The Sarcophagus brought from Syria & presented By Come. Elliott to the Girard College.
Title
The Sarcophagus brought from Syria & presented By Come. Elliott to the Girard College This sarcophagus was discovered by a countryman, who was planting a mulberry tree, about sixteen feet under ground, three-fourth's of a mile east from Beyront, in the centre of the spot where once stood the ancient Berytus, and six hundred feet above the level of the sea; it required nearly five hundred men to remove it a mile and a half, on board the vessel. The sarcophagus is cut out of a solid piece of white marble, and has a cover in the form of a slooping roof, of one piece of marble. On the principal side it has this inscription. Jvlia. C. Fil Mamaea vixit. Ann. XXX. Its dimenions are seven feet four and a half inches long by two feet seven and three-fourth inches wide within the cornice, and it stands four feet three inches high to the apex of the cover, which is nineteen inches deep. We learn from Gibbon that the Emperor Severus A.D. 208, married Julia Domna of Eamesa in Syria, she had a sister Julia Maesa who resided for a time at Emesa with her two daughters Soamias and Mamaea, each of whom had a son, the first was the Emperor Elagabalus the other the Emperor Alexander Severus; during the early part of his reign Jvlia Mamaea remained the sole agent of her son and of the empire
Description
View of the marble, garland sarcophagus of the Empress of the Roman Empire Julia Mamaea presented to the college in 1838. Tomb sculpted with garland, cupid, and female figure ornamentations. Jesse Duncan Elliott, commodore of the U.S. Constitution, obtained the sarcophagus in 1837 while commanding the U.S. Fleet during a tour of the Mediterranean. It was "rediscovered" in the basement by the school in 1883 and given on permanent loan to Bryn Mawr College in 1955., Philadelphia on Stone, POSP 201, Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Advertisement for print published in the North American and Philadelphia Inquirier, August 13, 1839 and the National Gazette, August, 20, 1839.
Creator
Hoffy, Alfred M., b. ca. 1790
Date
[ca. 1839]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *BW - Monuments and Statues [P.8970.15]