Inscriptions cover a range of topics from poems, advertisements, political statements, to greetings. There are two forms of graffiti: painted inscriptions (usually public notices) and inscribed inscriptions (spontaneous messages). Many forms of graffiti also give insight to what certain locations acted as during the Roman Empire.
Pompeii Over 11,000 graffiti samples have been uncovered in the excavations of
Pompeii. Archaeologists have been studying and recording graffiti in Pompeii since the 1800s. These documentations remain the best evidence of over 90 percent of recorded graffiti from the area, which has not survived the elements. Most of the graffiti archaeologists were able to uncover took the form of friendly messages and games that required Roman numerals. Many of these recorded graffiti were found in public areas such as stairwells and entrances. Due to the simple nature of the graffiti, many archaeologists were early to dismiss the importance of the wall writings as it concerned life in ancient Pompeii. One passage on the staircase reads: vasia quae rapui, quaeris formosa puella accipe quae rapui non ego solus; ama. quisquis amat valeat Which translates to: Beautiful girl, you seek the kisses that I stole. Receive what I was not alone in taking; love. Whoever loves, may she fare well. Many of the inscriptions found in the House of Maius Castricius that blend both image and writing have been ignored by archaeologists due to errors in the form of documentation. Fullones ululamque cano, non arma virumque. Translating to: I sing of cloth-launderers and an owl, not
arms and a man. The owl is a signifier of
Minerva, the goddess who has been said to be protector over the profession of
fullones.
Ovid's Heroides 4 One finding in Pompeii that was uncommon was a literary-based inscription referring to Ovid's
Heroides 4.
Heroides 4 was a poem about the Greek character Phaedra falling in love with her husband's son, Hippolytus. This graffiti found in particular was located next to a painting describing the Roman mythical version of Pompeii. Similar to the House of Maius Castricius, there have been few ways to interpret images to graffiti; however, archaeologists have used the
Heroides 4 graffiti to show that Roman citizens possibly were able to understand art in a refined manner, both for the literary reference as well as the painting of Pompeii.
Calos graffiti One popular term found in many of the discovered graffiti walls in Pompeii was
calos, a Latin translation of the Greek word for beauty. Initially starting as a form of praise for upstanding citizens in Greek pottery,
calos found its way into becoming a popular Pompeian graffiti writing sometime during the first-century.
Calos was typically used before someone's name, for example:
"calos Castrensis"translates to:"beautiful Castrensis" The
calos graffiti has been assumed by archaeologists to have been used for listing sexual partners, describing sexual conduct, and prostitution specifically locations of brothels.
Calos helps us understand some typical graffiti writings that citizens of Pompeii might have had strong association with.
Roman Market in Athens An archaeological excavation of the
Roman Agora in Athens discovered a nearly perfectly preserved row of columns that contain Roman graffiti.
Dialogues Graffiti is often meant to be seen and expects to be read. A dialogue is formed between the reader and the inscription and can be simple as they speak directly to the readers in forms such as "if anyone sits here, let him read this before everything else..." as well as "He who writes this is in love... and I who reads this am a prick." There are also dialogues where one passage answers another. These responses take the forms of greetings, insults, prayers, etc. Successus textor amat coponiaes ancilla(m) nomine Hiredem quae quidem illum non curat sed ille rogat illa com(m)iseretur scribit rivalis vale Translates to: Successus the weaver is in love with the slave of the Innkeeper, whose name is Iris. She doesn't care about him at all, but he asks that she take pity on him. A rival wrote this A response to this translates to:
Children Examples of handwritten alphabets are common graffiti in Pompeii and could be evidence of children practicing their alphabet. This lends to the argument that children were responsible for much of the graffiti. However, the height of the inscriptions and location may contradict this. ==Commentary==