Pompeii graffiti5/6/2023 ![]() Graffiti in modern life is seen by many as an. Image credit: Flickr user Roller Coaster Philosophy. Writing and pictures on the walls and tombs of Pompeii are a rich source of evidence for life in the town. These quotes were were recorded in a comprehensive, multi-volume collection of Latin inscriptions called Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, which was first published in in 1857. For some firmly NSFW examples, do go here. In the interest of avoiding hardcore lewdness and profanity, I’ve omitted some of the truly vulgar defacements. “I wonder, O wall, that you have not yet collapsed, so many writers’ clichés do you bear.” This phrase seems to have been a popular one, as slightly different versions of it appear in multiple locations throughout Pompeii’s ruins. “Admiror, O paries, te non cecidisse, qui tot scriptorium taedia sustineas.” “The petty thieves request the election of Vatia as adele.” In ancient Pompeii, an “adele” was an elected official who supervised markets and local police, among other things. “If only similar swindling would dupe you, innkeeper: you sell water, and drink the undiluted wine yourself.” 9. “Talia te fallant utinam medacia, copo: tu vedes acuam et bibes ipse merum.” “Virgula to Teritus: You are a nasty boy.” 7. If you ask ‘why?’ There was no chamber pot.” Found inside an inn. “Oppius, you’re a clown, a thief, and a cheap crook.” 5. “Apollinaris, doctor to the emperor Titus, had a good crap here.” In Latin profanity, “cacatne” pertained to defecation. “Apollinaris, medicus Titi Imperatoris hic cacavit bene.” See if any of these remind you of a twenty-first century bathroom. Let’s start with a conversation that happened between two young Pompeii men, only via wall graffitis.When the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were suddenly consumed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E., many of their buildings were so intimately preserved that modern archaeologists can even read the graffiti scribbled onto their ancient walls. We have also mentioned where you can find the said graffiti, amongst the Pompeii ruins. We have handpicked 25 of the most interesting graffiti found on the walls of Pompeii. Just in case you are wondering, people of Pompeii had a very active sex life. Historians have long said that the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which famously buried the Roman city of Pompeii in volcanic ash, took place on 24 August 79. These graffiti paint a vivid picture of life in Pompeii before the volcanic eruption destroyed it all, including jokes, comments on girlfriends, announcements about the writer’s sex life, etc. Newly discovered graffiti at the Pompeii archeological site could settle an old academic debate about the exact date of the Vesuvius eruption, rewriting the history of one of the ancient world's. However, the general graffiti appeals more to the tourists visiting Pompeii because it conveys that the people who lived in Pompeii weren’t any different than us. So far, excavators have found more than three thousand such electoral inscriptions in Pompeii. Writing election slogans was the job of signwriters, also known as scriptores, and they worked alongside lanternarius, the lantern-bearers, because slogan writing was a night task. The electoral propaganda got written in red or black ink and usually goaded the people of Pompeii to vote for one candidate or the other. We can further categorize General graffiti as philosophies of life (sometimes poetic!) or offending scrawls and insults. There are two kinds of graffiti on the walls of Pompeii’s houses and other establishments – electoral propaganda or general graffiti. Now that it has become a tourist destination welcoming 2.5 Million visitors annually, the travelers look forward to the graffiti as well. One of the first things that struck the excavators is the graffiti on the Pompeii houses’ walls. The city remained buried under volcanic ash, till a surveying engineer discovered it in 1748. ![]() ![]() Mt Vesuvius had erupted, destroying the whole town of Pompeii and killing around ten thousand people. This statement is most accurate for the ruins of Pompeii, located at the foothills of Mount Vesuvius near Rome. Someone once said, “historians first learn to write on the walls.”
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