian wife of Emperor Alexander Severus (A. D. 217-235), 

 who was murdered in Syria, and it is perhaps not altogether surprising 

 that, when first found, the pair of sarcophagi were thought to be those 

 of the imperial couple — a fact which no doubt helps to explain the 

 scruples of Andrew Jackson. In actual fact, although the date cannot 

 be very far wrong, the purchasers of these sarcophagi must have been 

 folk of much humbler standing; Julia Mamaea was probably the 

 daughter of the couple who were buried in the Smithsonian 

 sarcophagus, whose names and style were no doubt prominently re- 

 corded elsewhere in the mausoleum in which the pair of sarcophagi 

 once stood. 



The two sarcophagi from Beirut belong to a distinctive group 

 of sarcophagi which were quarried on the island of Marmara (the 

 ancient Proconnesus) near the southern entrance to the sea of the 

 same name, and which were exported over the greater part of the 

 eastern Mediterranean. In antiquity, as later, the island was one of 



