Graffiti PDF

A Sampling of Graffiti and
Other Public and Semi-Public Texts from Pompeii and Herculaneum
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ancient_graffiti_in_Pompeii#/media/File:Fututiones_variae.jpg
Contents
Text p. 2
Introduction and Background Matter p. 21
Commentary p. 24
Bibliography p. 82
Figures p. 86
Indices p. 102
© J.R. Porter, 2018

Sigla
() — omitted characters (abbreviation)

[] — effaced characters
{} — misspelling/intrusion
<> — editorial supplement
Pompeii
1) CIL IV.64.1-4
urna aenia pereit de taberna. | sei quis rettulerit, dabuntur | H-S LXV. sei furem | dabit
unde [re]m | servare po[ssimus, H-S] | XX[.
2) CIL IV.138
insula Arriana | Polliana [C]n Al[le]i Nigidi Mai. | locantur ex [K](alendis) Iulis primis:
tabernae | cum pergulis suis et c[e]nacula | equestria et domus. conductor | convenito
Primum [C]n Al[le]i | Nigidi Mai ser(vum)
3) CIL IV.317
C(aium) Cuspium Pansam aed(ilem) | DRP VASPP iuvenem probum O
4) CIL IV.429
C(aium) Iulium Polybium | aed(ilem) OVF. panem bonum fert.
5) CIL IV.538
abiat Venere(m) Bompei{i}ana(m) iratam qui hoc laes{a}erit
6) CIL IV.794
lente impelle
7) CIL IV.813 [hexameter?]

otiosis locus hic non est. discede, | morator.
8) CIL IV.950
ubi me iuvat, as(s)ido
2
9) CIL IV.1189
A(uli) Suetti Cer[t]i | aedilis familia gladiatoria pugnab(it) Pompei(i)s | pr(idie) K(alendas)
Iunias. venatio et vela erunt.
10) CIL IV.1261

fut(u)ebatur, inquam, futuebatur ciuium Romanorum at(t)ractis pedibus cun(n)us, | in qua
nul(la)e aliae veces erant nisissei dulcis(s)im(a)e et pi(i)ssimae
11) CIL IV.1293

Campani, victoria una | cum Nucerinis peristis
12) CIL IV.1383

Isidorum aed(ilem) [OVF]: | optime cunulincet []
13) CIL IV.1393

K(alendas) XII Maias: tun(icam) pal(lium) |
Nonis Mai(i)s: fas(ciam) |
VIII Idus Ma(ia)s: | tunicas II
14) CIL IV.1421

Faustus Itaci N(eronianus) ad amp(h)ithiatru[m] |
[P]riscus N(eronianus) | VI v(icit) |
H[er]ennius | l(ibertus) XIIX p(eriit)
15) CIL IV.1474

Spiculus Ner(onianus) v(icit) | tiro Aptonetus p(eriit) | libr XVI
16) CIL IV.1516 (elegiac couplet)

hic ego nu[nc f]utue[i] formosa(m) fo[r]ma puella(m)
laudata(m) a multis, set lutus intus e{e}rat.
17) CIL IV.1520 (dactylic hexameter)

Candida me docuit nigras | odisse puellas.
3
odero se(i) potero, sed non invit[u]s | amabo. |
— scripsit Venus Fisica Pompeiana
18) CIL IV.1574

Eulale, bene valeas | cum Vera tua coniuge | et bene futue eam | et[…]m[…]

si quis forte meam cupiet vio[lare] | puel(l)am
illum in desertis | montibus urat amor

alliget hic auras, si quis | obiurgat amantes,
et vetet | {Scamander} assiduas currere fontis | {ama} aquas.
21) CIL IV.1679.7-13a (elegiac couplet?)

Edone dicit: |
assibus hic | bibitur; dipundium | si dederis, meliora | bibes;
quattus | si dederis, vina {f} | Falerna bib(es).
22) CIL IV.1751

si quis hic sederit, | legat hoc ante omnia. | si qui futuere volet, | Atticen quaerat a(ssibus)
XVI
23) CIL IV.1787

Epaphra, redde penicillum
24) CIL IV.1798

[pedi]catus qui legit
25) CIL IV.1816

Epaphra, glaber es
4
26) CIL IV.1820 (iambic senarii)
Chie, opto tibi ut<i> refricent se ficus tuae |
ut peius ustulentur quam | ustulatae sunt
27) CIL IV.1824 (elegiac couplet followed by a pair of dactylic hexameters)

quisquis amat, veniat. Veneri volo f<r>angere costas |
fustibus et lumbos debilitare de[ae. |
si potest illa mihi tenerum pert[u]n[d]ere pectus, |
quit ego non possim caput i[ll]ae fran[g]ere fuste?
28) CIL IV.1826

Phileros spado
29) CIL IV.1830 (trochaic septenarii)

futuitur cunnus [pil]ossus multo melius [qu]am glaber:
e[ad]em con[ti]net va[p]orem et eadem v[ell]it mentulam.
30) CIL IV.1837 (elegiac couplets)

si potes et non vis, cur <mutua> gaudia | differs
spemque foves et | cras usque redire iubes?
[er]|go coge mori, quem | sine te vivere coges: |
munus erit certe non | cruciasse boni.
quod spes | eripuit, spes certe red[i]]t amanti | 5
b) (hand 2) qui hoc leget, nunc quam posteac {quam p} | aled legat. nunquam sit salvos
c) (hand 3) qui supra scrip[sit]. |
d) (hand 4) vere dicis
31) CIL IV.1852 (embedded senarius?)

Pyrrhus Chio conlegae, sal. | moleste fero quod audivi | te mortuom. itaq(ue) val(e).
5
32) CIL IV.1854
Ca(l)liste, devora
33) CIL IV.1863 (iambic senarius)

[prehen]de cocuam cum voles: uti licet.
34) CIL IV.1864

Samius | Cornelio: | suspend(e)re
35) CIL IV.1880 (embedded pentameter)

L. Istacidi: at quem non ceno, barbarus ille mihi est.
36) CIL IV.1881

Virgula Tertio suo: indecens es

accensum qui pedicat, urit mentulam
38) CIL IV.1883 (trochaic septenarius)

nemo est bellus nisi qui amavit mulie[r]em adules[centulus].

qui verpam vissit, quid cenasse illum putes?
40) CIL IV.1926

Epaphra pilicrepus non est
41) CIL IV.1938

me(n)tula tua iubet, amatur
42) CIL IV.1940

Arescusa prudente[r] | sumsit sibi casta muthunium
6
43) CIL IV.1969
La{h}is | fel(l)at | a(ssibus) II
44) CIL IV.2021

Dionysius: | qua hora volt | [l]icet chalare
45) CIL IV.2048

Secundus pedicaud | pueros | lucle nti s
46) CIL IV.2145

C(aius) Valerius Venustus, m(iles) c(o)h(ortis) I pr(aetoriae), | [centuriae] Rufi,
futut{ul}or maximum
47) CIL IV.2146

Vibius Restitutus hic | solus dormivit et Urbanam | suam desiderabat
——————
Selections 48-71: From the Purpose-Built Brothel in Pompeii (VII.12.18)

(CIL IV.2173-2296)
48) CIL IV.2175

hic ego puellas multas | futui
49) CIL IV.2176

Felix, | bene futuis
50) CIL IV.2178

Facilis hic futuit
51) CIL IV.2178a

Nica Creteissiane
7
52) CIL IV.2183
Puteolanis feliciter, | omnibus Nucherinis | felicia et uncu(m) Pompeianis | Petecusanis
53) CIL IV.2184

Phoebus unguentarius | optume futuet
54) CIL IV.2186

Sollemnes, | [b]ene futues
55) CIL IV.2188

Scordopordonicus hic bene | fu(tu)it quem voluit
56) CIL IV.2192

XVII K(alendas) Iul(ias) | Hermeros cum Phile|tero et Caphi|so hic futu|erunt
57) CIL IV.2193

Arphocras hic cum Drauca | bene futuit denario
58) CIL IV.2204

Μολα φουτουτρις
[Mula fututrix]
59) CIL IV.2210

pedicare volo
60) CIL IV.2217

fututa sum hic
61) CIL IV.2246 (trochaic septenarius?)

hic ego cum veni, futui, | deinde redei do{i}mi
62) CIL IV.2257

Froto plane | lingit cun|num
8
63) CIL IV.2259 / 2275
Fortunata fellat
64) CIL IV.2265

Placidus hic futuit quem voluit
65) CIL IV.2270

Λιβεραλις
[Liberalis]
66) CIL IV.2273

Murtis, bene | fel(l)as
67) CIL IV.2274

futu(t)or, bene | valeas qui bene futues
68) CIL IV.2278

a(ssibus) IIIII Nice fellat
69) CIL IV.2279

su(g)at a(ssibus) II
70) CIL IV.2288

Synethus | Faustillam | futuit | obiqe rite
71) CIL IV.2292

Murtis fel(l)atris
——————
72) CIL IV.2310b

Euplia hic | cum hominibus bellis | M M
9
73) CIL IV.2331
Labyrinthus: | hic habitat | Minotaurus
74) CIL IV.2375

Ampliate, | Icarus | te pedicat. | Salvius | scripsit.
75) CIL IV.2400

Satur, noli cunnum lingere | extra porta(m) set intra porta(m). | rogat te Arpocras ut sibi
lingas mentula(m). | at, fellator, quid […
76) CIL IV.2425

dos pygiza
77) CIL IV.2450

A D • XI • K • Decembr • A • XV
Epap(h)ra • Acutus • Auctus
ad locum duxserunt
mulierem Tychen. pretium
in singulos A • V F
M • Messalla L • Lentulo COS
78) CIL IV.3042 [opening of an elegiac couplet?]

crudelis Lalage, quae “non am[o” dicit amanti
79) CIL IV.3061

virum vendere | nolo meom | [] quanti quantque | …
80) CIL IV.3103

Verecundus … | ment(u)la(m) | ling(it)
81) CIL IV.3117

Serena | Isodoru(m) | fastidit
10
talia te fallant | utinam me(n)dacia, copo: |
tu ve(n)des acuam et | bibes ipse merum.
83) CIL IV.3711

Sullimah Ehton sic amo

[vos mea mentula deseruit.] dolete, puellae.
pedic[at culum]. cunne superbe, va[le].

[amat qui scrib]et, pedic[a]t[u]r qui leg(et),
q(ui) ascult[a]t prurit, | [pathicus est qui pr]aeter[i]t |
— scribit [p]edicato[r] | Septu[m]ius
86) CIL IV.4024

Menander, | bellis moribus, | aeris ass(ibus) II
87) CIL IV.4087

Staphilus hic cum | Quie[ta]

(quis)quis amat valeat, pereat qui | nescit amare.
bis tanto pereat | quisquis amare vetat.
89) CIL IV.4185

Sabina, | fe(l)las. | no(n) belle faces.
90) CIL IV.4196

Miduse fututrix
11
91) CIL IV.4239 (embedded trochaic septenarius?)
Fortunate, animula dulcis, perfututor. | scribit qui novit.
92) CIL IV.4259

Acria IIII | Epafra X Firm(illa) III
93) CIL IV.4264

Iucundus cun(n)um lingit Rusticae
94) CIL IV.4289

puel(l)arum | decus Celadus
95) CIL IV.4307

Saturia | XIIX, Ɔ XX[
96) CIL IV.4342

suspirium puellarum | tr | Celadus Oct(avianus) III, Ɔ III
97) CIL IV.4485 (hexameter?)

Hectice, pupe, va(le) Mercator tibi dicit

seni supino colei culum tegunt
99) CIL IV.4523

pedicavi vi(ros)
100) CIL IV.4566

Felicio, | tomintare
101) CIL IV.4592

Eutychis, | Graeca, a(ssibus) II, | moribus bellis
12
102) CIL IV.4917
Albanus cinaedus est
103) CIL IV.4954

Fortuna|te, linge | culum

mi(n)ximus in lecto. fateor, peccavimus, | hospes.
si dices, quare? nulla matella fuit.
105) CIL IV.4976

Sodoma, Gomora
106) CIL IV.5007 (asynartetic)

det mihi Damoeta,
felicior quam Phasiphaë — haec omnia scripsit Zosimus.
107) CIL IV.5048

Euplia f(ellat) a(ssibus) V n(ummum) | Euplia filia | Euplia

amoris ignes si sentires, mulio, |
magi(s) properares ut videres Venerem. |
diligo {puerum} iuvenem venustum. rogo, punge, iamus. |
bibisti, iamus, prende lora et excute. |
Pompeios defer ubi dulcis est amor. | 5
meus es[…
109) CIL IV.5105

Optata | verna a(ssibus) II
110) CIL IV.5187

Messius hic nihil futuit
13
111) CIL IV.5213
filius salax, | qu(i)d tu muliero|rum dif(f)utuisti?
112) CIL IV.5244

Marthae hoc trichilinium | est. nam in trichilin(i)o | cacat.
113) CIL IV.5251

Restitutus multas decepit | s(a)epe puellas
114) CIL IV.5279

tu mortu(u)s es, | tu nugas es
115) CIL IV.5372

sum tua | aere
116) CIL IV.5461

Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ̣ Ο Π Ρ Ϲ Τ | Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω
117) CIL IV.6641

cacator, sig valeas | ut tu hoc locum tra(n)sea(s).

si quis non vidi(t) Venerem quam pin[xit Apelles,] |
pupa(m) mea(m) aspiciat; talis et i[lla nitet]
119) CIL IV.7038 [embedded dactylic hexameter]

stercorari, | ad murum | progredere.
si | pre(n)sus fueris, poena(m) | patiare neces(s)e | est.
cave.
120) CIL IV.7089

im(m)anis | me(n)tula | es
14
121) CIL IV.7698a (elegiac couplet)
abluat unda pedes, puer et detergeat udos.
mappa torum velet, lintea nostra cave.
122) CIL IV.7698b (elegiac couplet)

lascivos voltus et blandos aufer ocellos
coniuge ab alterius; sit tibi in ore pudor
123) CIL IV.7698c (elegiac couplet)

[insanas] litis odiosaque iurgia differ,
si potes, aut gressus ad tua tecta refer.
124) CIL IV.7716

cacator, cave malum | aut si contempseris, habeas | Iove(m) iratum
125) CIL IV.8034

Fortunata a(ssibus) XXIII
126) CIL IV.8185

Fortunata a(eris) a(ssibus) II
127) CIL IV.8230

qui lego, fel(l)o. | sugat qui legit.
128) CIL IV.8259 and 8258

a. Successus textor amat coponiaes ancilla(m) | nomine Hiredem, quae quidem illum | non
curat. sed ille rogat illa(m) com(m)iseretur. | scribit rivalis: vale. |
b. invidiose, quia rumperes: se(ct)are noli formonsiorem | et qui est homo pravessimus et
bellus.
c. dixi. scripsi. amas Hiredem | qua(e) [t]e non curat. …
15
129) CIL IV.8297
R O M A
O L I M
M I L O
A M O R
130) CIL IV.8356

Nucerea quaeres ad Porta(m) Romana(m), | in vico Venerio, Novelliam | Primigeniam.
131) CIL IV.8384

ΚΟΝΤΕΜΝΩ ΔΗΡΕΙΔΙΩ ΛΑΤΩΝΑ ΤΟΥΑ, ϹΑΛΒΙΛΛΑ
[contemno, derideo Latona(m) tua(m), Salvilla]
132) CIL IV.8400

move te, fellator
133) CIL IV.8408a (iambic senarius)

amantes ut apes vita(m) mel(l)ita(m) {x} exigunt
134) CIL IV.8442

futui coponam
135) CIL IV.8475

Palmyra sitifera
136) CIL IV.8483

Mentula | V H-S

qui mihi docendi | dederit mercedem, | abeat quod | petit
a superis
16
138) CIL IV.8590
ven[i]vit | mul(i)eri | D(ecimi) Lucreti Vale(ntis) | Onus(tus) eques I | r(ationis) |
Saga(tus) | t(h)r(aex) | m(urmillo) | I | XX
139) CIL IV.8715b

Iucu(n)dus | male c(h)ala(t)
140) CIL IV.8767

Floronius | binetas, miles | leg(ionis) VII, hic | fuit neque | mulieres | scierunt nisi | paucae
et | seserunt
141) CIL IV.8792a

Antiochus | hic mansit | cum sua | Cithera
142) CIL IV.8898

Tiopilus, canis, | cunnu(m) lingere no|li puellis in muro
143) CIL IV.8903 (embedded iambic senarius)

viator:
Pompei(i)s pane(m) gustas, | Nuceriae bibes. |
Nucer[…
144) CIL IV.8940

Maritimus | cunnu(m) li(n)get a(ssibus) ii|ii. | virgines am|mittit.
145) CIL IV.8972

XIII K(alendas) Maias panem feci

fullones ululamque cano non arma virumq(ue)
147) CIL IV.9226

Rufus est.
17
[h]ic ego cum domina resoluto clune | [p]er[e]gi — |
[cetera se]d versu scribere [turp]e fuit.
149) CIL IV.9406

g(ari) f(los) scombri Scauri ex officina Scauri ab Martiale Aug(usti) l(iberto)
150) CIL IV.9839b

abomino paupero(s). | quisqui(s) quid gratis | rogat, fat(u)us est. | aes det et ac|cipiat
rem.
151) CIL IV.10004

Eupl[i]a laxa landicosa
152) CIL IV.10005

Fortunata

malim me amici fellent quam inimici irrument
154) CIL IV.10070

Lesbiane, cacas scribis que [sa]lute(m)

si qui(s) mi dicat <potanti (?)> ‘surge fututum’, |
si causa est{e}, surga(m), | si minus, | usce biba(m). |
pue(l)la, mea(m) emisti tibe <mentulam (?)>
156) CIL IV.10222

Promus fel(l)ator
157) CIL IV.10231

gravido me tene[t], | At[i]me[te]
18
158) CIL IV.10237
munus Nolae de quadridu[o] M. Cominii Heredi[s].
Pri<n>ceps Ner(onianus), XII, Ɔ X[?]; v(icit).
Hilarus Ner(onianus), XIV, Ɔ XII; v(icit).
Creunus, VII, Ɔ V; m(issus est).
159) Varone p. 71
Romula viros mil(l)e tre[ce]ntos
———————
Herculaneum
160) CIL IV.10488

M(arcus) [Alf]icius Pa[ul]lus | aedil(is): | [si qu]is velit in hunc locum | stercus abicere,
monetur n[on] | iacere. si quis adver[sus hoc] | i(n)dicium fecerit, liberi dent | [dena]rium
n(ummum); servi verberibus | [. . . i]n sedibus admonentur.
161) CIL IV.10619

Apollinaris, medicus Titi imp(eratoris), hic cacavit bene
162) CIL IV.10675

duo sodales hic fuerunt, et cum diu malum | ministrum in omnia haberent, | nomine
Epaphroditum, vix tarde | eum foras exigerunt. | consumpserunt persuavissime cum
futuere H-S CVS.
163) CIL IV.10677

Apelles cubicularius | Caesar(is) | cum Dextro | pranderunt hic | iucundissime et | futuere
simul
164) CIL IV.10678

Apelles Mus cum fratre Dextro | amabiliter futuimus bis | bina(s)
19
———————
A Final Word

admiror, {o} parie{n}s, te non cecidisse [ruini]s,
qui tot | scriptorum ta[ed]ia sustineas.
20
Commentary
Introduction
One of the most interesting developments in the study of Ancient Roman culture over the past generation has been
the proliferation of editions and studies of Roman graffiti, an area of great human interest that for most of us
generalists was formerly inaccessible due to the peculiar nature of the texts.
What follows is a rather ad hoc selection of graffiti that in some fashion suit the general theme of this collection. I
have focused mainly on Pompeii and on pieces that I felt that I could make some sense of (with the aid of works
such as those cited in the appended bibliography) or ones that posed interesting questions (even if the answers were
not necessarily within my ken).
I make no distinctions between, e.g., graffiti (incised inscriptions), dipinti (inscriptions that have been painted or
written with charcoal), and mosaics. Nor do I offer more than a rough guide for how to translate the particular
graffiti in this selection. Broader instruction in the decipherment of such texts can be found in the works cited in the
bibliography.
I also make only a nod toward situating these pieces in their physical context (relationship to other inscriptions in the
vicinity, to the structures or the physical setting in which they appear, etc.). The latter, in particular, can be a fraught
business: casual allusions in the literature to, e.g., alleged brothels, fullers’ shops, etc. need to be interrogated rather
carefully.1
My goal is simply to encourage students to undertake an initial engagement with such texts, and to get a sense of
what is there and where they might discover more about this field.
Useful general introductions can be found in Courtney, Williams 2010 (App. 4) and 2013, Wallace, Franklin 2007,
Cooley 111-16, 211-13, and (broader) 327-448, Hartnett, and DiBiasie. For those with German, Lohmann’s
comprehensive study (which became available to me only after I had completed this selection) is invaluable.
For a list of common abbreviations employed in the inscriptions, see Wallace 111-14. For a general typology, see
DiBiasie 590 (App. B).
I owe a huge debt to the scholars who work in this field, but in particular to Varone, whose analysis of the erotic
graffiti is much more detailed and authoritative than mine and who also provides detailed bibliography. Spal’s
detailed studies of individual graffiti should also be highlighted: while I do not always agree with his conclusions,
his analyses are always informative and ideally will serve as a model for future work.
Final note re citations: when alluding to graffiti that appear in this selection, I employ the catalogue number in CIL
IV (e.g., 1261). In the case of graffiti not included here, I employ the fuller method of citation: e.g., CIL IV.1842.
[§ — indicates a text discussed elsewhere in this collection]
Background Matters
Roman Currency and Wages
Throughout Classical Antiquity, 1 denarius = 4 sesterces. Prior to 133 BC, 1 denarius = 10 asses; following 133 BC,
1 denarius = 16 asses.
1
More detailed information about the original location of these pieces can often be found on the website:
http://pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/index.htm. For select houses, see Allison’s Pompeian Households: An On-
line Companion.
21
In the following texts, then, 1 denarius = 4 sesterces = 16 asses; 1 sesterce = 4 asses.
The word sestertius is a compound of semis (½) + tertius (third) — a rather curious means of indicating that,
originally, 1 sesterce = 2½ asses (literally: “the third unit = ½”). This came to be abbreviated as H-S, which
represents “IIS(emis)” and was originally presented as “IIS.”
The as is sometimes more formally indicated as as aeris (aes = bronze) or simply as aes (5372 — perhaps).2
1 dipundius = 2 asses.
For citations of currency in the graffiti, see Bailey 154-62.
Standard wages are difficult to estimate, but in the latter half of the 1st C. AD, a daily living wage of 1 denarius is
commonly assumed (graffiti, Seneca the Younger, New Testament). Legionary soldiers were paid at the rate of 2½
denarii per day, with deductions for food and clothing.3 The standard amount of the sportula (the daily dole
provided to a client by an aristocratic patron) was 25 asses (just over 1½ denarii): Martial, Juvenal.
In 1679, a glass of wine ranges from 1 to 4 asses, depending on the vintage. On the other hand, “two asses bought a
loaf of bread that could feed a slave for a day and a half” (Duncan-Jones 244-45; Bailey 155, citing CIL IV.5380).
The standard price for an assignation with a prostitute seems to have hovered around 2-5 asses (with 2 asses being
the most commonly cited figure), but cf. 8357b (10 asses), 1751 and 2193 (16 asses), 8034 (23 asses). (8483 [20
asses] is most likely a joke.) A price of 1 as is not unknown (5372 [?]). See, further, McGinn 40-55 and Appendix 3;
Varone 146-47; Williams 2013: 509-10.
See further, Cooley/Cooley App. 3.
Days of the Month
In this period, the Julian calendar was in place:
• April, June, September, November — 30 days

• January, March, May, July, August, October, December — 31 days
• February — 28 days
Each month was marked by three days, which were still calculated according to the pre-Julian calendar:
• Kalends (Kalendae) — 1st day of each month

• Nones (Nonae) — 7th day of March, May, July, October; otherwise, the 5th (nine days before the Ides,
counting inclusively)
• Ides (Idus) — 15th day of March, May, July, October; otherwise, the 13th (the day before the mid-point of
the month in the period when the typical month had either 28 or 31 days)
Days within a particular month are calculated in reference to the above principal days.
To indicate that something occurred on the Kalends, the Nones, or the Ides, one simply employed the abl. of those
terms along with an adj. indicating the month. Thus, Julius Caesar was assassinated Idibus Martiis.
2
Elsewhere, aes simply = “cash” (e.g., 9839b).
3
McGinn 49-50.
22
Other days were calculated by counting backward from the next principal day (counting inclusively, as was the
practice in Graeco-Roman antiquity). Thus June 15th would be calculated by looking ahead to Kalends of July. Since
June had 30 days, the ancients would have calculated that June 15th was 17 days before July 1st, and so would have
written: XVII Kalendas Iulas (= XVII ante Kalendas of July). The more common abbreviation would be: a.d. (ante
diem) XVII Kal. Iul.
[As for absolute dates: only a couple of the preserved graffiti from Pompeii (out of those that supply such
information) can be dated to later than AD 57 (some twenty years before the eruption of Vesuvius: Milnor 2014: 17
n. 34); the earliest dates to 78 BC (CIL IV.1842). The latest graffito of which I am aware is 10619 (from
Herculaneum), written under the reign of Titus, who came to power on June 23rd of AD 79, only some two months
prior to the eruption of Vesuvius. Dating is more often based on letter forms, contemporary allusions (e.g., 1293), or
other specific features (cf. ad 138: primis). See, further, Lohmann 54-55.]
Gladiatorial Notices
Notices of gladiatorial combats routinely cite individual combatants according to a standard formula:
1. name of contestant
2. the ludus (school, troop), if any, to which he belonged as a slave, or his free status (l, lib, libr)4
3. the number of matches in which he had engaged over his career (sc. pugnarum)5
4. the number of victories (coronarum) he had won (introduced by a retrograde Ɔ)
5. how he fared in that particular match: v = vicit; p = periit; m = missus est
Secondary sources: see esp. Jacobelli 39-106; Garraffoni/Laurence 129-31.
Names / Demographics
As DiBiasie notes (167 n.325), no comprehensive, systematic study has been undertaken of the name-types in the
graffiti or of the individuals named. For a recent overview, see Lohmann 329-51. Della Corte 1965 gathers an
immense amount of material but is often of limited help.
Greek names, in particular, have often been taken to indicate servile or freed status,6 but this not always a safe
assumption, especially in a port-city like Pompeii that enjoyed a strong Greek presence from the 6th C. on and was a
thriving business-center.7 Allison (esp. 56-57 and 67-69) offers some excellent reflections on this issue; see as well
Kajanto, 1965a, Solin 2012. In any case, as Allison notes (loc. cit., citing Andreau), “of the 1216 cognomina which
had been noted in the Pompeian inscriptions [by the mid-1970s], 50% were Greek and 37% were Latin.”8 I have
identified such names as simply “Greek,” although it would generally be the case that (as in the preceding quote)
they would have been regarded as cognomina.
On the names that appear in the Purpose-Built Brothel, see Levin-Richardson 2011: 60-61.
Literacy
The question of who composed and read (or could read) the following selection of graffiti is an immense one. A
good starting point is provided by the various studies in Johnson/Parker (esp. the bibliographic essay by S. Werner).
Most recently, see Lohmann 86-101.
4
In most instances, this should be read as libertus: see ad 1421
5
I assume that these are descriptive gens.
6
As Allison reports (56, citing Treggiari), 70% of the freedmen in Rome had Greek cognomina.
7
On the ethnic, social, and economic diversity of the city’s population, see Campbell 18-20.
8
The best general resource on Greek names in the Roman sphere is Solin 2003. Cf. Wilson 28-29 who notes that Greek names
were frequently assigned to slaves of non-Greek origin (particularly by Greek slave-dealers).
23
Obscenity
The graffiti abound in earthy language, on which the best general guide remains Adams 1982. Determining the
register of many of these terms is difficult, but it is worth noting that the majority are right at home in the epigrams
of Martial and the lead sling bullets employed at Perusia (CIL XI.6721) while absent from Juvenal’s Satires (e.g.,
caco, cunnus, fello, futuo, mentula, paedico, verpa; for Juvenal’s practice, see, e.g., Satire 10.223-24). A handful of
terms seem to represent a still more earthy register (chalo, landicosus, sugo). See esp. Adams 1982: 1-8, 214-25;
Richlin 18-31; Williams 2010: App. 4 and 2013. More broadly: J.M. Ziolkowski, “Obscenity in the Latin
Grammatical and Rhetorical Tradition,” in id., ed., Obscenity: Social Control and Artistic Creation in the European
Middle Ages (Leiden, 1998) 41-59.
Drawings
Clarke’s discussion of visual humor (2007) deals with a number of the graffiti from Pompeii. For a more systemic
general account, see M. Langner, Antike Graffitizeichnungen: Motive, Gestaltung und Bedeutung (Wiesbaden,
2001). Most recently, Lohmann offers interesting comments passim (see esp. 314-27).
Pompeii
1) CIL IV.64.1-4
[Taberna VIII.4.33-34]
[Cooley/Cooley H71; Wallace I.81]
aenia = aēnea (-i- for –ĕ- in hiatus: Wallace xxvii-xxviii)
pereit = perīt = periit [On the use of ei for ī, see Wallace xxiv-xxv: cf. sei for sī (below)] [pereo — to
vanish, disappear, be lost]
sei = sī
si quis — quis = aliquis (after si, non, nisi, ne) [quis here is an indefinite pronoun, rarely employed except in
this context] (A&G 310a)
retulerit — fut. pfct. [A fut. indicative is idiomatic in Latin in the protasis of a vivid fut. conditional clause
(particularly the fut. pfct.: cf. H. Pinkster, The Oxford Latin Syntax 1: The Simple Clause 463-64), where
Engl. employs a generic present]
H-S — sestertii (on Roman currency, see introduction) [H-S LXV = 260 asses (a considerable sum)]
si furem dabit — i.e., if anyone provides information regarding the identity of the thief
unde … possimus — relative clause of characteristic, denoting purpose [unde is the equivalent of ex quo]
rem — property
servare — to recover property, recoup money (legal t.t.: usually of things lent or losses incurred)
XX — sc. dabuntur (Wallace reads XX C IIII) [The last bit of the text, following unde, is in extremely poor
condition]
[cf. Propertius 3.23, Petronius, Satyricon 97]
[Cooley/Cooley note that the graffito is of Republican date]
[Further: F. Cairns, Generic Composition in Greek and Latin Poetry (Edinburgh, 1972) 76-78]
24
2) CIL IV.138
[Block VI.6: House of Pansa (fig. 1) — painted on a pillar on the SW corner, betw VI.6.19 and 20]
[Franklin #78; Cooley/Cooley H74; Wallace I.77]
insula … Mai — the title of the notice: stands apart from the rest of the inscription.
Arriana Polliana — the name of the block (identified by Mau as the House of Pansa, where this notice
appears): named after one Arrius Pollio
Cn. Alleius Nigidius Maius — the owner of the block (for more on this individual, see Franklin 91-96;
Cooley/Cooley D24-29; Jacobelli 44)
ex Kalendis Iulis — from July 1st (Iulis — adj.)
primis — i.e., next, following (“the coming July 1st”) [Since Vesuvius erupted in August of AD 79, and since
this type of painted rental notice was unlikely to remain in place long after the leasing of the building,
Franklin 95 conjectures that the notice could have been posted sometime in the first half of AD 79]
tabernae — shops, workshops, taverns (in this instance, mostly independent of the main domus and habitable)
[VI.6.2, 3, 4-5, 17, 20-21, 22, 23]
pergulis — mezzanine floors within the tabernae (for storage, sleeping, etc.)
cenacula — second-story apartments [External stairways at VI.6.6, 8, 10a, 18, and 19 suggest access to such
apartments in these areas]
equestria — (equester) suitable for a member of the equestrian class; “exclusive,” “elegant” (cf. the use of
praetorium in the sense of “palace,” “grand estate”)
domus — this is likely a plural, in reference to the large first-floor accommodations at VI.6.7, 9, and 10, rather
than the main dwelling (Pirson 172). [Contrast the more modest accommodations at VI.6.14, 15, 16]
conductor — prospective lessee, tenant
convenito — 3rd sg. fut. imperative (convenio — to meet formally with someone to present a request, inquiry,
etc.) [On the fut. imperative, see A&G 449]
Primus — Nigidius’ business-manager (a slave)
[Franklin follows Richardson in noting that much of the block, outside of the main domus, had recently been
remodeled and perhaps even left undecorated to suit the renter’s tastes.]
[Further: F. Pirson, “Rented Accommodation at Pompeii: The Evidence of the Insula Arriana Polliana VI.6,”
in R. Laurence and A. Wallace-Hadrill, eds., Domestic Space in the Roman World: Pompeii and Beyond
(Portsmouth, 1997) 165-81; Milnor 2014: 51-52]
3) CIL IV.317
C. Cuspium Pansam — on this figure, see Franklin 172-73

aedilem — pred. acc. after faciatis (see below) [A&G 393] [The aediles were lower-level officials responsible
for such things as the maintenance of public buildings and the water supply; they also oversaw the running
of the public markets as well as public festivals and games.]
DRP — dignum re publica or dignum rei publicae (pred. — parenthetical)
VASPP — viis aedibus sacris publicisque procurandis: dat. of purpose with the gerundive, to indicate the
function or scope of the aedile’s office (A&G 505b) [“for the maintenance of roadways and the sacred and
public buildings”] [The relevant note in Wallace I.11 requires correction.]
aedilibus — dat. of agent with gerundive
iuvenem probum — (pred. — parenthetical) [the candidates are routinely recommended as fine, upstanding
iuvenes: cf., e.g., CIL IV.7201 (re this same individual)]
25
O (with ligature) = OVF = oro vos faciatis — “please elect” [jussive subj. following oro vos — parataxis]
[Further: Franklin 149-51, 153, 172-73]
4) CIL IV.429
[Wallace I.17; Hartnett #153; Cooley/Cooley F8; Keegan G8.22]

C. Iulius Polybius — a freedman and (likely) a baker. [A large number of electoral notices support a man by
this name. At CIL IV.1050 he is again running for aedile; elsewhere he is recommended for the office of
duovir, possibly — but not necessarily — alluding to the same position (cf. Franklin 9). He is associated
with House IX.13.1-3, on the block where this dipinto was found. For more on this ambitious up-and-comer
and his political affiliations, see Franklin 142-45, 147-48, 203-07]
aedilem — pred. acc. after faciatis (A&G 393) [For the office of aedile, see ad 317]
OVF = see ad 317
fert — for offert/profert
[Electoral graffiti: see Zadorojnyi 118 for relevant bibliography]
[See further: B.J.B. Mayeske, Bakeries, Bakers, and Bread at Pompeii: A Study in Social and Economic History
(diss. U.Maryland, 1972) 70-71.]
5) CIL IV.538
[Shop VII.5.15 (bombed in 1943 and now transformed to provide part of the modern cafeteria). The inscription
appeared beside a doorway, below a depiction of two gladiators (now vanished).]
[Varone p. 25; Cooley/Cooley E26 (an unfortunate translation)]
abiat = habeat (optative subj.) (-i- for –ĕ- in hiatus: Wallace xxvii-xxviii)
Venerem Pompeianam — Pompeii’s guardian divinity [cf. ad 1520.3]
iratam — (pred.) i.e., the wrath of Venus, her curse (cf. ad 7716)
qui = ille qui (suppressed antecedent)
laesaerit = laeserit [fut. pfct. — formed as if from laeso (1)?] [The fut. pfct. here by the same rationale as in
the protasis of a fut. vivid condition: see ad 64 (retulerit)]
6) CIL IV.794
[Found in the caupona/brothel at VII.9.33: above a depiction of a heterosexual coupling, with the woman on all
fours looking back at the young man as she is engaged a tergo (fig. 2)]
[Varone p. 75; Johnson/Ryan #74]
[impello — to push or thrust in (sc. mentulam/verpam)]
[This entry (with the accompanying illustration) provides an ironic contrast to §Lucretius 4.1274-76.]
[Further: Clarke 1998: 258-60]
7) CIL IV.813 [hexameter?]
[Exterior of House VII.11.13, next to the image of a snake, representing the genius loci. Adjacent to (?) a small
street-side cella meretricia (VII.11.12 — J. Hartnett 2008: 117)]
[Courtney 157; Wallace I.96; Hartnett #21]
26
locus hic non est — sc. idoneus (vel sim.)
[This entry seems to attempt a line of hexameter, but requires treating the -i- of ōtiōsīs as a semi-vowel and
reading the word as a trisyllablic (Wallace)]
discede, morator — ironical inversion of the common plea found in epitaphs: consiste, viator (or the like)
[Cugusi 81-82]
[cf. 6641]
[Further: Franklin 1986: 321; Milnor 2014: 58]
8) CIL IV.950
[Shop IX.1.13]
[Varone p. 90]
assido — taken by Moreau to mean, “I defecate” (Adams 1982: 241), which could well be correct: a defiant
taunt against warnings such as those presented in 6641, 7038, 7716. (In that case, ubi is best taken in a
locative sense.) Most commentators, however, associate this dipinto (painted in red) with the image above it
(fig. 3): a bright blue plaque with the raised image of a phallus (painted in red). Translate: “I mount (it)”
[Adams 1982: 165-66]. Cf. CIL IV.2887 and §CIL XI.672.11 — on a sling-bullet from the siege of Perusia:
laxe Octavi, sede [sc. in hoc — accompanied by an image of a phallus].
[As often, it is the simplest of statements that poses the most interesting questions. Who is the speaker imagined
to be? More importantly, what sex are they? And are the plaque and the dipinto to be attributed to a single
author? Given that the plaque is some distance above the ground, it is easy to imagine some wag adding the
inscription in paint, thus transforming a symbol of good luck, prosperity, and jovial spirits into an indication
of the shop-owner’s passive inclinations. But there is also the possibility that we are dealing with a waggish
shop-owner (cf. CIL X.8145).]
9) CIL IV.1189
[Building of Eumachia]
[Cooley/Cooley D21-22; Wallace I.60-61; Hartnett #19 (the illustration provided here does not reflect the
original notice)]
Auli Suetti Certi — along with aedilis, provides the title of the notice. [On the duties of the aediles, see ad 317]
[On Aulus Suettius, see Franklin 163-65]
familia — troupe [Even in a domestic setting, familia suggests, first and foremost, the household slaves. That
this troupe is said to belong to Suettius is somewhat striking: cf. ad 8590 and see Mau 225. The troupe
seems to have belonged to the Ludus Neronianus (Jacobelli 44).]
Pompeiis — locative
pridie (adv.) — on the day before
pridie Kalendas Iunias — i.e., May 31st [On the system of dating employed here, see the introduction to this
chapter.]
venatio — a wild beast hunt
vela — i.e., awnings to shield the crowd from the sun (visible at the top of Fig. 4a and 4b, on which see ad
1293). As Hartnett notes, other notices include references to sprinkled water (scented with saffron) to help
cool the crowd.
[cf. CIL IV.1190, 1191, 7987]
27
10) CIL IV.1261
[Exterior wall of the House of the Tragic Poet (VI.8.5)]
[Varone p. 84]
futuebatur — futuo (3) is the most common obscene term for the male’s role in heterosexual intercourse
(Adams 1982: 118-22, Panciera 214-21): Engl. fuck. The passive is degrading, suggesting weakness, a slave-
like debasement, or a womanly desire to be dominated and possessed by another: cf. ad 2204, 2217, and see
Varone 83 n. 130. For a detailed account of the use of the verb and its derivatives, see Pervis. [Solin raises
the possibility that the initial misspelling of this verb is intentional.]
civium Romanorum … cunnus — likely an attack against a single (male) individual, or a slur against the
Romans in general. [Varone suggests that Romanarum was intended, which seems unlikely: cf., e.g.,
Juvenal 2.9-10: castigas turpia, cum sis / inter Socraticos notissima fossa cinaedos? (“Do you see fit to
castigate unseemly behavior, when you’re the most notorious cunt amid all the Socratic fairies?”)]
attractis pedibus — “with legs drawn up” so as to yield to anal penetration more readily; suggests either
unrestrained intercourse (Martial 11.71.7-8) or forceful violation (Catullus 15.18)
cunnus — presents the anus of the passive male as a vagina (Adams 1982: 116, 121): cf. ad 2257
in qua — sc. re, or qua as a slip for the generic neut. quo (Varone)
veces = voces (“cries”)? vices? (of erotic reciprocation: e.g., Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.35-36)
nisissei = nisi si (the equivalent of nisi) (sei for sī: see ad 64)
dulcissimae et piissimae — on any reading, the latter must be sardonic (“of an utterly devoted and affectionate
sort”). On the reading proposed above, the evocation of lovers giving themselves so passionately to one
another enhances the degradation of the Roman male who assumes the feminine role with such enthusiasm.
[Milnor 2014: 122-24 notes the rhetorical elements in this piece, esp. the use of inquam, which not only
“underscores the paradox of the inscription” but highlights the triumphant persona of the author. D. Fehling
(Ethologische Überlegungen auf dem Gebiet der Altertumskunde: phallische Demonstration, Fernsicht,
Steinigung [Munich, 1974] 22-23) associates the passage with the rape of an adulterer who has been caught
in the act.]
[Further: Panciera 214-17; Solin 2008: 63-64; Zadorojnyi 112-13; Levin-Richardson 2015: 238.]
11) CIL IV.1293
[VI.9.6-7]
[Wallace II.54; Hartnett #33; Keegan G2.15 and 2.16; Cooley/Cooley D42a-b]
Response to a riot in the amphitheater at Pompeii that broke out between local fans and fans from Nuceria in
AD 59, which led the Senate to ban such entertainments at Pompeii for ten years.9 This event is also
commemorated in a well-known fresco (Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, inv. no. 112222: fig. 4a
and 4b) and in Tacitus, Annals 14.17.
Campani — at first glance, our author’s challenge to the Campani would seem to entail a good deal of
braggadocio: he (she?) suggests that, in defeating the Nucerians, the people of Pompeii have demonstrated
their superiority over all of the cities of the region. J.R. Patterson,10 however, follows L. Keppie (PBSR 52
[1984] 81 and n. 31) in detecting a much closer association between the Campani and the Nucerini: Nero’s
settlement of veterans in both Capua and Nuceria in AD 57 (only two years previously) and the newly
established status of both towns as coloniae Claudiae Neronenses. On this view, Campani refers expressly
9
See Jacobelli 106 for a general summary of the affair. There are doubts about whether the ban was actually maintained for the
full ten years.
10
Landscapes and Cities: Rural Settlement and Civic Transformation in Early Imperial Italy (Oxford and New York, 2006) 139-
40.
28
to the people of Capua (the “normal meaning” of the adjective), who fought on the side of the Nucerians
(their former comrades) in the riot (cf. Benefiel 2004: 363 n. 53). W.O. Moeller, by contrast (Historia 19
[1970] 84-95), argues that Campani alludes to a collegium (private club) of Pompeian fans that was
dissolved as part of the punishment imposed by the Emperor. On this reading, victoria bears a much more
pointed — and poignant — significance: their victory has brought about their own dissolution.
victoria — abl. (“with [this] victory”) [causal abl.] [Tacitus confirms that, as one might have suspected, the
Pompeians came out on top in the struggle.]
una cum — along with (una — adv.)
Nucerinis — inhabitants of Nuceria (a town approx. 10 miles east of Pompeii)
peristis — periistis
[Fig. 5 illustrates this graffito along with an image (drawn in chalk) with which it might or might not be directly
related. Keegan’s description of the latter reads: “… to the left, [is] what appears to be a prisoner, bound at
the wrists, dragged away by a rope tied around his neck. To the right of the same image, the artist depicted a
gladiator descending a flight of stairs, holding a palm of victory above his head.”]
[Further: Keegan 36-39; Coolely/Cooley 80-84]
12) CIL IV.1383
[Entrance to caupona VI.11.15]

[Varone p. 81]
Isodorum = Isidorum — Grk. masculine name
aedilem — on this office, see ad 317
OVF = oro vos faciatis (“please elect”)
cunulincet = cunnilingit [on final -et for -it, see ad 1837 (coges)] [For attitudes toward cunnilingus, see ad
1969] [A similar allegation is made against Isodorus at CIL IV.4699, where he is identified (no doubt
maliciously) as a home-born slave (verna) from Puteoli.]
[Parody of a traditional election notice: cf. 317.]
13) CIL IV.1393
[House VI.11.16]
[Wallace II.91]
Kalendas XII Maias — i.e., April 20th [See the introduction to this chapter for the formulas employed here and
in what follows. Normally the numeral would come first: Zangemeister suggests that “K” was initially
omitted, in accordance with colloquial usage.]
Nonis Maiis — i.e., on the Nones of May (May 7th) [Nonis — abl. of time when]
VIII Idus Maias — eight days before the Ides of May (May 8th)
[It is difficult to know what to make of this list, which presents a number of items of clothing (three tunics, a
coverlet or mantle, and a fillet/headband) in the acc. (Wallace xxxv). Perhaps a list of items dropped off or
taken in to be washed? — items supplied by way of payment or pawned? (Similar lists are found elsewhere
on the walls of Pompeii.)]
14) CIL IV.1421
[Notice of a gladiatorial contest. See the introduction to this chapter for the formulas employed here.]
29
[Cooley/Cooley D38; Wallace II.56; Keegan G9.12]
[I have not attempted to reflect the highly stylized, monumentalizing form in which this entry is presented.]
Faustus — a Roman cognomen (Kajanto 1965b: 29, 72-73, 272)
Itaci = Ithaci (from Ἴθακος — a Grk. masculine name)? Iataci (Wallace: cf. CIL IV.4795 [which might
associate Iatacus with betting on gladiators: Wallace II.73], 4796)? Titaci (<— Titacius [nomen])? — in
any case, sc. servus
Neronianus — member of a gladiatorial ludus maintained by the emperor Nero in Capua (Jacobelli 19; Fagan
2014)
ad amphithiatrum = ad amphitheatrum — “at the amphitheater” (Wallace: sc. pugnavit) [-i- for -ĕ- in hiatus:
Wallace xxvii-xxviii]
[Below the main inscription, which is in larger letters, appears the following formulaic notice of a particular
match, which is illustrated]
Priscus — a Roman cognomen (Kajanto 1965b: 29-30, 288)
VI — the number of Priscus’ previous matches
Herennius — a Roman nomen
libertus — [Wallace suggests liber, but cf. Petronius, Satyricon 45 (speech by Echion, the rag-merchant): “et
ecce habituri sumus munus excellente in triduo die festa; familia non lanisticia, sed plurimi liberti.” Cf. as
well D.G. Kyle, Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome, 87-89 and 108 n. 39, Lohmann 350. While the sight
of free-born Romans fighting in the arena might have held some interest, the true marquee figures would
have been the veteran gladiators who had won their freedom and continued to fight. Given the limited
options open to ex-gladiators (who were in many senses regarded as pariahs [infames]), this career-path
likely was attractive to many.]
XIIX — number of Herennius’ previous matches (18)
periit — this outcome appears relatively rarely in the gladiatorial notices in Pompeii (cf. ad 10237)
[Illustration: fig. 6. Center: Priscus: thraex (cf. ad 4342); Herennius: murmillo (cf. ad 8590). Herennius has
lost his shield and holds up his left hand with the index finger pointing up, asking to be spared: to judge by
this notice, the gesture did him no good. To the right, a man in a tunic holding a staff in his right hand: likely
one of the instructors of the ludus (summa/secunda rudis) who employed the staff to ensure that the
gladiators engaged properly. To the left: a man seated on a dais (the editor?); a retiarius (Faustus?); another
instructor]
15) CIL IV.1474
[House VI.12.2]
[Outcome of a gladiatorial contest: illustrated (fig. 7). See the introduction to this chapter for the formulas
employed here]
[Wallace II.58]
Spiculus — [name of a famous gladiator under Nero. These were stage-names that would be employed by a
number of individuals over time.]
Neronianus — cf. ad 1421
tiro — a gladiator newly out of training
Aptonetus = Aphthonetus (a Grk. masculine name: “Bounty”)
libr = libertus [cf. ad 1421]
periit — cf. ad 10237
30
XVI — number of Aphthonetus’ previous matches
[The illustration portrays Aphthonetus as a thraex (see ad 4342) who has fallen to the murmillo Spiculus.]
[House VI.14.43]
[Courtney #94a; Varone pp. 119-20; Johnson/Ryan #132; Spal #10]
[Presented as a single line.]
line 1: nunc — i.e., just now. The poet employs a standard formula found repeatedly in the graffiti (e.g., 2175,
from the Purpose-Built Brothel), but establishes a more vivid setting
futuei = futui (cf. ad 64 [pereit])
formosam — as Spal notes, the abl. is a distinct possibility here (formosa forma — abl. of description)
forma — abl. of specification (although the final –ā must be read as short for the sake of the meter: Spal 114)
[Courtney argues for the reading forte, as — phps. — in the very similar CIL 4.1517, but cf. below ad lutus]
formosam forma puellam — this nicely alliterative phrase recalls the celebration of female members of the
demimonde in Roman poetry. Coming at the end of the line, it takes us out of the world of the common
brothel with its graffiti and into the idealized world of Roman love elegy, only to have us brought back
down to earth in the second half of the following pentameter.
line 2: laudatam — pred. (circumstantial ptcple.): “one who had been praised …”
set = sed [cf. ad 1824.4]
lutus (masc.) = lutum (Spal 116-18): mud, filth — Courtney focuses on the literal significance of this metaphor
(“nasty vaginal secretion”: cf. Appendix Vergiliana Priapeum: quid hoc novi est?, line 37, and see Richlin
26), emphasizing the contrast between the speaker’s naive expectations and the sordid reality that he
eventually encountered. It seems artificial to deny a broader nuance to this coarse detail, however: the
contrast with formosam forma puellam and laudatam a multis — as well as the lack of a detailed physical
description of the woman’s anatomy (contrast the text Courtney compares) — suggests a broader reference
to the woman’s moral character. Cf. Plautus, Persian 406-08: oh, lutum lenonium, commixtum caeno
sterculinum publicum, impure, inhoneste, iniure … (“Oh, you pimp dirt, you public dung-heap mixed with
filth, dirty, dishonest, unjust, unlawful creature …” [W. de Melo, tr.].) Read in this fashion, the couplet
presents a somewhat earthier form of the disillusionment evinced by many a young amator in comedy and
elegy. [Varone 119-20, by contrast, argues for a reference to a form of venereal disease (cf. the adjacent
CIL IV.1517): see as well Evans 163 n. 139. As an alternative, Johnson/Ryan suggest that the woman has
failed to douche after a session with a previous client. Spal suggests an unpleasant substance of some sort
employed as a contraceptive. Again, such gross specificity seems alien to this piece.]
[Further: Williams 2013: 502; Levin-Richardson 2015: 235 (who suggests, somewhat improbably, a reference
to anal sex); Solin 2017: 275]
[House 6.14.43. The same couplet is recorded, in full or in part, at least five other times, four of them in this
same house.]
[Courtney #96; Varone p. 56; Cooley/Cooley D87; Spal #8 — cf. Johnson/Ryan #74 (a somewhat misleading
translation for a North American audience)]
line 1: Candida — the shining, lustrous woman with the dazzling bright complexion [The reference here must
be to the woman’s complexion (an effect often achieved through the use of white lead or other applications:
§Martial 2.41.11-12): used of hair, the adj. suggests the bleached-out hair of the elderly. Note, e.g., the
31
contrast at Ovid, Amores 2.4.39 between a woman with a lustrous complexion (candida) and one who is
blonde (flava).]
docuit — of erotic “instruction” that transforms the young man into the besotted lover, a metaphor that is
common from Plautus on (cf., e.g., Propertius 1.1.5: donec (Amor) me docuit castas odisse puellas, which
provides the model here) [Take docuit as a true pfct. — “has taught me”]
nigras — women with a darker, more common complexion [Note how the contrast with Candida is enhanced
by the placement of nigras right after the caesura.] [There is no suggestion here that the woman is not
Caucasian: cf., e.g., Martial 1.115 and see Spal 96-98 (niger = honey-brown, suntanned).]
odisse — i.e., reject, disdain
[As Spal notes, the echo of Propertius here encourages the further association “candida = noble; nigra =
reprehensible.” This adds a further humorous nuance to the second line of the couplet: much as he would
like to avoid “bad” girls, our poet acknowledges the very real possibility of his doing the opposite. (Cf.
Asclepiades, Anthologia Graeca 5.210; CIL IV.6892)]
line 2: The second line = Ovid, Amores 3.11.35 (the poet speaking of the way in which he is torn between
desire and loathing for the same woman). [Courtney argues that these lines in Ovid are a later interpolation
from a work by an unknown poet. If so, the author of our graffito has had access to that unidentified text]
sei — for si (cf. ad 64) [Spal reads se (= si).]
odero si potero — i.e., I’ll follow her instructions, if I can [On the use of the fut. in the protasis, cf. ad 64
(retulerit)]
sed non invitus amabo — i.e., I’ll not be adverse to loving any woman who catches my fancy. (The lover, it
turns out, is not so enthralled by Candida’s “instruction” as first appeared.) [Ovid reads si for sed —
odero, si potero; si non, invitus amabo — which is much to be preferred and is correctly rendered at CIL
IV.9847. The confusion is easily accounted for: sei —> sed] [See, however, Spal, who argues for the
reading se (= si) here.]
invitus — pred. nom. with adv. force (“against my will”)
line 3: scripsit — i.e., she inspired the poem
Venus Fisica Pompeiana, or simply Venus Fisica / Venus Pompeiana — a particular manifestation of Pompeii’s
guardian divinity that connects her to her pre-Roman Oscan roots: M. Carroll, PBSR 78 (2010); J. Hartnett
2017: 281-83; Lohmann 275. (For further bibliography, see Courtney.) Cf. fig. 8.
[Lines 1-2 constitute a cento: “a poetical work wholly composed of verses or passages taken from other
authors … disposed in a new form or order” (Wikipedia). They cunningly adapt and transform the sense and
context of their exemplars to present a clever and utterly original vignette of their own (Spal).]
[Further: Cugusi 56-57, 74-75; Milnor 2014: 207-08]
18) CIL IV.1574
[House VII.4.31/51]
[Varone p. 164]
Eulale — a Grk. masculine name (voc.) [Eulalus for the more common Eulalius (with which it would easily be
confused in the voc.)?]
valeas — jussive subj.
Vera — fem. form of a masculine cognomen (Kajanto 1965b: 68, 133, 253)
bene futue — the adv. suggests, “under auspicious circumstances,” “happily” (although the reading here is far
from certain: cf. next note)
32
[Panciera reads futui (1st pers. sing.) and finds a strategy typical of Martial’s invective: initial greeting followed
by insult. This reading fails to account for the use of et, however, and the effect of the parallel use of bene.]
[Recalls the happy wishes for the newly united couple typical of wedding hymns, here translated into a more
earthy epigrammatic mode. (Strong suggests the echo of a wedding toast of some sort: cf. F. Cairns, Roman
Lyric: Collected Papers on Catullus and Horace, 264 and n. 12.) Futuo would here seem to be devoid of the
utilitarian and/or abusive masculinist overtones that it so often evinces elsewhere. (Contrast 1751, 2176,
2186, 2188, 2193, 2265.) But uncertainty re the third and fourth lines make it difficult to be certain of the
piece’s import.]
[cf. CIL IV.1573]
[Further: Panciera 210-11; A.K. Strong, Prostitutes and Matrons in the Roman World, 39]
[Entrance to shop VII.6.35]

[Courtney #93a; Varone p. 111; Wallace II.116; Hartnett #158]
line 1: si quis — cf. ad 64
cupiet — on the use of the fut. in the protasis of the conditional clause, cf. ad 64 (retulerit)
violare — taint, pollute, defile: i.e., seduce
line 2: illum — resumptive use of the demonstrative adj., picking up quis in line 1
in desertis montibus — cf., e.g., Manilius, Astronomica 1.75 (tumque in desertis habitabat montibus aurum);
Ciris 518-19 (incultum solis in rupibus exigit aevum, / rupibus et scopulis et litoribus desertis)
urat — optative subj. (“let …,” “I pray that …”) [The implication is that the woman will reject the seducer and
leave him to deal with the pangs of unrequited love.]
[In its flat-footedness, this graffito (variants of which are found elsewhere) demonstrates the potential
weaknesses of the elegiac couplet. As, e.g., in 1516 and 1520, such couplets always promises a surprising
turn at the end — a twist of some sort or a new perspective that will lead the reader to re-evaluate the first
line in some fashion or come to a new appreciation of its significance. Our poet recalls the curses of the
standard defixio, but, unlike 1516, fails to transform his model.]
[An earthier version of this couplet is found on the Palatine in Rome: Varone 111 n. 176, Courtney #93b]
[Lohmann 114 suggests that this prayer is addressed to Mercury, whose image appears just above it. Spal 69
suggests that 1645 and 1649 are by the same hand.]
[House 7.6.35, under an image of Mercury]

[Courtney #87; Varone pp. 61-62; Wallace II.117; Hartnett #157; Spal #5]
[This text, now lost, is something of a palimpsest: see ad line 2.]
line 1: alliget … vetet — jussive subj. [a common pair of adynata: cf. Donne’s “Go and catch a falling star”]
hīc — the pron. rather than the adv., providing the antecedent for quis
auras — i.e., ventos [Courtney notes the allusion to Aeolus in Homer’s Odyssey]
si quis — for this collocution, see ad 64 [here = “anyone who …”]
quis — scanned quīs (ictus?) [Others have proposed custodit, diducit (Propertius 2.7.3), or iurgabit for
obiurgat, presuming a slip of memory on the part of our author.]
33
line 2: Scamander — [Some have regarded Scamander as a cognomen (cf. CIL IV.1647, by the same hand?)
put up after or, perhaps more likely, before our couplet. Spal notes that this word is properly situated within
the line, while assidu- is inserted below, slanting upward toward the right. He proposes that Scamanderas …
fontis aquas is a type of enallage: “the waters of the river Scamander” (recalling Homer, Iliad 21.218-20),
into which assidu- has been inserted as an emendation. This is highly unlikely for a variety of reasons (as
Spal himself notes), not least that the adynata employed here acquire their force from their very
universality.]
assiduas — ever-gushing
currere — to flow
fontis aquas — i.e., a burbling spring
ama — another false start or intrusion
[Spal 69 suggests that 1645 and 1649 are by the same hand.]
21) CIL IV.1679.7-13a (elegiac couplet?)
[Atrium of House VII.2.45]

[Courtney #72; Wallace II.92; Cooley/Cooley H20]
[The notice proper has a decidedly dactylic ring from the beginning, and “glides into a perfect pentameter in
announcing the noble Falnerian” (E.P. Evans: The North American Review 106 [1868] 437 — echoing
Overbeck). Mending the first line entails rather radical methods: e.g., binis meliora dabuntur following the
caesura (Bücheler)]
Edone — Hēdonē (Grk. feminine name: “Delight,” “Pleasure”) [The caupona of the establishment speaks to
us]
dicit — on the implications of this vb. (which places Hedone vividly before us), see Lohmann 277.
assibus — abl. of price [Given what follows, the pl. must either be distributive (“at the price of an as for each
glass”) or perhaps simply metri causa]
bibitur — an impersonal passive (“one drinks”)
dipundium — [dupondius = two asses. See, further, Courtney.]
dederis — fut. pfct. ind. (for the use of the fut. in the protasis of a conditional clause, see ad 64 [retulerit])
meliora — sc. vina (as at the conclusion of this graffito) or regard it as a generic neut. (with adv. force.)
quattus — apparently a contracted form quattussis, a hypothetical variant of the indeclinable quatrussis: four
asses (the equivalent of the Grk. τετράσσαρον). See Courtney for parallels; Solin 2014: 102. [= 1 sesterce]
Falerna — Falernian wine, made from grapes grown in a region located in northern Campania at the foot of Mt.
Massicus; one of the most prized Italian vintages
[It is instructive, in light of this list, that the typical fee charged by a prostitute in Pompeii is 2-5 asses]
[Milnor 2014: 80 points to the contrast between the content of these lines and their location (atrium of a well-
appointed house). Noting the metrical features in the composition, she posits that the composition “probably
represents a quotation from a popular song rather than a real advertisement of goods for sale.”]
[I have omitted text that precedes and follows the quasi-metrical section presented here.]
[Further: Wick 206; Woeckner 81-82; Solin 2013: 332-33]
22) CIL IV.1751
[Above a bench to the left of the Porta Marina, outside of the Suburban Baths]
34
[Varone p. 150; Johnson/Ryan #76 (most likely a mistranslation); Cooley/Cooley D116]
si quis — quis for aliquis (after si, num, nisi, ne): see ad 64
sederit — fut. pfct. (for the use of the fut. in the protasis of a conditional clause — here and below [volet] — see
ad 64 [retulerit])
legat — jussive subj.
qui = quis (as employed at the opening of this graffito) [qui is an indefinite adjective (here used as a pronoun),
rarely employed except in this context: cf. above ad 64]
futuere — note the absolute, impersonal use of the vb. (as often in Engl.)
Atticen — a Grk. female name (suggestive of a cultured sophistication: cf. ad 2178a) [For the form, see A&G
44]
quaerat — jussive subj.
assibus XVI — abl. of price (= 1 denarius, a quite high price: cf. 2193)
[Further: J. Hartnett 2008: 95 and 98, with n. 18; 2017: 200.]
23) CIL IV.1787
[Found in the Basilica]

Epaphra — a Grk. masc. name in the voc. (see ad 1816 and 1926)
penicillum = peniculum — pencil, painter’s brush; sponge; brush for removing dust [Cf. M. Fontaine, Funny
Words in Plautine Comedy, 102ff.]
24) CIL IV.1798

pedicatus — sc. est
qui legit = ille qui hoc legit (suppressed antecedent)
[For insults against the reader, cf. ad 1837b]
25) CIL IV.1816
[Wallace II.34; Keegan G11.45]

Epaphra — a Grk. masc. name (Epaphras) in the voc. (Latin nom. = Epaphra.) Cf. 1926 (with my note), 1787,
2450, and 4259; also cited in CIL IV.1348, 1916, 2374
glaber — bald [The Romans do not seem to have regarded baldness as a mark of wisdom until the Late
Antonine period (P. Zanker, Mask of Socrates 224-25). Prior to that, it was generally regarded as an
indication of decrepitude, servitude, or immorality. Martial’s poems provide ample evidence for the
mocking of balding men: 3.74; 5.49; 6.57, 74; 10.83; 12.45, 89 (cf. Watson/Watson ad 6.74 [their #72]).
See, as well, Petronius, Satyricon 109.9-10 and, for the graffiti, Clarke 2007: 45-47. For an entertaining
collection of anecdotes, see chap. 1 of Kerry Segrave’s Baldness: A Social History]
[On the other hand, glaber could be taken here as reference to depilation: cf. 1830 and, e.g., Martial 9.27. In that
case, it likely connotes sexual passivity: Keegan 267]
[From the Basilica]
35
[Courtney #83; Cooley/Cooley D106; Keegan G1.2; Spal #12]
Chie — Chios (a Grk. masculine name in the voc.): cf. 1852. [As Courtney and Spal note, the name sets up a
clever pun, since Chios = “Chian” (i.e., from the island of Chios, a locale noted for its delicious figs: cf.
below). Whether the writer has an actual individual in mind or is simply offering a clever play on a
“speaking name” cannot be determined.]
tibi — sympathetic dat., to be taken with ut refricent ficus tuae (cf. ad 1824)
uti refricent — ut + subj. following vb. of wishing (A&G 563b) in a construction that recalls an indirect
command [rĕfrico — to gall, fret (someone/thing) (lit. “make sore by rubbing”): se refricent — become
inflamed (whether in the natural course of Chius’ affliction or due to rubbing against one another)]
ficus (4th) — fig-tree, fig; in pl. — hemorrhoids [As Courtney notes, the latter were commonly associated with
excessive indulgence in anal intercourse: cf. Juvenal 2.11-13] [Spal instead suggests that the reference is to
anal warts (an HPV infection).]
ut … ustulentur — result clause [ustulo — to burn partially, char, scorch; cause to smart. Here employed in
the middle voice (A&G 156a): “burn,” “smart”] [See Spal for arguments against a reference to
cauterization here.]
peius — comparative adv.
ustulatae sunt — i.e., previously (sc. cum paedicarere [Courtney]) [The final syllable of ustulatae must be
scanned as short (Courtney, Spal).]
[Further: Kruschwitz 245-46; Keegan 2016: 252-53]
27) CIL IV.1824 (elegiac couplet followed by a pair of dactylic hexameters)
[From the Basilica]

[Courtney #89; Varone pp. 27-28; Cooley/Cooley E39; Wallace II.119; Keegan G11.46; Spal #6]
line 1: quisquis amat — cf. the opening of 4091. [The poem begins with a standard opening gambit (next
note), only to follow it with a shocking and utterly bizarre statement following the caesura.]
veniat — jussive subj. Most readily taken as an invitation to others who have been infected by love and will
support/benefit from the poet’s rebellious response. [Varone argues that the vb. should be read as vēneat
(“let him be sold”) — a curse similar to pereat, which is found elsewhere in this formula. The faulty
scansion, along with the parallel provided by CIL IV.4200, make Varone’s suggestion unlikely (further, Spal
73-74).] [Milnor 2014 notes the frequency with which this introduction (quisquis amat + jussive subj.) is
employed (cf. 2009: 301 n. 34) and, in this instance, regards it as a generic marker — “a signal to the reader
that the author is embarking upon writing an erotic epigram in a ‘popular’ mode.” Cf. Lohmann 282 and n.
1072.]
volŏ — iambic shortening
Veneri — sympathetic dat. (a more vivid equivalent of the gen. of possession) [A&G 377] (The poem plays
with this construction, repeating it in each line in a manner that reinforces the poet’s argument that his
reciprocity against the goddess is justified)
line 2: deae — sympathetic dat.
line 3: pŏtĕst — the scansion here via iambic shortening (Courtney) or due to the omission, in common speech,
of -t in final -st (cf. ad 10195.2 and see Spal 75-77). [It is preferable, however, to read the more poetic si
potis (est) which conveys the same meaning and scans readily — one of many instances in the graffiti of a
writer’s faulty memory.]
mihi — sympathetic dat. [scanned: mihī]
tenerum — “soft,” “delicate,” but also “tender,” sensitive,” and “youthful,” “of tender years” [an adj. generally
used in reference to the female love-interest or of the youthful god Amor]
36
line 4: †quit = quid (“why?”) [The substitution of final -t for -d is, generally speaking, peculiar to Pompeii:
Spal 78.] [This syllable must be long. This lapse has opened the door to such emendations as quidni ego
possim illi frangere fuste caput or qūr (cūr) ego non possim frangere crura deae (both drastic interventions
that restore a pentameter here). It does, at the very least, seem likely that the writer has once again suffered a
lapse of memory, substituting quid for cur. See Spal 81 re parallels for the curious admixture of hexameters
in this piece (most notably, Petronius, Satyricon 34.10: at best, an imperfect parallel). Spal suggests that the
writer might be recording a well-known distich in lines 1-2 but concocting the more problematic lines 3-4 on
his (her?) own.]
non possim — deliberative subj. (Woodcock 173)
illlae = illi (sympathetic dat.) [Note the emphatic opposition betw lines 3 and 4 (heightened by chiasmus): illa
mihi — ego … illae]
frangere fuste — the rounding out of the composition via an echo of the opening lines recalls a common
technique in Martial, although (Spal) a bit ungainly and redundant as presented. (Spal regards this rounding
off as one of several features that associate the last two lines with colloquial speech.)
[Our author offers some poetic/rhetorical refinements that are relatively recherché. Note as well the effective
use of alliteration passim: “v” in line 1, “d” in 2, “p” and “t” in 3, “f” in 4. On the other hand, the absence of
pentameters to complement lines 3 and 4 is curious.]
[cf. CIL IV.4200]
[Further: Milnor 2014: 184-87; Williams 2013: 503]
28) CIL IV.1826
Phileros — a Grk. name (For the termination in -os see A&G 52) [There is phps. a pun in the name: “fond of
love/desire”]
spado — a eunuch [Like eunuchus, spado is a generic term. There were different types of eunuchs in the
ancient world: castrati had their penis and testicles removed; thlibiae had their testicles extracted; thliasiae
had them crushed (J.G. Younger, Sex in the Ancient World from A to Z)]
29) CIL IV.1830 (trochaic septenarii)
[Courtney #84; Varone p. 60; Johnson/Ryan #74]

pilossus = pilosus — hairy, shaggy [The double –ss- reflects the writer’s pronunciation in stressing the long ō]
[cf. CIL IV.3951 (Varone p. 98)]
multo melius — much better [multo — abl. of degree of difference]
glaber — i.e., that of a woman who practices depilation (Courtney) [For what seems to have been a common
preference for the latter, see Richlin 49]
eadem — (abl. — sc. operā) at the same time, in the same fashion (repeated: “at one and the same time it
both … and …”) (= simul … simul [Courtney]) [pronounced as a dissyllable: synizesis]
vapor — heat, warmth
vello — to pull or tug at (i.e., rubs?) [Shackleton Bailey (Phoenix 32 [1978] 322) suggests verrit (brush,
sweep).]
mentulam — along with verpa, the most common slang term in Latin for the penis
[Further: Milnor 2014: 179 (problematic translation)]
37
[From the Basilica]
[Courtney #91; Varone pp. 103-04; Keegan G11.51]
[An intriguing collection that represents the contributions of between four to six distinct hands.]
line 1: non vis — “refuse” [We enter into a lover’s plea that is already in mid-course: “(but) if you are in fact
able (to satisfy my wishes) and simply refuse to do so …” See Courtney for parallels from Vergil and
Ovid.]
<mutua> — supplied from Ovid, Amores 3.6.87-88
line 2: usque (me) cras redire iubes (Courtney compares Tibullus 2.6.20)
usque — continually, repeatedly
line 3: coge — sc. me [ergo coge mori — i.e., you might as well compel me to die as compel me to live
without your favors]
quem sine te vivere — meter demands either quem te sine vivere or sine te quem vivere
coges = cogis (there is freq. substitution of ĕ for ĭ in the personal endings of vbs. Cf. Wallace xxvii, Courtney
ad his #79.1, Adams ad his #16.1, Spal 168)
[This verse is derived directly from Ovid, Heroides 3.140, which our author has not altogether successfully
transformed into a hexameter]
line 4: munus — service, favor, gift [used in particular of the last rites offered to the dead, which must be the
operative sense here: cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.181, Tristia 1.2.52]
cruciasse = cruciavisse (sc. te — “that you have not crucified (me)” / “tormented me with a painful, lingering
death”)
boni — [It is difficult to determine a role for this gen.: the trend is to take it with munus in an objective sense.
(Varone: “the prize for the right action.” Keene: “the reward for the good.” Solin: “sarà il dono di un’azione
buona.”) Perhaps read bonum — “a good man” (i.e., me), or, if the object of cruciavisse is simply
understood, with munus (although in that case one would expect something along the lines of gratum).
Courtney takes boni as a subjective genitive (“the gift of a kind man”), thus marking the speaker as female
(as, e.g., in Ovid, Heroides 3.140 — the model for line 3), but this seems improbable in view of line 2,
which points to the typical male lover of elegy. More tellingly, Milnor 2014 notes (206) that in line 3 the
author seems deliberately to have altered the quam in his model to quem — a point that seems decisive.]
[There is a possibility that lines 4-5 have been added by a second hand, which could account for their peculiar
features: cf. fig. 9.]
line 5: quod — i.e., id quod (suppressed antecedent)
spes eripuit — “hope” in the sense of “false/fond/deluded expectation” (cf. Grk. ἐλπίς): the lover’s foolish
hope, that once promised happiness, is portrayed as having snatched that happiness away
eripuit — translate as a true pfct. or in a gnomic sense (A&G 475)
amanti — substantival use of the ptcple. (dat., with both eripuit and reddit)
[This lone hexameter operates in isolation from the previous verses, introducing an inanely hopeful note that is
utterly at odds with the theme and tone of the preceding couplets. The addition is so inept that it is tempting
to regard this line as the principal motivation for the critical comments that follow. See my remarks ad line 4
(ad fin.) and cf. Wick 226]
b) qui — for ille qui (suppressed antecedent)
qui … leget = qui legit (cf. above ad line 3: coges) [a virtual equivalent of quisquis legit]
nunc quam posteac aled = numquam posthac aliud [aled for alid (= aliud)]
38
legat … sit — optative subj.
numquam posthac aliud legat — Varone (followed by Keegan) attempts to read this as a mark of approbation
(“May he who reads this never have to read anything else”), but this is difficult to extract from the Latin and
odd in its expression. Given attacks against readers elsewhere in the corpus (cf. 7089, 8230: cf. Williams
2010: 293-94) and the further statement, numquam sit salvos (on which, see below), it seems best to take
this as a curse.
[CIL notes that hoc qui legit, numquam posthac aliud legat could be read as an iambic senarius (of an altogether
flat-footed variety)]
nunquam = numquam
salvos = salvus
numquam sit salvus — “may he never thrive” [Varone joins this with c) — where he reads scribet — and
regards the statement as an imprecation against anyone who would deface the verses written above. But the
presentation in CIL makes it clear that c) is by another individual who, quite reasonably, felt that this second
curse read awkwardly. Accordingly, c) shifts the focus of this curse away from the reader and onto the
author of the verses. (CIL does note the possibility that numquam sit salvos itself is by yet another hand,
composed independently of what precedes it: cf. fig. 9.)]
c) [appended to the comments in b) by another party]
[Varone contests the tense of scribo here, but the pfct. seems most likely. Cf. Lohmann 274-77.]
[Many more recent edd. take the latter part of b) [numquam sit salvos] and c) as by the same hand. I follow the
original CIL publication: cf. fig. 9 and see Keegan 2011: 186 n. 8]
d) [a fourth party adds his/her approval]
[There are further contributions to this particularly crowded collection of offerings that I have omitted since
they address unrelated matters.]
[Further: Keegan 2011: 171; Solin 2017: 268]
31) CIL IV.1852 (embedded senarius?)
[From the Basilica]

[Cooley/Cooley D103; Wallace II.6; Keegan G1.1]
Pyrrhus — a Grk. name
Chio — Chios (a Grk. name) [cf. ad 1820 (also from the Basilica)] [Keegan is incorrect about the form of
Chios’ name here: the form that I have cited (as opposed to the more common Χίων) is attested as early as
the mid-4th C. BC. Treated in Latin as a regular 2nd decl. noun: Chius.]
collegae (dat. sg. masc.) — colleague (in office), associate (in any capacity) [sc. suo]. [The formality of this
term could be taken to suggest a satirical tone to this salutation (see Milnor 2014: 163 and cf. below), but
there is evidence of its use in common slang (Petronius, Satyricon 29.2).]
sal(utem dicit) — “greetings” [The opening echoes the salutation of the typical letter: SENDER (nom.)
ADDRESSEE (dat.) sal. — sal. is often abbreviate as S.D.]
moleste fero — i.e., I am distressed, grieved

quod audivi — “at the fact that I have heard” [On this use of quod, see A&G 540]
te mortuum (esse) — acc. + inf. following vb. of perception
[moleste fero … mortuum can be scanned as an iambic senarius (with the scansion: fĕrŏ)]
itaque vale — there is a dignity to this unpretentious conclusion that recalls that of Catullus’ epitaph for his
brother: in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale (101.10). The speaker presents his grief in a very personal but
39
unadorned fashion, implicitly acknowledging that death is a universal absolute before which one can say
nothing.
[Many, however, take the graffito as a witty jeu d’esprit (Milnor 2014: 167-68), based on the absurdity of
wishing good health (salutem) and prosperity (vale) to someone who has just died. Another key point at
issue is the tone of moleste fero (Keegan 2016), a favorite expression of Cicero which could be taken as, “I
am annoyed.” Cf., however, Seneca, Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium 63.1 where the expression is employed
of a death that the speaker regrets, but that he refuses to mourn plus aequo [more than is due/appropriate],
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium 67.13, and Pliny 3.21.1 (audio Valerium Martialem decessisse et moleste
fero). Given that the body of the text can be read as a verse epitaph, the graffito seems better taken as a study
in formal understatement than as a joke. On the other hand, if the author who wrote this selection could be
associated with 1820 (also addressed to an individual named Chios), the derisive nature of the piece would
be confirmed.]
[An example of a truly snarky 2nd-person address is provided (most likely) by CIL IV.1593: Milnor 2014: 168,
Lohmann 112.]
[Further: Keegan 2016: 249-55]
32) CIL IV.1854
[From the Basilica]

Calliste — a Grk. name: masc. voc. sg. or, less likely, fem. voc. sg.
[devoro — consume eagerly, devour, gulp down] (an object is readily provided) [cf. Adams 1982: 138-40]
[From the Basilica]

[Varone p. 155]
[prehendo — to seize in an amorous embrace]
cocuam = coquam? (pronounced as a trisyllable) [The text is unclear. Others read servam, which has the
advantage of suiting the meter more readily: Wick 216]
cum + fut. ind. is regular when referring to fut. time. (One might have expected the pres. ind., in the sense of
“whenever”)
ūtī — pres. inf. of utor (sc. eā) [The impersonal nature of the expression is demeaning: Adams 1982: 198]
licet — sc. tibi
34) CIL IV.1864
[From the Basilica]

[Wallace II.36]
Samius — a Grk. masculine name
Cornelio — a Roman nomen
Samius Cornelio — sc. dicit (echoing the salutation of a letter: cf. 1881 and see ad 1852) or (next n.) a vb. of
commanding
suspendere — either 2nd sg. pres. imperative (refl.) [“go hang yourself”], or the act. inf. employed as an
imperative (refl. sense) [Wallace], or sc. te (assuming, rather loosely, a vb. of commanding in the main
clause) [For the last, Diehl compares Seneca, De ira 3.23.2; Plautus, Bacchides 903, Captivi 636, Persa
815, Poenulus 309, 311, 746, Pseudolus 1229; Terence, Andria 255]
40
35) CIL IV.1880 [embedded pentameter]
[From the Basilica]
[Cooley/Cooley D104; Wallace II.175]
Luci Istacidi — voc. (Lucius Istacidius) [Istacidius is a nomen of Oscan origin attested only in Pompeii. The
family would appear to have been of some importance: several of its members, or its freedmen, appear in the
epigraphic record] [cf. ad 1926 re Epaphra]
at = ad [ad quem — at whose house (the antecedent of quem is supplied by the following ille): “That man at
whose house I do not …”] [For at, cf. ad 1824.4]
ille — resumptive use of the demonstrative pronoun
mihi — “in my eyes,” “so far as I’m concerned” (dat. of judging: A&G 378)
[The body presents the second line of an elegiac couplet.]
[Either a reproach against the wealthy patron Istacidius or, more probably, a complaint presented to a
presumably sympathetic ear (as often in Martial). Recalls Martial as well in its trenchant brevity. Presents a
witty play on the notion of dining practices as an essential cultural marker: “That man at whose home I
never dine, I regard as a foreigner, crassly ignorant of basic Roman cultural norms.” Contrast CIL IV.1937.]
[See further: Fagan 1999: 18-19; A. Dalby, Food in the Ancient World from A to Z, s.v. “Barbarian”; V.
Grimm, From Feasting To Fasting: The Evolution of a Sin, 3]
36) CIL IV.1881
[From the Basilica]

[Varone p. 52; Spal #13]
Virgula — a fem. cognomen (Kajanto 1965b: 337)
Tertio — a Roman cognomen (Kajanto 1965b: 29-30, 74-75, 292)
Virgula Tertio suo — sc. dicit (echoing the salutation of a letter: cf. ad 1852)
indecens — ugly, unattractive [This translation seems more pointed, and therefore more likely, than Varone’s
“loathsome” (i.e., improbus). See, however, Spal, who attempts to tease out a possible connection between
this piece and 1882.]
[A relatively rare instance of a female voice: unless, or course, this is another example of what Williams calls
“ventriloquism” — the appropriation of another’s voice by (in this instance) an anonymous male rival.]
[The Basilica]
[Courtney #81; Varone p. 122; Johnson/Ryan #82; Keegan G11.49; Spal #13]
accensum — “a boy or man who has been inflamed (with desire? with anger? with hemorrhoids? with a
venereal disease?)” [accendo — “to kindle,” “set ablaze,” “light up”; (of emotions) “inflame,” “arouse.”]
pedicat = paedicat (cf. ad 2210)
[The interpretative challenge posed by this passage is enhanced by the fact that accensus is also a military term
for a type of supernumerary: Shackleton Bailey, Phoenix 32 (1978) 321; Courtney; Williams 2010: 314 n.
69. (See Brill’s New Pauly s.v. — “Originally, the accensi … were members of the army who were too poor
to equip themselves. … After the introduction of pay for soldiers … the term accensi described a small, little
respected part of the troops that was recruited after the regular soldiers and was restricted to administrative
41
duties. In the 4th cent. AD they were called supernumerarii …” [Y. Le Bohec].) Wick 222 takes it that these
were boys. Spal, on the other hand, suggests the possibility that the influence enjoyed by these underlings,
who fostered personal ties with the officials to whom they were assigned, became proverbial. In that sense,
this piece would be translated, “Fuck with an accensus and you’ll get burned!”]
[I have not found evidence for the word’s use as a proper name (Zangemeister): see Kajanto 1965a: 455 and
Spal 145-46.]
[On venereal disease, cf. ad 1516 (lutus). In this instance, the connection to disease is still less likely — cf.
Wick 222 (comparing 1820): “accensum podicem eumque ficosum ob eamque rem ustulatum … intellegere
in promptu (est). I.e., the ancient reader would think first of an anus that was irritated by overindulgence in
passive sex, inflamed, and plagued by hemorrhoids.]
[In the end, this piece is likely built upon a humorous play with the metaphor of the lover “inflamed” with
passion. As often in the graffiti, it offers a witty apercu that does not admit of much serious reflection.
Alternatively, it could allude to the intense delights of sex with a compliant youth (cf., e.g., Martial 3.65) or,
in a comic vein, the demands placed on a lover by such youths. (One thinks of Petronius’ tale of the
Pergamene boy: Satyricon 85-87.)]
[Further: Williams Milnor 2014: 177-78]

[Varone p. 58]
bellus — excellent, fine, admirable, smart — but also, “sexually active,” “louche” (cf. Martial 2.7, 3.63, 12.39,
and see ad 8259b) [Cf. Wick 216]
qui — i.e., ille qui
amavit — as opposed to the vulgar triumphalism evident in so many of the graffiti, this author celebrates the
emotional experience of engaging in a love affair (Translate as a true pfct.)
adulescentulus — pred. (i.e., while still a youth)
[The Basilica]
[Courtney #80; Spal #14]
qui — suppressed/delayed antecedent (supplied later in the line: illum)
verpam — Spal is correct to reject the notion that this recalls a proper name (Verpus?) or nickname (an
interpretation promoted by earlier comm. based on the false reading visit). See, however, Lohmann 331 n.
1189.
vissio — to fart softly (Adams 1982: 249). Here = caco — shit out (transitive); cf. Priapea 69.4, CIL X.8145
(hanc [mentulam supra pictam] ego cacavi), with Courtney and Williams 2010: 317 n. 90. [Employed for the
sake of alliteration.]
cenasse = cenavisse
illum — supplies the antecedent for qui (the delay gives the demonstrative a resumptive/emphatic force: “so far
as the man is concerned who … just what are you to think that this man has eaten?”)
putes — deliberative subj. with indef. 2nd person (“what are you to think”)
[A crude piece that simultaneously denounces both anal sex and fellatio between males.]
[Further: Milnor 2014: 177-78]
42
40) CIL IV.1926
[Keegan G9.14]
Epaphra — Epaphras: a Grk. masc. name in the voc. (see ad 1816)
pilicrepus — person involved in ball-games as a scorer/referee [pila — ball (made of colorful pieces of cloth);
crepo — to rattle off, utter rapidly or repeatedly: cf. Seneca, Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium 56.1 and Martial
5.19.14 and 14.46.] Other allusions to this figure at CIL IV.1147, 1905, and VI.9797 (a wonderful mock-
dedication in iambic senarii to the ball-player Ursus Togatus)
[For Epaphra, cf. ad 1816; for his connection to this game, see CIL IV.1936 and Benefiel 2008. Based on an
overlap in the names cited in CIL IV.1936 and X.910 (first half of the 1st C. AD), Benefiel identifies
Epaphra as the esteemed slave of an influential woman named Istacidia (see ad 1880)]
[It is tempting to search for a secondary, obscene nuance to this statement — modern slang involving “scoring”
and “balls” comes readily to mind — but it is best taken as a literal criticism.]
[This graffito was struck through in antiquity by someone who evidently did not appreciate its content.]
41) CIL IV.1938
[From the Basilica]

[Varone p. 88]
amatur —the reading is secure, but the logic is puzzling. (“When your cock commands, the loving starts”?
[asyndeton] Or are we to read ametur? — impersonal passive of the jussive subj., in parataxis with iubet:
“bids you that you get on with the loving”); perhaps, rather, amator (voc.), with iubet in an absolute sense
(“gives the orders”)?
[The personification of the male member is common: Adams 1982: 29-30]
42) CIL IV.1940
[From the Basilica]

[Varone p. 90]
Arescusa — a Grk. feminine name (“she who pleases”) [In this case, very much a “speaking name” — cf. ad
2178a]
sumsit = sumpsit [+ dat. of refl. pron. — to assume possession of, take (esp. in reference to a kiss, embrace,
etc.)] [sibi — dat. of interest/advantage (intensive/emphatic force with sumpsit)]
casta — pred. (with adv. force, reinforcing prudenter) [Both are humorously at odds with the import of the
graffito as a whole: “Joy chastely and discretely received … my cock.”]
muthunium = mutunium / mutonium (penis: vulgar) [Adams 1982: 62-63; Spal 37-38, 40-42]
[Inverts the perspective presented in 794.]
[Others take casta in apposition to Arescusa, translating, “a/the virgin.” In that sense, the piece offers a comic
scene of a girl’s first (illicit) sexual liaison, or (Krenkel 2006b: 192) of her pleasuring herself with a dildo.]
[This piece has a decidedly literary cast to it but does not seem to be in verse.]
43) CIL IV.1969
Lais = Grk. female name with strong associations with prostitution: cf. §Martial 11.104.21-22.
43
fellat — Both fellatio [Adams 1982: 130-36, Krenkel 2006a, Kamen/Levin-Richardson 2015a: 239-42] and
cunnilingus [Adams 1982: 134-36, Krenkel 2006c] were regarded as degrading activities, to be performed
only by the debased or the utterly debauched (Williams 2010: 218-24; cf. Panciera 75-115).11 [For other
references to fellatio, see Varone 77 n. 114.]
assibus II — abl. of price
44) CIL IV.2021

[In VII.11.11-14]
[Varone p. 66]
Dionysius — a Grk. masculine name (as often, this presents the subject of the graffito in the nom., separated
from the syntax of the main statement)
qua hora = illa hora qua (abl. of time when, with suppressed antecedent)
volt = vult
licet — sc. ei
chalare = futuere. A Latin inf. derived from the Grk. χαλάω (“to make slack or loose”): Adams 1982: 172-74.
[Cf. χαλάζειν (J. Henderson, The Maculate Muse, 2nd ed., 177)] [It is a sign of the times that, whereas
earlier comm. balked at discussing the specific meaning of this term, it is now possible to cite parallels from
the lyrics of songs featured in Top 40 countdown shows.]
[As often, we are presented with a boastful celebration of the male’s sexual liberty and, it is implied, potency —
an odd stance given that these pieces so often assume the context of commercial sex (Levin-Richardson
2011)]
45) CIL IV.2048

Secundus — a cognomen that appears frequently in the graffiti (Kajanto 1965b: 29-30, 74-75, 292; DiBiasie
167 n. 325)
pedicaud = paedicavit (cf. ad 2210)
pueros — likely freeborn boys (vs. slaves). [The violation of free-born males constituted a form of stuprum
and was both shameful and punishable by law: see E. Fantham, EMC 10 (1991) 267-91]
lucle nti s — the last section, presented on a separate line and in the same hand, is obscure. Varone proposes
lugentis (“as they wailed”), with which one might compare CIL IV.4977 (Varone p. 75): Quintio hic | futuit
ceventes | et vidit qui doluit (which Varone translates as, “Quintius has here penetrated waggling buttocks
and seen the pain that he caused.”). This parallel suggests that a boastful and rather sadistic Secundus is the
author of our piece. The latter part of 4977 is better taken as a reference to a jealous onlooker, however:
“… that one saw who was vexed.” In our passage, Solin 2014: 102 reads luc(u)lentis(simos) [“altogether
beautiful” — cf. Plautus, Miles Gloriosus 958; Martial 2.86.4; Apuleius, Metamorphoses 10.30.3].
46) CIL IV.2145
[Found in a cubiculum of inn VII.12.35]

[Varone p. 67; Keegan G11.39]
11
D. DePierre’s self-published work, A Brief History of Oral Sex (Jefferson, N.C., 2017), offers a broad (if not altogether reliable)
historical overview.
44
Valerius Venustus — Roman nomen and cognomen (On the latter, cf. Kajanto 1965b: 64, 73, 86, 283; DiBiasie
297 n. 662)
[cohors — division of an army: the tenth part of a legion, comprising three manipuli or six centuriae]
I = primae
praetoriae — praetorian cohort: bodyguard attached to a general
centuriae — see above
Rufi — centurion in charge of Venustus’ century
fututor — according to Varone, a second hand seems to have added ul here, generating the insulting/dismissive
diminutive fututulor, which comically undercuts the final word. Solin 2014: 103 detects a mere mistake in
the spelling of fututor.
maximum — for maximus [cf. perfututor in 4239]
47) CIL IV.2146
[Cubiculum in Caupona VII.12.35]

[Varone p. 21; Wallace II.124 and p. xx; Hartnett #52]
Vibius Restitutus — Roman nomen and cognomen [for the latter: Kajanto 1965b: 356]
solus — pred.
Urbanam — fem. form of a Roman cognomen [for the latter: Kajanto 1965b: 311]
desiderabat — Varone notes the poignant contrast with the pfct. indicative earlier in the line. [Hartnett notes
the very dissimilar attitude associated with a Restitutus at 5251]
Selections 48-71 are from the Purpose-Built Brothel (VII.12.18): CIL IV.2173-2296
48) CIL IV.2175
[Varone p. 67; Cooley/Cooley D118; Keegan 11.35]

ego — the emphatic, boastful tone struck here (reinforced by the inclusion of the adj. multas) is common in
such graffiti (Levin-Richardson 2011). Cf., e.g., 2021, 2145, and 2188.
multas — the word-order is also emphatic: multus tends to precede its noun.
49) CIL IV.2176
Felix — a common Roman cognomen that appears frequently in the graffiti (DiBiasie 167 n. 325) but also
associated with aristocrats (e.g., Sulla) [Kajanto 1965b: 29-30, 72-73, 272]
futuis — the use of the 2nd person brings a vividness to the text: cf. Varone 83-84 and n. 132
[Determining the authorship of these pieces and perspective from which they are to be read is often the trickiest
element in interpreting the graffiti. This one was quite likely written by Felix himself. For other such
complements, cf. 2186, 2274, and see Varone 84 n. 132]
[Further: Levin-Richarson 2009: 150-51]
45
50) CIL IV.2178
Facilis — a Roman cognomen (cf. CIL IV.2276, 10234) [Kajanto 1965b: 24, 256]
futuit — [in addition to the nature of the vb. itself (cf. ad 1261), the lack of an object (common in the graffiti)
results in a particularly impersonal and utilitarian tone]
51) CIL IV.2178a
Nica — a Grk. female name (Νίκη — “Victory”), likely that of a prostitute (cf. 2278). (On prostitutes’ use of
“stage” names, see L.K. McClure, Courtesans at Table: Gender and Greek Literary Culture in Athenaeus
59-78, and note, e.g., the Medusa of 4196.)
Creteissiane — from Crete (?) [fem. nom. sg.]. (Denominative adjs. are frequently employed in such adverts to
suggest an exotic foreignness or an attractive feature of the sex-worker’s character: cf. 1751, 8792a,
8475 [?])
Solin 2008: 67 instead reads:
nica, C(h)re(s)te issime
which would yield something along the lines of, “long may you live, Chrestus, your very self” [A.E. Cooley and
B. Salway: JRS 102 (2012) 252].
nica = Grk. νίκα (2 sg. imperative of νικάω — “prevail”) [employed as a cry to cheer on a favorite in the
nd
arena/circus/theater (= vincas!): cf., e.g., Année Épigraphique 1985: 288.]

Chreste — a Grk. masculine name in the voc.
issime = ipsime (superl. voc. of ipse — cf. Petronius, Satyricon 69.3). R. Ferri (BMCR 2009.02.50) argues that
this should be taken in the sense of “master.”
52) CIL IV.2183
[VII.12.18]
[Cooley/Cooley D43; Wallace II.61: fig. 10]
Puteolanis — inhabitants of Puteoli (a harbor-town approx. 20 miles west of Pompeii) [See Benefiel 2004]
feliciter — “good fortune,” “my best wishes” [See A. Clark, Divine Qualities: Cult and Community in
Republican Rome (Oxford and New York, 2007) App. 5]
Nucherinis = Nucerinis — inhabitants of Nuceria (on the town, and on the well-documented riot, in Pompeii’s
amphitheater, between local fans and those from Nuceria, see ad 1293)
felicia — n. acc. pl. of felix (“blessings”) [contrast CIL IV.1329]
uncum — hook employed to drag off the dead bodies of executed criminals (cf. Juvenal 10.66-67)
[The above accusatives likely understand an expression such as di dent (“may the gods grant”)]
Petecusanis = Pithecusanis — inhabitants of Pithecusa (island about 20 miles southwest of Naples, now known
as Ischia)
[The words et uncum Pompeianis have been added in a different hand. To this was then added (in a third hand?)
Petecusanis, in the line below. The last writer might have intended to add another noun that would inform
Petecusanis, or perhaps was simply offering a term to replace Pompeianis. (Cf. fig. 10. Earlier edd. see only
two hands here and assign et uncum … Petecusanis to a single author.) See Benefiel 2004: 357]
[cf. 1261]
[Further: Cooley 114-15]
46
53) CIL IV.2184
Phoebus — a Grk. name [See Williams 2010: 185-86 and 297. The name appears in some 28 graffiti; this is
one of four found within a single cella of the Purpose-Built Brothel. Cf. Williams 2013: 509.]
unguentarius — retailing of any sort was regarded as a lowly profession. The association of perfumes with
effeminate luxury made it an easy trade for the elite to despise; the lucrative nature of the trade made it a
particularly useful target for satirists and others concerned with the threat of upward social mobility: cf.
Brun 277-78, 281-82, 301-02.
optume — optime
futuet — for futuit (cf. ad 1837 [coges])
54) CIL IV.2186
[Cooley/Cooley D119; Keegan G11.37]

Sollemnes = Sollemnis — a Roman cognomen [Kajanto 1965b: 221]
futues — for futuis (cf. ad 1837 [coges]) [For the sentiment (repeated in CIL IV.2185), cf. ad 2176]
[Further: Franklin 1986: 325]
55) CIL IV.2188
Scordopordonicus — a humorous (Grk.) pseudonym (“Garliquefarticus” — Levin-Richardson 2011). Garlic

was routinely employed to goad on fighting cocks and was regarded as a potent aphrodisiac (Csapo 115-20):
it was thus directly associated with an earthy, unadorned masculinity. Farting was commonly associated
with a triumphal exuberance, esp. in the face of authority (Major 550-51 [on farting in Aristophanic
comedy]). [On the use of such comic compounds in popular language, see B. Boyce, The Language of the
Freedmen in Petronius’ Cena Trimalchionis 56.]
illum quem voluit — i.e., anyone (of either gender). [Adams, ZPE 82 [1990] 243-44; cf. id. 1982: 121]
Suppressed antecedent. [A rather odd boast to make in an establishment that was specifically devoted to
providing inexpensive sexual encounters to all comers: cf. 2021, 2265]
56) CIL IV.2192
[Cooley/Cooley D120; Keegan G11.36]

XVII K(alendas) Iul(ias)— i.e., June 15th [On the formula employed here, see the introduction to this chapter.]
Iulias — adj. agreeing with Kalendas
Hermeros … Philetero … Caphiso — Grk. names (Hermerus, Philetaerus, Cephisus). For the termination in -os
see A&G 52. [The form Caphisus would appear to be Doric: Lohmann 341 n. 1232.]
Hermeros — on this figure, see Franklin 1986: 324-25
cum Philetero et Caphiso — i.e., they came to enjoy the services of the brothel in each other’s company (not to
have sex with one another!): Adams 1982: 121, Panciera 217-20. [Cf., e.g., 2450, 10677, 10678; see,
however, ad 2193. Further: Williams 2010: 429 n. 40, 2012: 145-46]
57) CIL IV.2193
[Varone p. 150]
Arphocras — i.e., Harpocras (an Egyptian masculine name). Cf. 2400.
47
cum — [the use of cum + abl. (vs. the expected acc.) is atypical (Panciera 217-20: cf. above ad 2192) but not
unprecedented: see R. Taylor, Journal of the History of Sexuality 7 (1997) 357 and n. 130. (Absolute uses of
the prepositional phrase [2310b, 4087] offer no parallel: cf. 8792a, 9246b.)]
Drauca — name of Celtic origin (Kajanto 1965a: 458)
denario — abl. of price. (exceedingly high). [On prices, see the introduction to this chapter: a denarius equals a
typical laborer’s daily wage. See Williams 2010: 297 and n. 43, who notes that the word denario might be a
later addition by another hand]
58) CIL IV.2204
Μολα φουτουτρις — Mula fututrix. [The use of Grk. characters to transliterate a Latin phrase says a great deal
about the make-up of the brothel’s clientele: see Solin 2012 and cf. 2270, 8384. For the opposite procedure
(Grk. transliterated into Latin), see 2425.]
Mula = “She-mule” [Here likely a professional name (suggesting a stubborn endurance?), although elsewhere
(Solin 2012: 103; 2014: 96 and 104) it is a term of abuse.] [See, however, Kamen/Levin-Richardson 2015a:
250, who suggest a play on mola = “grindstone”]
φουτουτρις — the term fututrix (“fucktress” — cf. 4196 and see Levin-Richardson 2013, Kamen/Levin-
Richardson 2015a) presents a humorous contradiction: it implies active agency on the part of the woman,
but alludes to an act in which she is generally assumed to be the passive recipient of the dominant male’s
phallic attentions. (Commentators cite Priscian, Partitiones: interpretationes grammaticae 67 and
Institutiones: de participio 2.556.) This might be a term that one of the sex-workers appropriated for her own
use, in a bid to establish her own agency and dignity, but it was more likely written as a joke by one of the
male clients, indicating that Mula displays an aggressive and shameless enthusiasm for sex (cf. amatrix at
Plautus, Asinaria 511). In the latter case it is demeaning, the equivalent of the Engl. “hot little whore.”
[Further: Levin-Richardson 2013; Kamen/Levin-Richardson 2015a; Pervis 49-51; Lohmann 94 and n. 386]
59) CIL IV.2210
[Varone p. 131]
pedicare = paedicare [To penetrate someone (male or female) anally (Adams 1982: 123-25; Kamen/Levin-
Richardson 2015b). From the Grk. παιδικός (“of, for, like a boy”) — initially associated with the Grk.
practice of pederasty. While the practice did not necessarily bring shame on the active partner (assuming that
the act did not involve the violation of a freeborn citizen), it was felt to reduce the passive partner to a
debased, servile, and (in the case of males) effeminate status. (For paedicare in a heterosexual context, cf.
my remarks on §Martial 11.104.17. In the graffiti from Pompeii, however, the passive partner is generally
male: see Panciera 180 and cf., e.g., 2048.) That the speaker proclaims this desire in such general terms
suggests both randiness and a general lack of concern for the identity of his partner.] [For other instances of
paedicare in the graffiti, see Varone 137 n. 229; Panciera (loc. cit. below).]
[Further: Williams 2010: 297; Panciera 179-88 (esp. 183-84)]
60) CIL IV.2217
[Varone p. 83]
fututa sum — the use of the 1st-person fem. passive here is striking, both because women’s voices are so rarely
heard in this context and because of the nature of the claim. It is possible that this graffito was put up by one
of the sex-workers as a way of mocking the proud claims of her clients (Levin-Richardson 2013). It is
equally possible that it represents a jest by one of those clients.
[fututa also appears at CIL IV.2006 and 8897 (Pervis 48 n. 13)]
48
[Further: Adams 1982: 120; Buonopane; Levin-Richardson 2009: 169-70; Williams 2010: 297 and 2013: 509;
Lohmann 345]
61) CIL IV.2246 (trochaic septenarius?)
[Varone p. 86]
cum + ind. in a purely temporal clause (= ubi)
redei = redī = redii (cf. ad 64: pereit)
domi — for domum
[A curiously business-like/pedestrian notation — by a man who likes to be meticulous about his doings! And
yet both its phrasing and the rhythm suggest that the author is aiming at a trochaic septenarius (hīc ĕgō cūm
vēnī fŭtŭī || deīndĕ rēdĭī dŏmī — note the line-break at the diaeresis), which establishes an interesting
tension between the banal and utterly inconsequential content, on the one hand, and the form, on the other.
Cf. Diehl #614.]
62) CIL IV.2257
Froto — Fronto (Roman cognomen)

plane — absolutely, without a doubt [This is often printed as a proper name (Plani — gen. of the nomen
Planius): Fronto the slave of Planius? Fronto licks Planius’ cunt? (cf. 1261)]
[For Roman attitudes toward cunnilingus, see ad 1969. For other references to cunnilingus in the graffiti, see
Varone 83 n. 129]
[The reading following Plani is highly uncertain and tentative.]
[Further: Williams 2013: 509]
63) CIL IV.2259 / 2275
Fortunata — a name that appears frequently in the graffiti; not necessarily that of a prostitute (DiBiasie 193 and
n. 395). Cf. below: 8034, 8185, 10005. (Fem. form of a Roman cognomen.) [Kajanto 1965b: 29-30, 72,
273]
fellat — on Roman attitudes to fellatio, see ad 1969.
64) CIL IV.2265
Placidus — a Roman cognomen [Kajanto 1965b: 262]

quem voluit — cf. ad 2188
65) CIL IV.2270
Λιβεραλις = Liberalis: a Roman cognomen transliterated into Grk. characters (cf. ad 2204) [Kajanto 1965b:
68, 220, 256]
[Further: Lohmann 93 n. 383]
66) CIL IV.2273
49
Murtis = Myrtis — a Grk. female name (cf. 2292)
bene fellas — as opposed, e.g., to 2176, we can assume that this was not composed by the subject of the graffito
herself. [On Roman attitudes to fellatio, see ad 1969]
67) CIL IV.2274
bene valeas — optative subj. (“may you fare well”) [Good wishes directed toward the reader are employed in
statements of various kinds in the graffiti, from innocuous encouragement (as here) to implicit threats
(6641).]
qui bene futues — the rel. clause has a limiting force: a virtual condition [Bene here in the sense of
“happily”? — cf. ad 1574]
futues = futuis (cf. ad 1837 [coges])
[A cheerful adieu from a convivial and well-satisfied client? More likely a play on the more traditional, quisquis
amat valeat (cf. 4091). Cf. CIL IV.2260 and 2274.]
68) CIL IV.2278
assibus IIIII: abl. of price

Nice — for the name, cf. ad 2178a
fellat — on Roman attitudes to fellatio, see ad 1969
69) CIL IV.2279
assibus II: abl. of price

sugat = fellat (no subject for the verb is provided)
70) CIL IV.2288
Synethus — a Grk. masculine name (Synethius/Synetheius) [also at CIL IV.2285, 2287]

Faustilla — fem. dimin. of the Roman cognomen Faustus (cf. ad 1421) [Kajanto 1965b: 272]
obiqe — i.e., ubique (“everywhere [i.e., in every spot in town]: elsewhere we find the expression hic et ubique
[Lohmann 288])
rite̛ — “properly”
71) CIL IV.2292
Murtis — cf. 2273

fellatris — fellatrix [For the activity, see ad 1969. For the term, cf. ad 2204. While fellatio does cast the woman
in an active role, the reductive label “Cock-sucker” is degrading: Levin-Richardson 2013; Kamen/Levin-
Richardson 2015a: 241]
——————
72) CIL IV.2310b
[House VII.3.27]
50
[Varone p. 71; Wallace II.125; Johnson/Ryan #76]
Euplia — a Grk. female name (Euploia: “she who grants good voyage” [see Varone]), most likely that of a
slave-prostitute: cf. 5048 and 10004 and see Solin 1996: 559, DiBiasie 193.
bellis — cf. ad 1883 and 8259b
M M = duobus milibus (? — an outlandish number). Varone 71 compares my #159, but the letters are written on
a separate line and likely have nothing to do with the words above, or were added by a later hand. [Della
Corte 1965: 149-50 attempts, rather unconvincingly, to associate these letters with the M found in
gladiatorial notices (MM = mille misi sunt?)]
73) CIL IV.2331
[House IX.3.5]
[Cooley/Cooley D98; Wallace II.183; Hartnett #2]
[Includes an illustration of the labyrinth: fig. 11]
[Further: Lohmann 74]
74) CIL IV.2375
[Entrance to House I.4.25, near an insulting profile — presumably of Ampliatus (now lost). House 1.4.25 was
joined to 1.4.5 (House of the Citharist) to form a massive complex (fig. 12). This was co-owned by L.
Popidius Secundus (a freedman and member of the rhythmic claque known as the Augustiani who applauded
Nero’s performances) and another freedman, L. Popidius Ampliatus I. It was still in the possession of the
latter family, at least, at the time the graffiti discussed below were composed.]
Ampliate — a Roman cognomen [Kajanto 1965b: 349]. Franklin 1986: 326 follows Della Corte in identifying
this individual as L. Popidius Ampliatus (II?), who is then likely to be Icarus’ (former?) master. On the
Popidii Ampliati, whom the graffiti and other records show to have been exceedingly wealthy and influential
over three generations, see Franklin 2001: 169-74.
Icarus — a Grk. masculine name. It is possible that Icarus is another influential slave/freedman, similar to
Epaphra: cf. ad 1926. (His name appears elsewhere in the House of the Citharist: CIL IV.2369)
pedicat = paedicat [cf. ad 2210]
Salvius — a Roman nomen
[Salvius and Icarus engage in an intriguing set of exchanges in the graffiti from Pompeii: see Franklin 1986:
326-27; J. Hartnett 2017: 58 and 126]
75) CIL IV.2400
[House IX.1.22-29]
[Varone p. 82]
Satur = Sature [a Greek masculine name (Satyros) in the voc.; here perhaps with a play on satur (cf. ad 4307)
and phps. satyr]
extra portam — cf. ad 8898 [Given that prostitution was routinely associated with sexual acts performed out in
the open in secluded spaces, portam here likely = “city-gate.” But see Williams 2013: 513 n. 6 who notes
that some detect “an anatomic metaphor” alluding to the proper technique to be employed.]
[A similar injunction is delivered at CIL IV.3925 (addressed to one Saturninus), but without reference to a
porta.]
set = sed [cf. ad 1824.4]
51
Arpocras — Harpocras (an Egyptian name). Cf. 2193.
sibi — sympathetic dat. (see ad 1824)
ut … lingas — jussive noun clause. (The use of lingo here — as opposed to fello or sugo — gains significance
via the contrast with the command with which the graffito opens: but see ad 3103.) [This clause, along
with the following vocative fellator, shows that the acts alluded to here fall under the category of general
abuse: cf. ad 2257]
at, fellator, quid — left incomplete; phps. by a different hand?
[Panciera 96, 100-02; Krenkel 2006c]
76) CIL IV.2425
[Transliterated Greek. Cf. ad 2204.]

dos pygiza = δὸς πυγίσαι
dos — allow (“give, grant”) [imperative]
pugiza = aorist inf. of pugizein (= paedicare) [also at CIL IV.3202]
[dos pygiza = Lat. da (mihi) paedicare]
77) CIL IV.2450
[In the theater complex]

[Varone p. 85]
[Given that this graffito involves an elaborate formal joke, I have not recrafted it so extensively as is my wont.]
ante diem XI Kalendas Decembres — i.e., on 21 November [For the formula employed here, see the
introduction to this chapter]
A XV — notes the total cost of the encounter. Since these words appear in isolation at the end of the first line of
the text, the reader might have understood either the abl. (assibus — price), in which case this phrase is to be
incorporated into the sentence, or the nom./acc. (asses), in which case it serves as a type of accounting
notice.
Epaphra — see ad 1816 and 1926. [If the date cited in our inscription is accurate, this is most likely a different
individual: cf. below.]
Acutus — a Roman cognomen [Kajanto 1965b: 69, 349]
Auctus — a Roman cognomen [Kajanto 1965b: 350]
duxserunt = duxerunt [Likely here for conduco — “hire” (with ad in a locative sense). See Adams 1982: 174-
75.]
Tyche — a Grk. feminine name (“Fortune”) [For the form (acc.), see A&G 44]
in singulos — i.e., apiece
A(sses) V F(uit)
Marco Messalla et Lucio Lentulo consulibus — in the consulship of M. Messalla and L. Lentulus (i.e., 3 BC).
[If the date itself is not a joke, this memorial stood for over 80 years. In that case, however, the Epaphra
mentioned here is unlikely to be the same as that who appears in 1926.]
[A wonderfully formal inscriptional commemoration (complete with interpuncts!) of a sordid gathering held in
the shadows of a narrow passage leading into the large theater. Given ancient conventions, it is tempting to
conclude that Epaphra is the author: if so, this piece gives us an interesting glimpse of his wry personality.]
52
[This same jolly crew would seem to appear in a nearby graffito of similar form, which cites the same date
(CIL IV.2440):
a(nte) • d(iem) XI K(alendas) • Decembr(es) • Geryones
trimembres aervs senos
comperendinarunt
Geryones trimembres — a comic nickname adopted by our group: “the triple-membered Geryons” (in
reference to the famous opponent of Hercules who had three bodies)
trimembres — in such a context, this must be taken at least in part sens. obsc. [The term is
exceedingly rare (vs. tricorpor), occurring (in the surviving authors) only in Hyginus and only in
the commentators after that.]
aerus = aeris (sc. asses — see introduction to this chapter)] [For the form, see OLD s.v. aes]
senos — six each (a distributive number)
comperendinarunt = comperendinaverunt [comperendino — (of magistrates) to bind a defendant to
appear in court on a later date.] Another play on official notices: they reserved six asses apiece for
a later jaunt.
[Further: Keegan 2011: 183]
78) CIL IV.3042 [opening of an elegiac couplet?]
[House VI.14.43]
[Varone p. 99]
Lalage — Grk. feminine name (“Prattler”)
am… — Wick 214 (cited by Varone) suggests: quae “non am[o” dicit amanti]
79) CIL IV.3061
[House VII.2.51]
[Varone p. 162]
meom = meum
quanti quantque = quanti quantique (“at any price”? [gen. of value] — cf. Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum 12.23.3:
sed quanti quanti bene emitur quod necesse est)
[A tantalizing graffito, the latter part of which is, unfortunately, indecipherable (and is repeated in CIL
IV.3062).]
80) CIL IV.3103
Verecundus — a Roman cognomen [Kajanto 1965b: 68, 264] [Perhaps with a deliberate play on its meaning
(“shamefaced,” “bashful,” “shy”)?]
lingit — the author employs a verb more appropriate to cunnilingus (cf. ad 2400 and see Varone 139 and n.
235)
[Further: Krenkel 2006c]
53
81) CIL IV.3117
[In the street by the entrance to house VII.2.17]
[Varone p. 50]
Serena — fem. form of a Roman cognomen [Kajanto 1965b: 261]
Isodorum — a Grk. masculine name
[As so often, authorship is a problem. This could have been written by Serena or by a male rival of Isodorus.]
[Caupona I.2.24]
[Courtney #71; Wallace II.40]
line 1: utinam talia mendacia te fallant
talia — i.e., of the sort cited in line 2
fallant — optative subj. with utinam (i.e., “may you be prey to the same type of tricks/deceptions”)
copo — caupo [male owner of an inn, tavern, brothel: cf. ad 8442]
line 2: vendes … bibes — i.e., vendis … bibis (cf. ad 1837, line 3 [coges])
vendes — scanned vendēs
acuam = aquam (followed by hiatus before the diaeresis — i.e., the final syllable does not elide) [apparently
scanned: ăcŭām]
et — i.e., “and yet” (adversative force)
[Proposed emendations of the pentameter: nam tu vendis aquam sed … or vendis aquam nobis et tu … ]
[The watering down of their wine was a common charge leveled against tavern-keepers. Our speaker offers a
comic exaggeration, alleging that the barkeep serves pure water while himself downing undiluted wine (a
barbarous practice). Cf. Martial’s ironic play with this trope at 3.57 (in reference to a water-shortage at
Ravenna).]
83) CIL IV.3711
[Façade of House IX.6.7]

Sullimah = Hamillus (retrograde) [not a common name (Grk.) but attested in the inscriptional record at Rome
and elsewhere]
Ehton = Nothe(n) — a Grk. fem. name [Fem. form of the adj. νόθος — “bastard, illegitimate, base-born”]
(retrograde) [For the form (acc.), see A&G 44]
sic amo — it could be that the statement sic amo introduces a clever allusion to the retrograde presentation of
the preceding names, suggesting a favorite sexual position, but it is difficult to be sure. As Panciera notes,
most examples of retrograde names seem to be introduced for their own sake and suggest merely “a bit of
cleverness — a virtuoso performance of literacy.”
[Further: Panciera 152 n. 96; Benefiel 2012:78; Lohmann 355-56]
[Taberna I.2.20]
[Varone pp. 134-35]
54
deseruit — a military metaphor (the author and his prick have joined the other side); recalls the frequent
comparison of the lover to the soldier in Roman love elegy
pedicat — paedicat (cf. ad 2210)
vale — a valediction, but also a dismissal (cf. ad 8259a)
[The restoration here is problematic and almost certainly fantastical (Varone). In line 2, Housman proposed
pedicare volo: cf. 2210]
[cf. Courtney #79, Spal # 18, and Adams #16 (CIL IV.2360, 8229: cf. 1798)]
line 1: qui (here and below) = ille qui (suppressed antecedent)
scribet = scribit (cf. ad 1837, line 3 [coges] — but note line 3 below: scribit) [i.e., the one who writes verses
such as these]
pedicatur — paedicatur
leget = legit (cf. ad 1837, line 3 [coges]) [i.e., the reader who pauses to enjoy such verses is a youth who
engages in relationships with older men]
line 2: ascultat = auscultat [This reading is confirmed by Solin 2013: 337-38, vs. opscultat (= obscultat =
oscultat = auscultat), which is based on an early misreading.] The allusion is to a person who pauses to
listen as the verses are read aloud by another. [Earlier edd. read opsultat (obsultat = insultat — mock,
jeer)]
pathicus — an adult male who eagerly seeks to assume the passive role in anal intercourse, or to service men
and/or women with his mouth (Parker, esp. 56-58; Williams 2010: 193), for whom boys represent only
rivals (see, further, Adams ad loc.)
[Spal notes the clever effect achieved by placing the relative clause qui auscultat first, which nicely inverts the
pattern established in line one and sets up the chiastic ordering: qui …, prurit — pathicus est, qui ….]
line 3: pedicator — paedicator (cf. ad 2210) [i.e., fucker of boys (cf. 2048 and phps. 2210) — another
instance of masculine vaunting]
Septumius — Septimius (Roman praenomen)
[The signature at the end would seem to be in another hand: Lohmann 288.]
[In attempting to work out the logic of this ditty, I have perhaps pressed the language beyond what it will bear,
but taking the piece as a celebration of pederastic amours does seem to bring a certain clarity. Contrast
Milnor 2014: 73-75 and Adams who, in analyzing the very similar CIL IV.2360, discover a series of
metaphors for the relationship between the text and its various readers.]
[Further: Cugusi 73-74; Williams 2010: 294; Lohmann 277-78 and 288]
86) CIL IV.4024
[V.1.15: House with workshop and bakery]

[Varone p. 153]
Menander — a Grk. masculine name
bellis moribus— cf. ad 4592
aeris — see introduction to this chapter (“Roman Currency and Wages”) and cf. 8185
[Williams 2010: 429 n. 40]
55
87) CIL IV.4087
[Varone p. 46; Hartnett #32]
Staphilus = Staphylus — a Grk. masculine name
Quieta — fem. form of a Roman cognomen [Kajanto 1965b: 69, 262]
[sc. rem/opus peregit or the like — cf. 2193, 2310b, 8792a, 9246b]
[There are a number of graffiti that offer a straightforward commemoration of this sort (cf. CIL IV.4088). A
similar inscription involving a Staphylus is found at CIL IV.2060: Wallace II.123]
[Exedra of the house of Caecilius Iucundus (V.1.23-26). As Courtney and Varone note, this couplet is found
elsewhere and seems to have been quite common.]
[Courtney #88; Varone p. 62; Cooley/Cooley D90; Wallace II.129; Hartnett #119]
quisquis amat — cf. ad 1824
valeat … pereat — jussive subj. [Cf. 2274] [Note the chiasmus: amat — valeat :: pereat — nescit amare]
qui — i.e., ille qui (suppressed antecedent)
quisquis amare vetat — sc. alium/aliquem [Note how cunningly the pentameter echoes the hexameter
(chiasmus) while at the same time capping it, neatly rounding off the couplet.]
[Further: Wick 226; Williams 2013: 503; Clarke 1998: 153-61; Petersen 163-83; Benefiel 2011: 35]
89) CIL IV.4185
[Peristyle of House V.2.1]

faces = facis (cf. ad 1837 [coges])
non belle facis — either, “you don’t behave decently,” or (less likely) “you don’t do it properly” (cf. 2273,
8715b)
90) CIL IV.4196
Miduse — Grk. Medousa (Medusa) [cf. ad 2178a]

fututrix — see ad 2204
91) CIL IV.4239 (embedded trochaic septenarius?)
[House V.2.e]
[Varone p. 68]
Fortunate — a male Roman cognomen that appears frequently in the graffiti (DiBiasie 167 n. 325) (Cf. ad
2259 / 2275 re the fem. Fortunata)
animula — an affectionate diminutive [“darling” — a variation of animulus] [Cf. E. Dickey, Latin Forms of
Address: From Plautus to Apuleius 158-59]
56
perfututor — the equivalent of fututor maximus in 2145
qui = ille qui (suppressed antecedent) [This is possibly added by a second hand: Adams 1982: 120]
[The graffito purports to offer the affectionate outpourings of what would appear to be a female admirer of
Fortunatus (although it was quite likely put up by Fortunatus himself!). The second hand would appear to
transform the author into a sodomized male (Bücheler)]
[Bücheler notes that the first part of this graffito can be scanned as a trochaic septenarius with the addition, e.g.,
of virginum.]
92) CIL IV.4259
[V.2.B-C, D]
Acria — feminine name derived from the Roman masc. cognomen Acer??
Epaphra — a Grk. masculine name. See ad 1816 and 1926
Firmilla — fem. form of a Roman cognomen [Kajanto 1965b:258]
[These were written in charcoal and difficult to make out even when first uncovered. They had disappeared by
the time of their publication in CIL. While they are grouped together, I cannot say if they are by the same
hand, nor are they clearly aligned as a group (although they might be). The issue is an interesting one, given
the clear distinction in the prices, with the two women charging more-or-less standard fees while the man
asks for a price that is only surpassed some five times in the material that survives from Pompeii. Were the
advertisements for the women (which are, roughly speaking, aligned vertically) actual notices, and that for
Epaphra a malicious joke? Was the entire notice an elaborately contrived joke?]
93) CIL IV.4264
[V.2.a-b]
[Varone p. 80]
Iucundus — a Roman cognomen that appears frequently in the graffiti (Kajanto 1965b: 72-73, 283; DiBiasie
167 n. 325)
Rustica — presumably a proper noun rather than a descriptive adjective (fem. form of a Roman cognomen)
[Kajanto 1965b: 81, 310]
[On attitudes toward cunnilingus see ad 1969]
94) CIL IV.4289
[In the gladiators’ barracks (V.5.3)]12

[Wallace II.66; Hartnett #20]
puellarum decus — [this would normally mean, “the most beautiful of the girls” or “he who brings distinction
to the girls.” Here it must mean, “he in whom all the girls glory” (cf. suspirium puellarum in 4342) — i.e.,
the darling of the girls (with puellarum as a subjective gen.)]
Celadus — a Grk. name [A gladiator by this name is also cited in CIL IV.4342 (below), 4297, 4341, 4342,
4345, 4356, 4397. Given that gladiators, like prostitutes, frequently employed “stage names” that could be
shared by more than one individual, care must be taken in assuming that these all refer to the same fighter,
but the same record of competition is cited in more than one inscription, and Celadus is repeatedly referred
12
On this structure, see Jacobelli 65-66, Garraffoni/Laurence 129-31.
57
to as a thraex for whom all the girls swoon] (Varone pp. 68-69; DiBiasie 167 n. 325; Jacobelli 48-49;
Lohmann 352-53)
[The same text appears in CIL IV.4345, where Celadus is expressly identified as a thraex. See ad 4342]
95) CIL IV.4307
[In the gladiators’ barracks (V.5.3)]

[Presented in the form of a notice for a female gladiator named Saturia, but likely a joke: cf. CIL IV.4381 (a
similar notice for a fututrix?). For the formulae employed here, see introduction to this chapter.]
Saturia — likely a freedwoman’s name that offers a (fortuitous?) play on the adj. satur (sens. obs.: Adams
1982: 138-40; cf. 2400 above).
XIIX Ɔ XX[ — the fact that the number of “victories” (20) surpasses the number of matches (18) is likely
suggestive.
[Further: Garraffoni/Funari 191.]
96) CIL IV.4342
[In the gladiators’ barracks (V.5.3)]

[Cooley/Cooley D51; Wallace II.67; Keegan G9.8 (cf. G11.34)]
[For the formulae employed in the presentation of Celadus’ career, see introduction to this chapter.]
suspirium puellarum — “he for whom all the girls sigh” (puellarum — subjective gen.) [cf. CIL IV.4397]
Celadus — see ad 4289
tr = thraex — the “Thracian” gladiator (Jacobelli 3-4). Distinguished by his use of a parma (a smallish
rectangular shield), a short curved sword (sica), and a distinct form of helmet surmounted by a griffin. In the
1st C. AD, he was commonly matched against the murmillo, the most popular pairing in this period.
Octavianus — member of the Octavian ludus (gladiatorial school)
III — number of matches in which Celadus has fought
Ɔ III — number of prizes (coronae) Celadus has won (cf. CIL IV.4297a)
97) CIL IV.4485 (hexameter?)
[VI.13.19]
[Varone p. 133]
Hectice — a Grk. masculine name (voc.)
pupe — [pupus — boy, child; (as a term of endearment) puppet] [Also a cognomen: cf. ad 6842]
vale — [to be read in quotation marks]
Mercator — Roman cognomen [Kajanto 1965b: 321]
[A monosyllable is missing after vale: Engström suggests nunc or iam]
[House VI.13.19]
[Courtney #82; Spal #15]
58
seni supino — sympathetic dat. (see ad 1824)
supino — pred. (“when he is lying on his back”)
colei — (pl.) scrotum [Adams 1982: 66-67] [trisyllabic]
[A rather unhappy image that recalls the Grk. λακκοσχέας (“man with hanging scrotum”), suggesting either
profligacy (cf. Latin ecfututus) or, as here, the impotence of old age. The condition can be caused by a
varicocele, which is mocked in the elderly at both Lucilius 331-32 and Juvenal 10.204-06.]
[This piece suggests that, like the Greeks, the Romans idealized the compact genitalia of the young man who
was just coming of age (Grk. ephebe). The allusion to the man’s anus has no practical purpose but merely
enhances the description’s gross specificity. (For a modern comic treatment of this theme, see Ricky
Gervais, Humanity [2018] at 49:26 minutes.) Spal suggests that the piece might have been motivated by
other nearby graffiti that have a distinctly homosocial cast and offers useful comments (153) re the manner
in which it employs the form of a traditional maxim to challenge the reader to provide an interpretation.]
[Shackleton Bailey’s interpretation (Phoenix 32 [1978] 321-22) seems somewhat overly involved: “An old man,
qua cinaedus, is undesirable, and, when lying on his back, inaccessible. All his colei are good for is to offer
a protection which his culus does not need anyway, i.e., they are good for nothing.” Contrast Rhode (cited
by Wick 222): “Eines Kommentars bedarf wol dieses freilich nicht besonders appetittiche Bild eines
zuruckgelehnt (wol betrunken) daliegenden greisen λακκοσχέας nicht” (loosely: this grotesque image of a
naked [and no doubt drunk] old man requires no commentary).]
99) CIL IV.4523
[Another boastful testament to the author’s unbridled masculinity, which is able to subdue, not only women and
boys, but grown men. Cf. ad 2210]
100) CIL IV.4566
Felicio — a Roman cognomen (presumably in the voc.)

tomintare — for tormentare? (a 2nd sg. dep./reflexive imperative derived from tormentum?) (Generally felt to
be associated with either tumeo or torqueo: Funari 11, citing Väänänen 43-49.) [“masturba-se”? — B.
Espirito Santo (unpublished conference presentation)]
[Accompanied by an illustration of a humorously ithyphallic male: fig. 13]
101) CIL IV.4592
[House of the Vettii (VI.15.1), entrance]

[Varone p. 143]
Eutychis — Grk. feminine name
Graeca — as Varone notes, the original reading seems to have been verna (cf. the nearby CIL IV.4593 as well
as 4023, 4025, 5105, 5203, 5204, 5206), which was rubbed out/modified to produce the text here printed,
miraculously transforming Eutychis from a locally born slave to a Greek import. The conclusion that the
term verna implies that the individual in question is a slave in the house on which the inscription appears
(Varone) is not necessarily warranted.
moribus bellis — abl. of description (as Varone notes, a common claim in the advertisements for both female
and male prostitutes, promising something more than a crude and impersonal having it off: cf. 4024 and
Williams 2013: 504)
[Further: Panciera 259-60]
59
102) CIL IV.4917
[House VIII.2.36-37]
[Varone p. 137]
Albanus — Roman cognomen [Kajanto 1965b: 44, 181]
cinaedus — male who takes the passive role in same-sex relations. See, further, Panciera 185-87; Williams
2010: 193-214.
103) CIL IV.4954
Fortunate — a Roman cognomen that appears frequently in the graffiti (Cf. ad 2259 / 2275)
linge culum — [modern Engl. generally employs “kiss” in this context] [cf. Varone 139 n. 235]
[VIII.6.7]
[Courtney #73; Wallace II.200; Hartnett #54]
minximus — from mingo — to urinate, piss (the pl. is likely poetic)
hospes — host, innkeeper
si dices — on the use of the fut. in the protasis of the conditional clause, cf. ad 64 (retulerit) [sc. respondebo
as the apodosis] [Contrast Wallace, who reads a pres. ind. (cf. ad 1837 [coges]). Cf. ad 8356)]
quare — in quotation marks
[Others — objecting to dices rather than the expected quaeres (e.g., Propertius 2.24.14) — take quare nulla
metella fuit as an indir. question (with ind.), dependent on dices: i.e., “I admit that we/I did wrong, if you
will say why there was no chamber-pot.” But the pattern, initial statement—2nd-person question—humorous
response, is common in epigram.]
matella ̛— on chamber-pots, see Levin-Richardson 2015: 243 n. 24
[There is confusion about the provenance of this inscription. The notice in NdS 1882: 436 (Sogliano) indicates
that it was discovered between the entrances to VIII.6.7 and VIII.6.6: “Per un’uscita secondaria, praticata nel
muro sud del gran giardino [VIII.5.38], si riesce nel vicolo meridionale, nel quale tornarono a luce seguenti
iscrisioni: Sul lato settentrionale dell’isola 6: [CIL IV.3602] … Poco discosto è graffito il distico [CIL
IV.4957].” (Reference cited in Pompeii in Pictures website, ad House VIII.6.6)]13
[Further: Varone 2016: 128 and n. 37]
105) CIL IV.4976
[House IX.1.26]
[Cooley/Cooley E99]
Sodoma, Gomora = Sodom, Gomorrah
[See Solin 2014:103-04. Most probably Jewish rather than Christian. Rather than responding to the earthquake
of AD 62 or the early stages of the eruption of 79, the author likely inscribed this as a more general
indictment of Pompeian society. The notion that this was inscribed following the eruption and is to be
assigned to a returning homeowner or a looter seems far-fetched.]
13
Other inscriptions cited by Sogliano in this area include CIL IV.3591, 3592, 3593, 3599, 3600, 3601
60
[Further: C. Giordano and I. Kahn, The Jews in Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae and in the Cities of Campania
Felix (3rd ed.; Rome, 2001), chap. 5; J. Gunderson, Inscribing Pompeii: A Reevaluation of the Jewish
Epigraphic Data (Diss. UKansas, 2013) 55-57]
106) CIL IV.5007 (asynartetic)
[House IX.2.26]
[Varone p. 134]
[Presented as a single line.]
det — jussive subj. (providing the equivalent of the protasis of a condition: “just let …”) [det mihi (sc.
operam) — i.e., let him yield his favors to me (cf. Adams 1982: 151 and 157)]
Damoeta = Damoetas (nom.) [A Grk. masculine name. As Varone notes, the dropping of the final consonant
might reflect a conscious echo of Vergil, Eclogue 3.1 (dic mihi, Damoeta [voc.]) rather than simply the usual
orthographic shorthand. (The opening of Eclogue 3 is echoed again at CIL IV.9987.)]
felicior — sc. erit
Phasiphae = Pāsiphaë (wife of the mythical king Minos)
[The promise is deeply ironic, of course. Pasiphaë is usually presented as an example of a cursed existence (e.g.,
Vergil, Eclogue 6.45-46: et fortunatam, si numquam armenta fuissent, / Pasiphaen niuei solatur amore
iuuenci). Our author deliberately focuses solely on the sexual coupling itself, with a smutty joke (of a sort
still familiar today) re the woman’s (or, in this case, Damoetas’) delight in receiving the bull’s ample
member.]
Zosimus — a Grk. masculine name (On the boastful self-proclamation presented here, cf. Lohmann 272-78.)
[This graffito is much more sophisticated than most, not only in the obscene parody of Vergil but in its oblique
logic: the implication is that Zosimus is built like Pasiphae’s bull, and that Damoetas will be a more than
willing partner.]
[It is, of course, possible to understand ero rather than erit with felicior in line 2. In that case, we are likely
dealing with another instance of what Williams has termed “ventriloquism” — an unnamed 3rd party
assuming the identity of Zosimus in order to express the latter’s eager desire to be penetrated by Damoetas.]
[The meter seems to be asynartetic: a hemiepes joined to an iambic octonarius (with hiatus at the caesura). An
unlikely combination, but the compressed nature of the apodosis and the inclusion of the less than relevant
omnia suggests that the effect is intentional.]
107) CIL IV.5048
[House IX.2.26]
[Varone p. 147]
assibus V — abl. of price (a healthy sum)
nummum = nummorum (“in cash”) [an unusual use of this defining gen., which usually alludes to sesterces]
Euplia filia — as Evans remarks (161 n. 130), if this notice, incomplete though it be, is correctly restored and is
in earnest, “then Euplia becomes the first ingenuous meretrix that we know by name.” (See, further, Evans
139-41 and n. 149.) [Varone, more convincingly, reads fel(l)a(t) for filia.]
[For Euplia, cf. 2310b and 10004]
[Peristyle of House IX.5.11]
61
[Courtney #78; Varone p. 19; Cooley/Cooley D91; Wallace II.133; Hartnett #159]
lines 1-2: amoris ignes — the author effectively highlights his theme right at the start
ignes — i.e., passion (cf. 1882) [For this theme, cf. Wick 216-18, ad CIL IV.4966]
si sentires … properares — present contrary-to-fact condition
ut videres — purpose clause in virtual secondary sequence
Venerem — i.e., his lover (abstract for concrete) [scan: Vēnerem] [Blänsdorf 88 argues that our author has
substituted the unmetrical Venerem in place of a proper name that was found in the original.]
line 3: puerum iuvenem — the original reading (puerum) has been struck out and the reading iuvenem written
above it (by the same hand, according to Milnor 2014: 204-05: see her Fig. 4.2). Courtney and others
suggest that the intention here is to alter the identification of the speaker from male to female, which is quite
possible. (Elsewhere in the graffiti of Pompeii the term iuvenis is employed almost exclusively to promote
certain “upstanding young men” in electoral notices: cf. 317.) Cf. Williams 2010: 292 and n. 9. Milnor
argues that the change is motivated by considerations of euphony, or simply represents a correction
necessitated by a momentary lapse of memory. In that case, the use of iuvenis highlights the loftier literary
register of this piece.
venustum — Varone takes this as a proper name (cognomen) [cf. 2145]
rogo — introduces the note of urgency displayed here and in the next line. Note how these lines come to be
broken into a series of short exhortations that suggest the speaker’s desperation.
punge — [pungo — to prick, goad, spur on] (sc. mulos stimulo)
iamus = eamus (jussive subj.) (-i- for -ĕ- in hiatus: Wallace xxvii-xxviii)
[The rhythm of line 3 is particularly jagged and intractable if read as a senarius. As Courtney notes: “… line 3
starts off as if trochaic, but passes into the beginning of a senarius (with rogŏ).” Blänsdorf suggests that
diligo has ousted the metrical amo at the opening of the line and suggests te pungas rogo after the caesura.]
line 4: bibisti — the driver has been taking the equivalent of a coffee-break
iamus — [the repetition of this exhortation reflects the speaker’s urgency]
prende lora et excute — a more vivid reiteration of punge in 3
line 5: Pompeios — acc. of motion (with no preposition: A&G 427.2)
defer — employed without an object (much like modern Engl. “drive”) [sc. me]
ubi — scanned: ūbi
[As in line 3, Varone (perhaps influenced by modern Italian idiom?) finds a reference to the beloved here:
“where my sweet love lives.” Much better: “where sweet love is (to be found)” or “where love is sweet.”]
[Wick notes that this line suggests that the poem was originally composed in Pompeii. It could be a piece from
the heart but more likely presents a more literary version of the civic “boosterism” displayed elsewhere in
the graffiti.]
line 6: meus es — the last line is unfinished but it likely constituted an independent statement.
[Blänsdorf regards this composition as an interesting example of the faulty representation of a literary piece due
to lapses of memory and the influence of popular speech: his case rests mainly on line 3 and, e.g., the faulty
quantities in 2 and 5.]
[Further: Wick 233-34; Blänsdorf 88; Williams 2010: 292; Milnor 2014: 204-05]
109) CIL IV.5105
[Exterior of House IX.5.16: commonly (but mistakenly?) identified as a brothel]
62
Optata — fem. form of a Roman cognomen [Kajanto 1965b: 75-76, 77, 296]
verna — i.e., a slave-prostitute born in Pompeii (rather than a foreign-born slave): local, town-bred
(“hometown girl”). [The use of the term verna need not imply that Optata lived and operated out of this
particular establishment (pace Varone 144 n. 243): cf. ad 4592]
110) CIL IV.5187

[Atrium of House IX.6.8]
[Varone p. 86]
Messius — a Roman nomen
nihil — better taken as a limiting acc. (“didn’t fuck a bit”) than as a direct object. [Others take this acc. in the
sense of “at no cost,” “gratis”]
[It is unclear whether this was written by a disgruntled Messius or by another party as a taunt]
111) CIL IV.5213
[Accompanying a painting of Philoctetes in the eastern alae of the secondary atrium of House IX.8.3 (fig. 14)]
[Varone p. 68]
filius — here likely an affectionate equivalent of “young man” [note the fairly common use of nominative for
vocative: Väänänen] [filius salax — “young rascal” (Varone)]
quid mulierorum — impersonal neuter pronoun with partitive gen. (A&G 346a3): a colloquial way of asking,
“how many women?”
mulierorum = mulierum
[Solin 2014: 104, by contrast, reads filius salax, quia to[t] mulierorum difutuisti]
[Further: E. Dugale in Brill's Companion to the Reception of Sophocles 105-07]
112) CIL IV.5244
[Latrine of house IX.8.3]

[Cooley/Cooley D108; Wallace II.207]
Marthae — gen. of Martha (feminine name: Semitic in origin) [J. Gunderson, Inscribing Pompeii: A
Reevaluation of the Jewish Epigraphic Data (Diss. UKansas, 2013) 43-44]
trichilinium = triclinium (dining-room) [The misspelling is often asserted to present a pun (on Grk. χέζω =
caco) but is more likely due to over-aspiration on the part of a non-native speaker: cf. 2183 (Nucherinis),
Catullus 84, and see Wallace (ad loc.), Gunderson 44-45]
cacat — on this verb, see Levin-Richardson 2015: 227-28
[The attempt to scan this as an iambic line seems artificial, particularly given the manner in which the author
seems to have pronounced the word triclinium.]
[Benefiel 2016: 102 notes that the letters are nearly 7 cm. high, leading the message to take up nearly the whole
length of the room]
[The joke lies in Martha’s alleged confusion in the purposes that distinguish a latrine (where the inscription is
found) from a triclinium]
[Further: Cugusi 82; Levin-Richardson 2015: 235; Varone 2016: 125-27]
63
113) CIL IV.5251
[House IX.6.11]
[Varone p. 65; Cooley/Cooley D107; Wallace II.135; Hartnett #5]
[Varone cites Büchler, who notes that this graffito can be scanned as a hexameter if one reads Restūtus (rejected
by Wick 231). The line has a definite trochaic lilt that can be refurbished if read, Restitutus multas saepe
decepit puellas (which also offers the effective juxtaposition of multas and saepe: cf. below).]
Restitutus — Roman cognomen [cf. 2146]
multas … saepe — [This rhetorical superfluity is fairly common in poetry. Cf. Plautus, Casina 349: vidi ego dis
fretos saepe multos decipi]
decepit — cf. Ovid, Ars Amatoria 3.433-66 [In Roman Comedy one often finds the assertion that the cheating
of a prostitute is justified by the heartless way in which such women treat their lovers: cf., e.g., Plautus,
Truculentus 98-111]
114) CIL IV.5279
mortus = mortuus
mortuus es … nugas es — asyndeton (employed to imply identity: “when you’re dead, you’re nothing”);
reinforced by the parallelism and the repetition of emphatic tu (anaphora)
nugas — worthless stuff, trash (i.e., gone and forgotten) [The ungrammatical acc. is likely due to the influence
of the common exclamation, nugas! (“nonsense!” — sc., e.g., garris). Commentators have attempted to
explain passages such as Cicero, ad Familiares 8.15.1 (ecquando tu hominem ineptiorem quam tuum Cn.
Pompeium vidisti, qui tantas turbas, qui tam nugas esset, commorit) by taking nugas as a variant of nugax
(“incompetent,” “bungling”: see D.R. Shackleton Bailey, Cicero: Epistulae ad Familiares I [62-47 BC] ad
loc.) but that explanation does not seem apt here. Cf. Adams 2016: 139-40, who compares CIL IV.5282.
Others detect a vulgar nom. pl. in -as]
115) CIL IV.5372
[House IX.7.20]
tua — pred. (“yours”) [fem. nom. sg.]
aere — abl. of price [= 1 as]
[I follow Varone here. Most read: ae(ris) a(ssibus) II, which presents the most common fee in the material
from Pompeii.]
116) CIL IV.5461
[Grk. abecedarium: fig. 15]

[Further: Wallace xxii; N. Purcell, Past and Present 147 (1995) 32; Garraffoni/Laurence 126-29; Lohmann
95-97]
117) CIL IV.6641
[V.6.18: near a water reservoir]

[Wallace I.109]
64
cacator — defecator (i.e., anyone looking for a place to defecate)
sig = sic
valeas — optative subj. [sic valeas — “so may you thrive,” “to such a degree may you prosper” (setting up the
following ut)
hoc locum — here treated as a neuter noun
ut transeas — epexegetic use of ut + subj. to introduce the terms or conditions on which the earlier statement
depends [G&L 552 r. 3] [Wallace notes that the final –s is omitted due to a nail]
hoc locum transeas — i.e., find another place to do your business
[Further: Levin-Richardson 2015: 232; Varone 2016: 124 and n. 29.]
[House VI.16.15]
[Varone p. 30; Wallace II.137]
si quis — see ad 64
vidit — translate as a true perfect [On the omission of final -t, see Wallace xxxi: “In the speech of some
Pompeiians, word-final t in polysyllabic words, especially third singular active verb forms, was weakly
articulated. This was reflected in two ways: (1) by spelling original final t by d … and (2) by omission of
final t altogether”]
Venerem — Apelles’ famous work, Aphrodite Anadyomene (“Venus Rising from the Sea”) — ancient praise of
this painting provided the inspiration for Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus
Apelles — famous Grk. painter of the 4th C. BC
pupa — girl, damsel; doll, puppet [cf. 4485] (here perhaps the proper name derived from this term: Lohmann
330-31 and n. 1188)
aspiciat — jussive subj. [scan: m(eam) aspiciat (synizesis with elision)]
[The conclusion of the pentameter has been restored exempli gratia]
talis — pred. nom. (translate adverbially: “just so”)
nitet — freq. of lustrous beauty (cf. candida — 1520.1)
[On the extremely speculative nature of this reconstruction, see E. Mayer, The Ancient Middle Classes
(Cambridge, MA and London, 2012) 284 n. 116. In support of the reconstruction, W. Krenkel, Naturalia
non turpia 324.]
119) CIL IV.7038 [embedded dactylic hexameter]
[Alleyway separating Insulae V.6 and V.7]

[Wallace I.111]
[stercorarius — here employed as a substantive in the vocative; either a fancy synonym for cacator (6641,
7716) or someone who carts dung for a living]
murum — i.e., the city wall (where the depositing of dung was permitted)
progredere — 2nd sg. pres. imperative
prensus fueris — i.e., if you are caught doing otherwise (dumping your dung in this vicinity) [On the use of the
fut. pfct. see ad 64 (retulerit). On the use of fueris for eris, see H. Blase (Archiv für lateinische
65
Lexikographie und Grammatik 10 [1898] 321-23), who notes the increasing popularity of this more
vivid/emphatic form from the time of Augustus
patiare — jussive subj., following necesse est (parataxis: A&G 268 ad fin., Woodcock 123 n. 2) [Wallace
argues for a collateral 1st conj. act. inf. of patior]
si prensus … necesse est — a hexameter verse
cave — cf. 7716
[The humorous effect of the hexameter, with its more elevated style, somewhat undercuts the severity of the
warning]
[Further: Milnor 2014: 58; Levin-Richardson 2015: 232-33; Varone 2016: 122-23]
120) CIL IV.7089
[S. side of Insula V.7]

[Varone p. 91; Johnson/Ryan #76 (a mistranslation)]
[Either an example of the writer reviling the reader (cf. 8230) or the name of the addressee has been lost]
121) CIL IV.7698a (elegiac couplet)
[7698a-c: inscriptions in the large triclinium in the House of the Moralist (III.4.3), which received its name from
these verses: fig. 16a. (In the original, many of the long vowels are marked by apices.) The lines in this entry
are on the black panel on the right wall, above the lectus summus.]
[Courtney #47; Cooley/Cooley D93]
line 1: abluat … detergeat … velet — jussive subj.
unda — in this context, an absurdly poetic metaphor for “water” (Courtney compares Catullus 65.6)
puer — i.e., a slave
udos — pred. with pedes (“while/when they are wet”)
line 2: mappa — usually “towel,” “napkin”; here: “coverlet”
lintea … cave — “take care with regard to/look out for our linens” (a strained use of caveo: one would expect
the dat.)
[Four sets of instructions (leges conviviales), neatly packaged into the standard metrical shapes presented by the
elegiac couplet (penthemimeral caesura, diaeresis). These verses provide interesting evidence for one of the
aggravations of hosting a convivium (esp. at an outdoor triclinium).]
[See ad 7698a. These verses once appeared behind the central couch: fig. 16a. (The inscription itself was
destroyed in an air-raid in 1943.)]
[Courtney #47; Varone p. 112; Cooley/Cooley D93]
line 1: lascivos — licentious, lewd (Panciera 225-28)
voltus = vultus (acc. pl.) — countenance, visage (“expression,” “looks”)
blandos — seductive
aufer — withdraw, keep off
66
line 2: whereas the status of couples is often ambiguous in Roman elegy (e.g., Ovid, Amores 1.5), our author
makes it clear that he is speaking of a respectable married woman, presumably in the company of her
husband (cf. Pliny, Natural History 14.141 [in a similar context]: tunc avidi matronam oculi licentur —
“Then it is that greedy eyes bid a price for a married woman” [H. Rackham, tr.]). (On the use of coniunx of
the wife, see S. Treggiari, Roman Marriage: Iusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian
6.)
alterius — i.e., of some other man
sit — jussive subj.
tibi — sympathetic dat. (see ad 1824)
pudor — modesty, decency, propriety (i.e., maintain a modest/shamefast expression on your face)
123) CIL IV.7698c (elegiac couplet)
[See ad 7698a. These verses are on the left wall, above the lectus imus: figs. 15a & b.]
[Courtney #47; Cooley/Cooley D93]
line 1: insanas litis (lites?) — cf. Ovid, Fasti 1.73-74: lite vacent aures, insanaque protinus absint / iurgia
[The restoration of the opening of the first line is more than usually problematic. Others read, e.g.: utere
blanditiis; abstine discidiis]
odiosa — unpleasant, disagreeable, annoying
differ — cf. aufer in 7698b.1
line 2: gressus — acc. pl. (“steps”): with refer, “make your way back” (another high-blown touch, although
the parallel line-ends are somewhat leaden)
tecta — again, rather overblown language for this context
124) CIL IV.7716
[House III.5.1]
[Cooley/Cooley E37; Wallace II.113; Keegan G6.26]
[cf. 6641 and 7038]
cave malum = “look out for trouble,” “take care”
contempseris — idiomatic use of fut. pfct. in protasis of a condition (cf. ad 64 [retulerit]) [sc. verba mea]
habeas — jussive subj. [Woodcock 126 n. ii: “The use of the second person of the present subjunctive instead
of the imperative … is common in early and colloquial Latin, but rare in classical prose.” (The principal
exception: in addresses to an indefinite second person in giving general instructions or precepts.)]
Iovem iratum — i.e., the wrath of Jupiter, Jove’s curse [cf. 538 and the expression dis iratis natus (“born under
the gods’ curse”)]
[Varone 2016: 122 n. 26: “This inscription was painted … with letters about 1½ meters high and occupying a
length of more than 7½ meters.”]
[For another humorous treatment of this theme, cf. Philogelos 85: “Having moved into a new home, an egghead
cleaned up in front of the door and put up a notice saying, ‘Anyone Who Dumps Excrement Here Will Not
Get It Back’” (B. Baldwin, tr.)]
[Further: Clarke 2007: 60-62 (who discusses a humorous relief from Aquileia devoted to this theme: see my fig.
17); Milnor 2014: 54-55; Levin-Richardson 2015: 231-32; J. Hartnett 2017: 70-72]
67
125) CIL IV.8034
Fortunata — see ad 2259 / 2275
assibus XXIII — the highest price cited in the Pompeian graffiti
126) CIL IV.8185

aeris — cf. 4024 and the introduction to this chapter
[Accompanied by an image of Fortunata (fig. 18). See R.R. Benefiel and A.M. Sypniewski, “Images and Text
on the Walls of Herculaneum: Designing the Ancient Graffiti Project,” in A.E. Felle and A. Rocco, eds., Off
the Beaten Track. Epigraphy at the Borders (Oxford, 2016) 41-42.]
127) CIL IV.8230
(ego,) qui lego, fello — suppressed antecedent. [Any reader who works out the sense of this inscription by
reading aloud, immediately implicates him/herself]
sugat (ille) qui legit — in case the reader didn’t understand the point, the author states it more directly.
sugat — cf. ad 2279
[On attitudes toward fellatio, see ad 1969]
[For such hostile engagements with the reader, cf. 7089 and see Adams 1982: 124-25, Williams 2010: 293-94.
Contrast, e.g., CIL IV.1121]
128) CIL IV.8259 and 8258
[Inscribed beside the entrance to caupona I.10.3 (a-b) and just inside the doorway (c)]
[Varone pp. 113-14; Cooley/Cooley D105; Wallace II.139 (pt. a only)]
a) [Written by a rival lover]
Successus — a cognomen that appears frequently in the graffiti (Kajanto 1965b: 356; DiBiasie 167 n. 325)
textor — as often, the graffito indicates that we are dealing with a world inhabited by the lower echelons of
Pompeiian society [See, further, Della Corte 1965: 292 and 301]
copioniaes = cauponae [fem. gen. sg. of the adj. cauponius (of or belonging to a retail shopkeeper, or to an
innkeeper), here employed of the caupona herself: on the latter, cf. ad 8442]. [Solin 2014: 96 argues that
Coponia is a proper name: cf. Kajanto 1965b: 321 (Caupo/Copo).] [For the 1st-declension gen. sg. in -aes,
see Wallace xxxii: whether the form reflects the influence of Greek first-declension feminine forms in -ης or
-ᾱς is uncertain.]
Hiredem = Iridem — a Grk. feminine name (Iris) [On the declensional ending, see A&G 83b. For the initial h,
and for medial -e- in place of -i-, see Wallace]
quidem — adversative (“however,” “to be sure”)
non curat — cf. CIL IV.7679
illam commiseretur — i.e., rogat illam ut se commiseretur: jussive noun clause dependent upon rogat, with
omission of ut (parataxis) [commiseror (1): archaic/poetic in this sense?] [Blänsdorf takes illa
commiseretur as simple nom. + ind. (commisereor)]
scribit rivalis — [A somewhat curious mode of expression for an actual rival to employ]
68
vale — “farewell/fare well” [Addressed either to Successus, as a mocking dismissal (“Get lost”), or to the
reader, as a notice that the writer has completed his task (cf. ad 3932). If the former, vale provides the
content of what the rival has to write; if the latter, one should understand haec (vel sim.) with scribit and
regard vale as an independent valediction to the reader]
b) [Successus’ response]
quia — “in that,” “given that” (introducing the rationale for employing the appellation, invidiose: cf. quippe
qui + subj.) [The construction is awkward, however (Blänsdorf).]
rumperes — rumperis (2nd sg. passive/middle indicative: on –es for –is, cf. ad 1837 [coges]) [in the middle,
rumpo = burst, explode (in this case, with envy)]
sectare — [sector — hound, harry (here presented as an act. inf.)]14 [The restoration is highly speculative:
others read sedare/secare]
formonsiorem = formosiorem
qui — i.e., illum qui (suppressed antecedent)
pravessimus = pravissimus — “altogether corrupt/debased” (cf. the modern Engl. “bad-ass”) [Again, the
expression is far from clear in its meaning (Blänsdorf, for whom the confusions and obscurities in this text
offer evidence of a “re-oralization” of the written word that becomes increasingly apparent from the 2nd C.
AD on).]
bellus — refined, smart, comme il faut, but also “sexually active,” “part of the rather louche smart set” (B.A.
Krostenko, Cicero, Catullus, and the Language of Social Performance [Chicago and London, 2001] 285-
86). Given formonsiorem earlier and the apparent parallelism, here, with pravessimus, the term is likely
employed of Successus’ character rather than his appearance: cf. ad 1883.
c) dixi. scripsi. — i.e., I’ve had my say; there is no need to say more
[The rival has the final word, on the wall just inside the caupona. More text survives but it is untranslatable.
The last word is Severus which, if part of the original graffito, would give us the name of the rival.]
[Further: Blänsdorf 89; Cugusi 85-88; Benefiel 2010: 66-67; J. Hartnett 2017: 105]
129) CIL IV.8297
[Façade of the House of Menander (I.10.4)]

[Franklin #95; Cooley/Cooley D99; Keegan G9.19]
The well-known magic square, that can be read left-to-right, right-to-left, top-to-bottom, or bottom-to-top; also
found in Ostia and Spain.
Milo — a Greek masc. name [Better known, phps., as a Roman cognomen due to the fame of Clodius’ enemy,
T. Annius Milo]
[Further: Benefiel 2012; Lohmann 82-83]
130) CIL IV.8356
[House of Menander (I.10.4)]

[Varone pp. 151-52; Cooley/Cooley D117; Wallace II.140]
Nucerea = Nucerĭa — simple abl. for locative. (Nuceria: a town approx. 10 miles east of Pompeii; cf. ad 1293)
14
sectare ≠ sectari
69
quaeres — fut. indicative for imperative (A&G 449b) [Here we can be somewhat certain that the author
intended the fut. of this 3rd conjugation vb.: contrast ad 1837 (coges). (Wallace reads the pres. ind. — cf. ad
8903)]
ad — near, in the vicinity of
in vico Venerio — this detail seems almost too good to be true, or is it to be taken as a reference to some sort of
red-light district? [Cf. J. Hartnett 2017: 34, who notes that the reference could be to a district associated
with a temple of Venus (as, e.g., in Mediolanum [CIL V.5804] and Pisidian Antioch).15]
Novellia Primigenia — this individual is mentioned with affection in a number of inscriptions in Campania: cf.
CIL IV.10241. Her popularity has led to speculation that she was a successful mime actress (cum
prostitute? — cf. Horace, Satires 1.2.55-56), perhaps the freedwoman of a respectable family? (Note the
tomb of C. Novellius Rufus in Nuceria: CIL X.1097.) [On the cognomen Primigenia, see Kajanto 1965b:
74-75, 134, 290. Given that this is one of the most commonly attested feminine cognomina in Pompeii
(Lohmann 335 Tab. 5), some caution is required in associating specific texts with Novellia Primigenia.]
[Further: Della Corte 1960: 101-14; Cooley 114-15; Lohmann 220]
131) CIL IV.8384
[House I.10.8]
[Varone p. 100]
[A Latin statement presented in transliterated Grk.]
contemno, derideo — a rhetorical “correction” with amplification
Latonam tuam — “your pregnancy”? (Varone) “your mother”? “your friend/lover, Latona”? Most likely:
“your patron goddess” (phps. suggesting a connection with Lycia). [Latona = Leto (a Greek feminine
name — mother of Apollo and Diana). I am not familiar with evidence in Pompeii for foreign domestic cult
activities possibly associated with slaves: a comparison is presented by the much-discussed Building Z3 in
Athens: e.g., B.A. Ault in Houses of Ill Repute: The Archaeology of Brothels, Houses, and Taverns in the
Greek World (Philadelphia, 2016) 90-91.]
Salvilla — fem. form of Salvillus (dimin. of Salvius): a freedwoman’s cognomen [Kajanto 1965b: 177]
[As the editors of pompeiiinpictures.com note: “According to La Rocca, de Vos, M & E, and Della Corte, in the
large rustic workroom on the left side of the atrium, many of the workers left their names. The names of the
male workers included: Rarus, Rufus, Quietus, Onesimus and Primigenius. The female workers: Gelaste and
Salvilla. The last-named woman was probably the one from CIL IV.8384, in the neighbouring room.”]16
[Williams 2010: 300 and n. 63; Solin 2012]
132) CIL IV.8400
[Found in the peristyle of the House of the Lovers (I.10.11)]

move te — i.e., aufer te (“off with you”)
fellator — on attitudes toward fellatio, see ad 1969. (Here the word is employed as a general term of abuse,
much as is the modern Engl. equivalent: Varone 139 and n. 237)
[Cf. 813]
[C.J. Parr, Lupanar: Rethinking The Roman Brothel (diss. UArizona, 2008) 83]
15
C. Vout, The Hills of Rome: Signature of an Eternal City 39.
16
http://www.pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/R1/1%2010%2008%20p2.htm Cf. Della Corte 1965: 301.
70
133) CIL IV.8408a (iambic senarius)
[Found in a cubiculum in the peristyle of the House of the Lovers (I.10.11), above a painting of two ducks (fig.
19)]
[Varone p. 60; Cooley/Cooley D115]
ut — as, like (comparative adv.)
[exigo — to lead, spend, pass (a period of time)]
134) CIL IV.8442
[Tavern I.12.3]
coponam = cauponam — woman who owns or works in an inn, tavern, boarding-house (which were also
indicated by the term caupona). The latter establishments were generally regarded as discreditable by the
elite, and were often associated with prostitution. [On these women and their establishments, see DeFelice
2001; cf. McGinn 16-18]
[Cf. CIL XIII.10018.95: futui (h)ospita(m)]
[Clarke 2007: 52 and n. 7]
135) CIL IV.8475
[House II.1.1, 13]

Palmyra — the name suggests a Syrian origin (see ad 2178a)
sitifera — earlier commentators took this to mean “greedy for drink” or “arousing thirst.” More recently the
translation “randy animal” has been suggested (Evans 134 and n. 129; cf. Defelice 2001: 125), but just what
this might be based on escapes me. (Perhaps “wildly thirsty,” implying a penchant for fellatio? — cf. Adams
1982: 138-40 and, perhaps, CIL §XI.6721.34: esureis et me felas.)
[Solin 2014: 97 reads PAMHIRA SIIFERA, which he dismisses as an incomprehensible doodle. (“Besser solche
unverständliche Kritzelei einfach weglassen.”) For PAMHIRA, he notes Pamphila as a possibility.]
136) CIL IV.8483
[Latrine in House II.2.2]

[Varone p. 154]
H-S — sesterces
[This is best taken as a parody of the typical advert. Rather than an individual’s name, it lists a personified
“Prick,” whose services are to obtained at a horrendously exorbitant price (5 sesterces = 20 asses): see the
introduction to this chapter re Roman currency and wages]
[From the Palaestra]

[Cooley/Cooley H75]
docendi … mercedem — i.e., my teacher’s fee [On the plight of teachers, who often had difficulty collecting
payment from the parents of their pupils, see L. Maurice, The Teacher in Ancient Rome: The Magister and
His World (Lanham, 2013) 144-50.] [docendi — gerund: objective gen.]
71
dederit — fut. pfct. ind. in a virtual condition [See ad 64.1-4 (retulerit)]
abeat = habeat (optative subj.)
quod = id quod (suppressed antecedent)
superis — i.e., the gods [It is unclear whether a superis constitutes the beginning of a second line or a prose
supplement.]
[Cf. Juvenal 7.228-29: rara tamen merces quae cognitione tribuni / non egeat (“But it’s rare to get your fee
without a tribune’s investigation” [Braund, tr.])]
[Lebek ZPE 32 (1978) 221; Cugusi 88-89]
138) CIL IV.8590
venivit — veneo (4) -ivi/ii, -itum: to be sold (sg. vb. with cmpd. subject, as often)
Decimus Lucretius Valens III — son of D. Lucretius Satirius Valens II (both ambitious politicians who put on
games) [Jacobelli 43; for the family, see Franklin 2001: 56-58, 64, 101, 103-04, 130]
Onustus — [onustus = burdened, laden, well-equipped (with arms)]
eques — a type of gladiator who began the match on horseback and concluded it on foot (Jacobelli 17)
I rationis — primae rationis (ratio = quality, kind) [gen. of description]
Sagatus — [sagatus = clothed in a military cloak, ready for battle]
thraex — cf. ad 4342
murmillo — a heavily-armored gladiator (Jacobelli 15) [Interesting in that Sagatus is associated with two
distinct types of fighters whose methods were in some ways antithetical to one another. (Cf. 1421, with
illustration.) But see CIL IV.4420, where we hear of one Samus: murmillo idem eques.]
I = primae rationis (above)
XX — price? (abl.)
[This reads like a bill of sale but is likely a malicious joke (Jacobelli 43). While individuals could invest in
gladiators (cf. ad 1421: Itaci) it is unlikely that the wife of a prominent politician, who himself repeatedly
served as the editor of games, would do so, or that she would be identified in such a fashion in a formal
receipt. (The editor did not generally provide individual fighters but hired a lanista to arrange the particulars
[Jacobelli 42-47] but see 1189.) This notice recalls Juvenal’s account of debased aristocratic women who
slaver after gladiators (Juv. 6.82-113).]
139) CIL IV.8715b
[On a column in the Large Palaestra]

[Varone p. 84]
Iucundus — cf. ad 4264
[On the vb. chalat, see ad 2021]
[For the ambiguity here, cf. ad 4185]
140) CIL IV.8767
[On a column in the Large Palaestra]

72
Floronius — a Roman nomen
binetas = Grk. βινητής (fututor) [an agent-noun not attested elsewhere in either Greek or Latin: the reading
here is quite uncertain, with others reading benef(iciarius) — soldier with special privileges who was freed
from common duties] [Solin 2014: 98 suggests binet (h)ac — “fucks here”]
[legio — a legion consisted of 10 cohorts of foot-soldiers and 300 cavalry, making together between 4200 and
6000 men]
VII = septimae [VII Legio Claudia is known to have had some of its veterans settled in Campania as colonists:
Varone]
scierunt = sciverunt — sc. eum hic esse [The Latin scio is not employed in the Biblical sense of “know”]
seserunt = sex erant/fuerunt — i.e., only six! (others read se dederunt or sederunt [sens. obsc.])
141) CIL IV.8792a
[In the Large Palaestra]

Cithera = Cythera — Grk. female name, likely that of a prostitute [Cf. ad 2178a.]
142) CIL IV.8898
[House III.5.3]
[Varone p. 82]
Tiopilus — Theophilus (a Grk. name): nom. for voc. (-i- for -ĕ- in hiatus: Wallace xxvii-xxviii)
canis — in apposition to Theophilus (Dogs were regarded as being without shame, esp. when it came to
copulation. For canis employed as an imprecation, cf. Petronius, Satyricon 74.9)
noli + inf. to introduce a prohibition [The prohibition/imprecation noli cunnum lingere seems to have been
fairly common]
puellis — sympathetic dat. (cf. ad 1824)
in muro — i.e., in some secluded public space out by the city wall (cf. 7038)
[Like Maritimus in 8940, Theophilus is depicted as a common prostitute who specializes in cunnilingus; that he
plies his trade in secluded public places enhances the reader’s sense of his degradation]
[Further: Solin 2008: 62-63]
143) CIL IV.8903 (embedded iambic senarius)
Pompeiis … Nuceriae — locative [On Nuceria, see ad 8356]

gustas — take, partake of, enjoy
bibes = bibis (cf. above ad 1837 [coges])
[Difficult to interpret in its fragmentary state: an invidious comparison between the two cities? — or are the
indicatives (“you [always] …”) to be taken as the near equivalent of imperatives (cf. ad 8356) in a ditty that
lists the local attractions of various communities? Lebek compares Horace, Satires 1.5.89ff.]
[Further: Lebek ZPE 32 (1978) 221-22; Cooley 114-15; Cugusi 46-47]
73
144) CIL IV.8940
[Entrance to House III.7.1]
Maritimus — a Roman cognomen [Kajanto 1965b: 308]
linget = lingit (cf. ad 1837 [coges])
assibus iiii — abl. of price
virgines — here, close to the Engl. “virgins” (sexually inexperienced girls)
[admitto — to allow someone to participate in an activity]
virgines ammittit — [Up until this section, one might have taken this as an actual advertisement, despite the
negative view of cunnilingus in the popular imagination (above, ad 1969). At this point, however,
Maritimus’ open-mindedness takes a comic turn that shows that he is being mocked by another. Cf. the
modern, “For a good time, call …” (cf. Williams 2013: 501). See, however, Varone 148 for Krenkel’s
theories re the possible ambiguities in this clause.]
[Further: Panciera 102-03 (on the very similar CIL IV.8939); J. Hartnett 2008: 98 n. 18]
145) CIL IV.8972
[House IX.14.4]
[Wallace II.111]
XIII K(alendas) Maias = April 19th [for the formula employed here, see the introduction to this chapter]
[See further: B.J.B. Mayeske, Bakeries, Bakers, and Bread at Pompeii: A Study in Social and Economic History
(diss. U.Maryland, 1972) 166-67.]
[House IX.13.5: to the right of this doorway was a depiction of Aeneas with Anchises and Ascanius (fig. 20b);
to the left was a depiction, in the same style, of Romulus carrying a tropaeum or the spolia opima (fig. 20a).
Below the latter was the painted electoral advice of a man referring to himself as Fabius Ululitremulus:
“Fabius the owl-fearer” (CIL IV.7963). Our graffito appears beneath that notice. (As S.M. Goldberg notes
[Constructing Literature in the Roman Republic, 20 n. 2], “The parodist might have mistaken Romulus for
another Aeneas, bearing the arms of the defeated Turnus.”) See esp. M. Flohr, The World of the Fullo:
Work, Economy, and Society in Roman Italy, 338-45.]
[Courtney #60; Cooley/Cooley D83; Wallace II.159; Hartnett #11; Keegan G7.8]
fullones — on fulling as a trade, see Flohr, op. cit.
[ulula — owl; in particular, the owl sacred to Minerva.] (For the association of Minerva and the ulula with the
fuller’s craft, see Flohr, loc. cit.) [Cf. fig. 21 (from a fullonica): a ulula perched on top of a fuller’s bleaching
frame that is being carried by a workman. See as well the sketch that accompanies CIL IV.4118 (DiBiasie
ill. 4.9). Another such sketch is cited at DiBiasie 183-84.]
[Humorous parody of Vergil, Aeneid 1.1. Flohr demonstrates that this inscription forms part of what seems to
have been a rather jolly set of epigraphic (and social?) interactions among members of the fuller’s trade.
Milnor 2014 emphasizes, however, that there is no evidence at all that House IX.13.5 belonged to
Ululitremulus and raises the possibility that the author of this verse has responded in a very creative and
humorous fashion to the coincidental juxtaposition of Ululitremulus’ election notice with this
establishment’s particular decorative scheme.]
74
[Further: Clarke 2007: 147-50; Flohr (loc. cit.); Garraffoni/Laurence 128; Milnor 2009 and 2014: 248-52;
DiBiasie 150-53, 172-76; J. Hartnett 2017: 113-14]
147) CIL IV.9226
[Villa of the Mysteries.]

Caricature of an unknown Roman named Rufus: fig. 22
[Further: Clarke 2007: 45-47; Benefiel 2011: 43 n. 18; Lohmann 286]
[Villa of the Mysteries]

[Courtney #97; Varone pp. 74-75; Spal #11]
domina = Engl. “mistress” [Spal’s argument (128-29) that our author could be a slave writing of an affair with
his mistress is unconvincing.]
resoluto clune — “with her slinky/heaving haunches” (abl. of description): cf. Petronius, Satyricon 23.3 (clune
agili — of a group of cinaedi), Juvenal 11.64 (tremulo … clune puellae — of erotic dancers from Cadiz),
Anthologia Latina 98.3 (femineo … clune movetur — of a eunuch), Corpus Grammicorum Latinorum
5.654.7 (cinaedi, qui publice clunem agitant); cf. Priapea 9.4 (fluctuante lumbo), with Adams 1982: 136-38.
[Contrast Courtney, who translates, “my haunches heaving.” By contrast, Varone (followed by Spal) takes
this as “my lady’s open [i.e., receptive? (abl. abs.) “fucked-out”? (abl. of description)] buttocks,” comparing
laxa in 10004 and the vb. chalare (e.g., 2021): see Adams 1982: 46 and 173. Cf. Panciera 184-85]
peregi — perαgo = to carry out, perform, bring to completion (sens. obsc.: Adams 1982: 143-44). Courtney
argues that the speaker breaks off in mid-sentence (aposiopesis) rather than continuing on to describe the
particulars (sc., e.g., mille modos Veneris)
cetera scribere — provides the subject of the sentence. [I follow Courtney, who (somewhat tentatively) detects
a common poetic trope here (cf., e.g., Ovid, Amores 1.5.25). Others (failing to note the idiomatic sense of
turpe fuit) read: [tales se]d versu(s) or [talia se]d versu — in which case the couplet concludes with a still
more curious pang of remorse]
versu — instrumental (“in my verses”)
fuit — for the pfct. ind. of sum in a contrary-to-fact statement (“would have been”), see A&G 521a NOTE
(phrases denoting necessity, propriety, and the like) on expressions such as melius fuit
149) CIL IV.9406
[Cooley/Cooley H45; Keegan G10.46: cf. Cooley #20 and 21]

gari flos — i.e., the most exquisite garum
scomber = mackerel (gen. of material)
Scauri — A. Umbricius Scaurus [Scaurus’ officina dominated the garum market in Campania, with roughly
30% of the fish-sauce containers found in the region originating from his workshops (Cooley)]
officina — workshop
ab Martiale — Martial would seem to have been the manager in charge of production [On the question of
Martial’s relationship to Scaurus, see H. Mouritsen, The Freedman in the Roman World (Cambridge and
New York, 2011) 221-22 and n. 75]
Augusti liberto — imperial freedman
75
[Fig. 23 (floor mosaic in the impluvium of the House of Umbricius Scaurus [VII.16.15]) presents the same text,
minus the allusion to Martial: Cooley #21.]
[Further: P. Berdowski, “Roman Businesswomen, I: The case of the producers and distributors of garum in
Pompeii,” Analecta Archaeologica Ressoviensia 3 (2008) 251-69; Cooley/Cooley 250-52]
150) CIL IV.9839b
[House I.12.1-2]
[Wallace II.114]
abomino = abominor
pauperos = pauperes [presented as a 2nd decl. acc. pl.]
quid = aliquid (A&G 310)
gratis — adv.
aes — see introduction to this chapter on Roman Currency and Wages
det … accipiat — jussive subj.
rem — i.e., merchandise
151) CIL IV.10004
[Pilaster in the portico of House I.9.5.]

Euplia — a Grk. female name (Euploia): cf. 2310b and 5048
laxa — [implying that Euplia has engaged in vaginal sex to such an extent that it has degraded this passage]
[Adams 1982: 79, 173; Martial 11.21; Carmina Priapea 18.2; §CIL XI.672.11]
landicosa — possessing an enlarged clitoris (a hapax legomenon — term that appears nowhere else). The noun
landica (clitoris) was regarded as one of the crudest of obscenities, found only (amid the standard authors) at
Priapea 78: cf. Cicero, ad Familiares 9.22.2 (joke re an unintended echo of this word in a formal oration);
Adams 1982: 79, 97-98. Comparison with Priapea 78 shows that the adj. form here bears much the same
implications as laxa:
At di deaeque dentibus tuis escam
negent, amicae cunnilinge vicinae,
per quem puella fortis ante nec mendax
et quae solebat impigro celer passu
ad nos venire, nunc misella landicae
vix posse iurat ambulare prae fossis.
(The last two lines: “now, the poor thing, with her sore clit,17 swears that she can scarcely walk due to the
state of her cunt.”)
[See Varone for further parallels.]
[On the loathing for female genitalia see esp. Richlin 67-69, who notes that, “The clitoris is mentioned only
as a flaw in the appearance of ugly genitalia.” See further J.P. Hallett, AJAH 2 (1977) 155.]
17
landicae — gen. of specification (A&G 349d) with misella
76
152) CIL IV.10005
[Portico of House I.9.5. On the same pilaster that contains 10004, scratched into the plaster above a mirror that
was embedded in the wall.]
[This notice was accompanied by a crude image of Fortunata performing fellatio (fig. 24).]
[Further: Clarke 2007: 250 n. 59; DiBiasie 161-62]
[Entrance to Caupona I.12.3]

[Varone p. 78 n. 118; Spal #16]
malim — potential subj. [A&G 447.1]
fellent … irrument — jussive subj. following malim (parataxis)
irrumo — (masc. subject) to compel another to perform fellatio, force one’s penis down someone’s throat
(colloq. Engl. — “facefuck”)
[On ancient attitudes toward fellatio, see ad 1969; on irrumatio, see Adams 1982: 125-30, Krenkel 2006a,
Kamen/Levin-Richardson 2015a: 242.]
[A modern reader is tempted to take this in the sense: “it is better to be flattered falsely (“sucked up to”) by
one’s friends than humiliated by one’s enemies,” but this does not accurately reflect Roman views of the two
activities. Varone is more helpful: “it is better to offend one’s friends than to face the displeasure of
enemies.” One needs to interpret this relatively anodyne rendering, however, in light of Adams 126 (citing
Martial 3.82.33), who notes that irrumatio and fellatio allude to the same act regarded from two different
perspectives. As a result, the Latin is closer to, “I’d rather screw (humiliate, degrade) my friends than be
screwed by my enemies” — a problematic proposition. In the end, our piece likely represents little more
than a bit of clever nonsense.]
[Spal notes that, pace the description in CIL, this inscription has been carved with care and is well preserved; he
suggests that the letters might even have been highlighted through the use of paint. He posits that it presents
a jaunty and appropriately audacious slogan calculated to entice (male) customers to enter this
establishment.]
[Further: Cugusi 85; Williams 2010: 178-79 and n. 5; 2012: 129; Milnor 2014: 178]
154) CIL IV.10070
[Wallace II.50]
Lesbiane — a Grk. masculine name in the voc.
salutem — “greetings!” (as in the standard salutation in a letter, salutem dicit: cf. above ad 1852)
[Our author presents a poignant critique of those who compose graffiti while defecating: cf. Martial 12.61.7-10.
As often when reading these texts, it is discomforting to find that modern popular culture now has a term for
this: poop-tweeting.]
[Wallace and Kruschwitz 2014: 266 read a period after scribisque, taking the latter verb in an absolute sense
and understanding tibi dico with salutem. This reading is phps. supported by the fact that the same wall
displays “a nearly meter-long painted electoral programma in which Lesbianus supports a candidate for local
office” (Levin-Richardson, citing CIL IV.9871). It is possible that scribis here alludes directly to the
programma and derides it. In that case, salutem tibi dico (like vale often) has a dismissive tone.]
[Contrast Varone 2016: 120-22, who reads, … cacas. scribit qui valuit (i.e., one who has already succeeded in
relieving himself writes this).]
77
[Cugusi notes that this can be scanned as the latter part of a hexameter: Lesbiane read as a trisyllable (‒ ‒ ⏑)]
[Further: Cugusi 82; Milnor 2014: 240-41; Levin-Richardson 2015: 236-37]
[House 1.15.3]
[Spal #17]
[An intriguing but challenging piece.]
line 1: quis = aliquis [I have adopted the reading quis, which appears in this construction so often elsewhere,
but qui is also possible: cf. 1751, where both constructions are employed.]
dicat — the couplet opens with the protasis of a fut.-less-vivid condition, only to replace it with a vivid general
condition involving the pres. ind. + fut. ind.
potanti — pred. / circumstantial ptcple. (“while I am carousing”) [poto is much more vivid than bibo]
surgo — the mot juste for rising from a banqueting-couch
fututum — the supine, used as the object of a vb. of motion to indicate purpose [A&G 509] (“to go have a
fuck”) [See Spal, who notes that the supine in -um becomes increasingly rare after Livy and Nepos: only
one other example appears in the inscriptions from Pompeii (cacatum ire, a slang expression), which
suggests that this construction had fallen out of popular usage. Spal concludes that the use of this archaic
formal construction with the coarse futuo is intentionally humorous.]
line 2: si causa est — [presumably this means, if the girl is pretty enough and the price is right]
este — Fortson/Wallace (Glotta 79 [2003] 23-28) argue that final -e here represents a phonetic reality (a prop
vowel that reasserts the pronunciation of final -t in est) rather than a simple mistake. If so, our author is
recording a text from memory but “hearing” the vulgar pronunciation of the verb as he/she does so (Spal,
noting the forms usce and tibe).
surgam … bibam — fut. ind.
si minus — i.e., if not (A&G 329a)
usce = usque (continuously, without a break)
line 3: [This line is appended in smaller letters, probably by the same hand (Fortson/Wallace and Spal). With
some work, it can be scanned as the opening of a hexameter.]
puella (?) — to be scanned as a disyllable (synizesis)?
tibe = tibi — dat. of advantage (“for yourself”)
[There are three principal issues in line 3:
• does puella represent a vocative, in a humorous, bravado-laden inversion of the typical scenario? (I.e., does
the speaker present himself as deigning to share himself with the woman, who is portrayed as purchasing his
services?) Or are we to read the acc. puellam (cf. surga … biba in the line above)?
• what sense do we make of mea? (In the voc., “my girl” echoes Engl. idiom rather than Latin, since there is
nothing here to suggest an on-going relationship such as we find in love elegy. (As Williams remarks in
another context: “… this is about what Catullus calls fututiones” [see my note ad 10675 ad fin.].) If we take
it with puellam as an acc., meam must mean, “the girl who is to be mine” — again, curious.)
• what are the subject and object of emisti? If we accept that tibe = tibi (Spal 162) and that it is followed by
something along the lines of mentula (Della Corte’s suggestion — based, it would appear, on no specific
evidence), is the latter nom. or acc.? (If nom., we have another humorous instance of personification.)
78
I have opted for the voc. puella as preferable (esp. since this woman is first introduced here at the beginning
of a line), along with mentulam. In that case, read: puella, meam emisti tibi mentulam. But this is all
speculation grounded in the striking characterization of the speaking voice in the first couplet.]
[See, further, Spal, who queries the reliability of the reading puella.]
[Further: Cugusi 83]
156) CIL IV.10222

Promus = Roman cognomen (?)
[Inscribed inside the image of a man’s head in profile: fig. 25]
[Further: Clarke 2007: 47; Williams 2010: 296]
157) CIL IV.10231
[On a funerary monument in the Porta Nocera necropolis]

[Varone p. 167]
gravido me tenet = gravedo me tenet (“I have a head-cold”) [cf. CIL IV.7080]
Atimete — a common Grk. masculine name (voc.)
[The ancient equivalent of, “not tonight: I have a headache”? This text is often printed with the reading Atimetus
(nom.) and translated, “Atimetus got me pregnant.” That is a much more interesting reading but almost
certainly wrong: Solin 2014: 99.]
158) CIL IV.10237

[Notice of gladiatorial games to be held in the nearby town of Nola: cf. 1474. The notice provides general
information about the games — where they were held, for how many days, their sponsor) — as well as the
fortunes of three individual gladiators. (See, further, introduction to this chapter.)]
[Wheelock’s Latin; Cooley/Cooley D31 — see also the remarks ad Cooley #27]
munus — service, duty, gift; public show, games
Nolae — locative (Nola is a large town about 20 miles N of Pompeii) [See Campell 36 for notices such as this
one as evidence of a “games-circuit” in the hinterland of the Bay of Naples.]
de quadriduo — i.e., over a four-day period [The notices from Pompeii routinely cite either one or four days as
the length of the program.]
M. Cominius Heres — the sponsor (editor) of the games
Princeps — Roman cognomen (= Grk. πρωτογένης: Kajanto 1965b: 18)
Neronianus — cf. ad 1421
Ɔ = c(oronarum)
Hilarus — Roman cognomen (Kajanto 1965b: 29, 67, 260)
Creunus — [= Krouneos?? (Grk. masc. name)]
79
missus est — i.e., was defeated but spared (Jacobelli 52 notes that, in the bouts cited in the graffiti of Pompeii,
the defeated gladiator was generally spared, with 6 deaths listed in a total of some 32 notices; but see
1421.)18
[An attempt seems to have been made to cross out the notice of Hilarus’ earlier victories.]
[Illustration depicting Hilarus and Creunus (??): fig. 26. The fighter to the left is a heavily armored gladiator
(murmillo?); that to the right would appear to be presented as an eques. At the far right is an orchestra of
seated musicians playing tubae; to the left, a corresponding group playing cornua. (Jacobelli 50-52 and fig.
43)]
159) Varone p. 71
Romula — fem. form of a Roman cognomen [Kajanto 1965b: 179]

mille trecentos — i.e., an outlandish number (Varone cfs. Catullus 11.18)
[A verb is easily suppled]
[cf. 2310b]
Herculaneum
160) CIL IV.10488
[On a water-distribution tower]

[Wallace III.1 — Cooley/Cooley F87 offer a gross mistranslation]
aedilis — [On the duties of the aediles, see ad 317]
si quis (here and below) = si aliquis (see ad 64)
velit — opens with the protasis of a future-less-vivid condition, rather than the more common fut./fut. pfct.
indicative (see ad 64 [retulerit])
monetur — “he is warned” [The pres. indicative is imperious in tone.]
non iacere — moneo + inf., as after iubeo, veto. [The use of non, however, suggests the construction:
monetur non <licere alicui> iacere]
indicium — warning [On this reading, see Wallace.]
fecerit — “act” (absolute) [Pfct. subj. — cf. G&L 596.1] [The fut. pfct. ind. is possible here (esp. in the
context of a threat/warning: cf. ad 7038) but the subj. seems more suited to the highly formal tone of this
notice and parallels si quis velit in the earlier clause.]
liberi — i.e., non-slaves (not “children”)
dent — jussive subj.
denarium nummum = 1 denarius (or 16 asses) [denarius is a masc. acc. sg. adj., with nummum]
verberibus — the slaves are to be whipped (instrumental abl.), but the specifics of the text are unclear]
in sedibus — [sense unclear]
admonentur — ??? [Given monetur above, this should mean, “are warned/advised/informed.”]
18
In one further instance a gladiator died after having been spared.
80
[This edict covers over an earlier one that is now too fragmentary to decipher: see Hartnett, who has interesting
observations about the political utility of such decrees.]
[Further: Cooley 18; Levin-Richardson 2015: 228, 231-34 (esp. 233: another seriously flawed text and
translation); J. Hartnett 2017: 236-39]
161) CIL IV.10619
[House of the Gem]

[Cooley/Cooley D109]
Apollinaris — on the identity of this individual (phps. the author of a medical treatise employed by Marcellus
Empiricus), see Varone 2016: 119 n. 18
Titi = the emperor Titus (came to power on June 23rd of AD 79, only some two months prior to the eruption of
Vesuvius)
[See Zadorojnyi on the hermeneutic challenges posed by such a text.]
[Zadorojnyi 112; Varone 2016: 119-20]
162) CIL IV.10675
[From a caupona in the Suburban Baths]

sodales — “pals” [cf. ad 2192 and see Williams 2012: 145-46, who notes that none of the graffiti alluding to
such group ventures employs the term amicus]
cum … haberent — causal
diu — implies that the two friends endured the poor service so long as they could
malum — pred. (note the emphatic word-order)
ministrum — either a personal slave of their own or the waiter assigned to attend them
in omnia — “in all regards” [OLD s.v. in 17] (to be taken with malum)
Epaphroditum — a Grk. masculine name (“Charming” — ironic in this context)
vix tarde — “at long last and with much difficulty”
foras — adv.
consumpserunt — sc. thereafter, after that (takes H-S CVS as its object)
persuavissime — most altogether pleasantly [a hapax?]
cum + impf. ind. — “when/while they …” [A&G 545]
H-S CVS = 105½ sesterces [S = semi] (An absurdly large sum [= 422 asses] —̦ more than 26 days’ worth of
wages for the typical workman.)
[McGinn 24 n. 74 notes that 10674-78 might imply the practice of prostitution in the vicinity of these baths,
“even if [the inscriptions themselves] cannot be taken literally.” This perhaps helps to explain the lack of
any concrete allusion to the identity of the women involved in these transactions. We are presented with the
equivalent of a “boys’ night”: any women involved are merely incidental. As Williams notes: “… these
graffiti do not speak of amor; this is about what Catullus calls fututiones.”]
[Fagan 1999: 324 (#281); Cugusi 95; Williams 2012: 145-46]
81
163) CIL IV.10677
[Found in the Suburban Baths, along with 10675, q.v.]
Apelles — a Grk. masculine name
cubicularius — chamberlain (i.e., an imperial slave)
cum Dextro — note how the introduction of this second party leads the writer to employ vbs. in the third plural
(constructio ad sensum)
futuere — [I.e., the both enjoyed the company of a female companion: cf. ad 2192]
simul — i.e., along with lunch
[Fagan 1999: 201 (with n. 40) and 324 (#278); Williams 2012: 145-46]
164) CIL IV.10678
[Cf. ad 10675]
Mus — a Roman cognomen (Kajanto 1965b: 328)
fratre — likely merely a term of affection (“close friend,” “colleague”) rather than an indication that the two are
kin (Williams 2012: 156-71)
amabiliter — in a friendly/amiable fashion (stresses the companionship between Apelles and Dexter, vs. the
more common bene, iucundissime, etc.) [On the suffix -biliter (common in Campanian graffiti), see Varone
76 n. 109] [The homosocial nature of this venture is highlighted to a still greater degree than in the earlier
two selections: see my note at 10675, ad fin.]
futuimus — on the use of the first plural, cf. ad 10677 (cum Dextro)
bis binas — “twice two” (i.e., the two of them each had sex with one woman twice)
[Fagan 1999: 324 (#279); Williams 2010: 429 n. 40, 2012: 145-46]
A Final Word
[House VIII.1.2]
[Courtney #77; Cooley/Cooley D110; Keegan G3.19; cf. CIL IV.2487 — Wallace II.185; Hartnett #88]
o — either an intrusion inserted by the writer or (Wallace) an interpunct indicating word division
ruinis = “in ruins” [added by modern editors exempli gratia to complete the line]
qui … sustineas — rel. clause of characteristic in an explanatory sense (often signaled by utpote in prose)
taedium = a disgusting, loathsome, or irksome thing, a nuisance (freq. in pl.) [tot taedia = “so much revolting
nonsense”]
scriptorum — i.e., on the part of writers, produced by scribblers (subjective gen.)
sustineas — both “sustain,” “hold up” and “endure,” “put up with” (Hartnett)
[cf. CIL IV.2461, 2487 and Priapea 61.13-14]
[Further: Wick 221; Milnor 2009: 292-93; Williams 2010: 291; Keegan 2011: 173-74; Zadorojnyi 117]
82
83
Bibliography
[* = text/commentary/translation; cited by author only]
Adams, J.N. The Latin Sexual Vocabulary. Baltimore, 1982.

*Adams, J.N. An Anthology of Informal Latin, 200 BC–AD 900: Fifty Texts with Translations and
Linguistic Commentary. Cambridge, 2016.
Allison, P.M. “Placing Individuals: Pompeian Epigraphy in Context,” JMA 14 (2001) 54-75.
Allison, P.M. Pompeian Households: An On-line Companion.
[ http://www.stoa.org/projects/ph/index.html ]
Bailey, M. “Roman Money and Numerical Practice,” Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire 91 (2013)
153-86.
Baird, J., and C. Taylor, eds. Ancient Graffiti in Context. New York, 2011.
Benefiel, R.R. “Pompeii, Puteoli, and the Status of a Colonia in the Mid-First Century AD,” in F. Senatore,
ed., Pompei, Capri, e la Penisola Sorrentina (Capri, 2004) 349-67.
Benefiel, R.R. “Amianth, a ball-game, and making one’s mark. CIL IV.1936 and 1936a,” ZPE 167 (2008)
193-200.
Benefiel, R.R. “Dialogues of Ancient Graffiti in the House of Maius Castricius in Pompeii,” AJA 114
(2010) 59-101.
Benefiel, R.R. “Dialogues of Graffiti in the House of the Four Styles at Pompeii (Casa Dei Quattro Stili,
I.8.17, 11),” in J. Baird and C. Taylor, eds., Ancient Graffiti in Context (New York, 2011) 20-48.
Benefiel, R.R. “Magic Squares, Alphabet Jumbles, Riddles and More: The Culture of Word-Games among
the Graffiti of Pompeii,” in J. Kwapisz, D. Petrain, M. Szymanski, eds., The Muse at Play: Riddles
and Wordplay in Greek and Latin Poetry (Munich, 2012) 65-80.
Benefiel, R.R. “The Culture of Writing Graffiti within Domestic Spaces at Pompeii,” in R.R. Benefiel and
P. Keegan, eds., Inscriptions in the Private Sphere in the Greco-Roman World (Leiden, 2016) 80-110.
Blänsdorf, J. “Erborgte und gerettete Schriftlichkeit: Einflüsse der Mundlichkeit in spätantiken Texten,” in
H.L.C. Tristram, ed., (Re)Oralisierung (Tübingen, 1996) 85-110.
Brun, J.-P. “The Production of Perfumes in Antiquity: The Cases of Delos and Paestum,” AJA 104 (2000)
277-308.
Buonopane, A. “Una voce di chi non aveva voce: i graffiti delle donne,” in M.G. Angeli Bertinelli and A.
Donati, eds., Opinione pubblica e forme di comunicazione a Roma: il linguaggio dell’epigrafia
(Faenza, 2009) 231-45.
Campbell, V.L. The Tombs of Pompeii: Organization, Space, and Society. New York and London, 2015.
CIL = Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (q.v.)
Clarke, J.R. Looking at Lovemaking. Constructions of Sexuality in Roman Art, 100 B.C. to A.D. 250.
Berkeley, 1998.
Clarke, J.R. Looking at Laughter: Humor, Power, and Transgression in Roman Visual Culture, 100 BC to
250 AD. Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2007.
*Cooley, A.E., ed. The Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy. Cambridge and New York, 2012.
*Cooley, A.E.., and M.G.L. Cooley. Pompeii and Herculaneum: A Sourcebook. Second edition. London
and New York, 2014.
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL), vol. IV:
Inscriptiones parietariae Pompeianae Herculanenses Stabianae. Edid. C. Zangemeister, R. Schoene.
1871 (impr. iter. 1957) ISBN 3-11-003188-4
Supplementi pars I: Tabulae ceratae Pompeiis repertae. Edidit C. Zangemeister. 1898 (impr. iter.
1968) ISBN 3-11-001410-6
Supplementi pars II: Inscriptiones parietariae et vasorum fictilium. Edidit A. Mau. 1909 (impr. iter.
1968) ISBN 3-11-001411-4
84
[The above are available online as pdf at Arachne. Links available at:
http://cil.bbaw.de/cil_en/dateien/cil_baende.html ]
Supplementi pars III: Inscriptiones Pompeianae Herculanenses parietariae et vasorum fictilium.
Edid. M. Della Corte, P. Ciprotti. 1-4. Lieferung 1952-1970
1. Lieferung: ISBN 3-11-003183-3
4. Lieferung: ISBN 3-11-001422-X
Supplementi pars IV: Fasc. I ad titulos pictos spectantem. Edid. V. Weber, A. Varone, R. Marchionni,
J. Kepartová. 2011 ISBN 978-3-11018538-6
Supplementi pars IV: Fasc. II. Edid. H. Solin, P. Kruschwitz. [currently in preparation]
*Courtney, E. Musa Lapidaria: A Selection of Latin Verse Inscriptions. Atlanta, 1995.
Csapo, E. “Deep Ambivalence: Notes on a Greek Cockfight (Parts II-IV),” Phoenix 47 (1993) 115-24.
Cugusi, P. “Poesia ‘ufficiale’ e poesia ‘epigrafica’ nei graffiti dei centri vesuviani. In appendice alcuni
nuovi carmi epigrafici pompeiani,” Studia Philologica Valentina 11.8 (2008) 43-102.
DeFelice, J. Roman Hospitality: The Professional Women of Pompeii. Warren Center, PA, 2001.
*Della Corte, M. Loves and Lovers in Ancient Pompeii: A Pompeian Erotic Anthology. Rome, 1960.
Della Corte, M. Case ed Abitanti di Pompei. 3rd ed. Naples, 1965.
DiBiasie, J.F. The Writings on the Wall: The Spatial and Literary Context of Domestic Graffiti from
Pompeii. Diss. Austin, 2015.
Dickison, S.K., and J.P. Hallett. A Roman Women Reader: Selections from the Second Century BCE
through Second Century CE. Mundelein, 2015.
Diehl, E. Pompeianische Wandinschriften und Verwandtes. Bonn, 1910.
Dobbins, J., and P. Foss, eds. The World of Pompeii. New York, 2007.
Duncan-Jones, R. The Economy of the Roman Empire. 2nd ed. Cambridge, 1982.
Dunn, J., and B. Dunn. pompeiiinpictures.com
Étienne, R. “La rue messagère d’amour à Pompéi,” in A. Leménorel, ed., La rue, lieu de sociabilité?
(Rouen, 1997) 55-62.
Evans, J.K. War, Women, and Children in Ancient Rome. London and New York, 1991.
Fagan, G.G. Bathing in Public in the Roman World. Ann Arbor, 1999.
Fagan, G.G. “Training Gladiators: Life in the Ludus,” in L. Brice and D. Slootjes, eds., Aspects of Ancient
Institutions and Geography: Studies in Honor of Richard J.A. Talbert (Leiden, 2014) 122-44.
Franklin, J.L. “Games and a Lupanar: Prosopography of a Neighborhood in Ancient Pompeii,” CJ 81
(1986) 319-28.
*Franklin, J.L. Pompeis Difficile Est: Studies in the Political Life of Imperial Pompeii. Ann Arbor, 2001.
Franklin, J. “Epigraphy and Society,” in J. Dobbins and P. Foss, eds The World of Pompeii (New York,
2007) 518-25.
Funari, P.P. de Abreu. “Apotropaic Symbolism at Pompeii: A Reading of the Graffiti Evidence,” Revista de
Historia 32 (1995) 9-17.
Garraffoni, R.S., and P.P.A. Funari. “Reading Pompeii’s Walls: A Social Archaeological Approach to
Gladiatorial Graffiti,” in T. Wilmott, ed., Roman Amphitheatres and Spectacula: A 21st-Century
Perspective (Oxford, 2009) 185-93.
Garraffoni, R.S., and R. Laurence. “Writing in Public Space from Child to Adult: The Meaning of Graffiti,”
in Sears et al. (2013) 123-34.
Hartnett, J. “Si quis hic sederit: Streetside Benches and Urban Society in Pompeii,” AJA 112 (2008) 91-
119.
Hartnett, J. The Roman Street: Urban Life and Society in Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Rome. Cambridge,
2017.
85
*Hartnett, M. By Roman Hands: Inscriptions and Graffiti for Students of Latin. Newburyport, 2008.
Jacobelli, L. Gladiators at Pompeii. Los Angeles, 2003.
*Johnson, M., and T. Ryan. Sexuality in Greek and Roman Literature and Society: A Sourcebook.
Abingdon and New York, 2005. http://lib.myilibrary.com/Open.aspx?id=36102
Johnson, W.A., and H.N. Parker, eds. Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome.
Oxford and New York, 2009.
Kajanto, I. “Cognomina Pompeiana,” Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 66 (1965a) 446-60.
Kajanto, I. The Latin Cognomina. Helsinki, 1965b.
Kamen, D., and S. Levin-Richardson. “Lusty Ladies in the Roman Imaginary,” in R. Blondell and K.
Ormand, eds., Ancient Sex: New Essays (Columbus, 2015a) 231-52.
Kamen, D., and S. Levin-Richardson. “Revisiting Roman Sexuality: Agency and the Conceptualization of
Penetrated Males,” in M. Masterson, N.S. Rabinowitz, and J. Robson, eds., Sex in Antiquity:
Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World (Abingdon and New York, 2015b) 449-60.
Keegan, P. “Blogging Rome: Graffiti a Speech-Act and Cultural Discourse,” in J. Baird and C. Taylor,
eds., Ancient Graffiti in Context (New York, 2011) 165-90.
*Keegan, P. Graffiti in Antiquity. London and New York, 2014.
Keegan, P. “Graffiti as Monumenta and Verba: Marking Territories, Creating Discourses in Roman
Pompeii,” in R.R. Benefiel and P. Keegan, eds., Inscriptions in the Private Sphere in the Greco-
Roman World (Leiden, 2016) 248-64.
Krenkel, W.A. “Fellatio and Irrumatio,” in W. Bernard and C. Reitz, eds., Naturalia non turpia
(Hildesheim, Zurich, and New York, 2006a) 205-31.
Krenkel, W.A. “Masturbation in der Antike,” in W. Bernard and C. Reitz, eds., Naturalia non turpia
(Hildesheim, Zurich, and New York, 2006b) 173-204.
Krenkel, W.A. “Tonguing,” in W. Bernard and C. Reitz, eds., Naturalia non turpia (Hildesheim, Zurich,
and New York, 2006c) 265-302.
Kruschwitz, P. “Patterns of Text Layout in Pompeian Verse Inscriptions,” Studia Philologica Valentina 11,
n.s. 8 (2008) 225-64.
Kruschwitz, P. “Reading and Writing in Pompeii: An Outline of the Local Discourse,” Studj romanzi 10
(2014) 245-79.
Levin-Richardson, S. Roman Provocations: Interactions with Decorated Spaces in Early Imperial Rome
and Pompeii. Diss. Stanford, 2009.
Levin-Richardson, S. “Facilis hic futuit: Graffiti and Masculinity in Pompeiiis ‘Purpose-Built’ Brothel,”
Helios 38 (2011) 59-78.
Levin-Richardson, S. “Fututa Sum Hic: Female Subjectivity and Agency in Pompeian Sexual Graffiti,” CJ
108 (2013) 319-45.
Levin-Richardson, S. “Bodily Waste and Boundaries in Pompeian Graffiti,” in D. Dutsch and A. Suter,
eds., Ancient Obscenities: Their Nature and Use in the Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds (Ann
Arbor, 2015) 225-54.
Lohmann, P. Graffiti als Interaktionsform: Geritzte Inschriften in den Wohnhäusern Pompejis. Berlin and
Boston, 2018.
Mau, A. Pompeii: Its Life and Art. New ed., rev. and corrected. New York and London, 1902.
McGinn, T.A.J. The Economy of Prostitution in the Roman World: A Study of Social History and the
Brothel. Ann Arbor, 2004.
Milnor, K.L. “Literary Literacy in Roman Pompeii: The Case of Vergil’s Aeneid,” in W.A. Johnson and
H.N. Parker, Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome (Oxford, 2009) 288-
319.
Milnor, K.L. Graffiti and the Literary Landscape in Roman Pompeii. Oxford and New York, 2014.
Panciera, M.D. Sexual Practice and Invective in Martial and Pompeian Inscriptions. Diss. Chapel Hill,
2001.
86
Parker, H.N. “The Teratogenic Grid,” in J.P. Hallett and M.B. Skinner, eds., Roman Sexualities (Princeton,
1997) 47-65.
Pervis, R. “Fututrix: Female Sexual Subjectivity for Women Who Fuck in Pompeiian Graffiti,” Logos: The
Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies Student Journal 2 (2016-2017) 47-57.
Petersen, L.H. The Freedman in Roman Art and Art History. Cambridge, 2006.
Ramat, P. Linguistic Typology. Berlin, New York, Amsterdam, 1987.
Richlin, A. Garden of Priapus: Sexuality and Aggression in Roman Humor. Revised edition. Oxford, 1992.
Sears, G., P. Keegan, R. Laurence, eds. Written Space in the Latin West, 200 BC to AD 300. London and
New York, 2013.
Solin, H. Die stadtrömischen Sklavennamen: Ein Namenbuch. Stuttgart, 1996.
Solin, H. Die griechischen Personennamen in Rom: Ein Namenbuch. 2nd ed. Berlin and New York, 2003.
Solin, H. “Vulgar Latin and Pompeii,” in R. Wright, ed., Latin vulgaire – latin tardif VIII (Hildesheim,
Zürich, and New York, 2008) 60-68.
Solin, H. “On the Use of Greek in Campania,” in M. Leiwo, H. Halla-aho, and M. Vierros, eds., Variation
and Change in Greek and Latin (Helsinki, 2012) 97-114.
Solin, H. “Zu pompejanischen Wandinschriften,” in W. Eck et al., eds., Studia Epigraphica in memoriam
Geza Alföldy (Bonn, 2013) 327-350.
Solin, H. “Graffiti aus Pompeji: Bemerkungen zu einerneuen Veröffentlichung,” Gymnasium 121 (2014)
91-105. [Review of: V. Hunink, Glücklich ist dieser Ort! 1000 Graffiti aus Pompeji (Stuttgart,
2011).]
Solin, H. “Iscrizioni parietali di Pompei,” in C. Capaldi and F. Zevi, eds., La collezione epigrafica: Museo
archeologico nazionale di Napoli (Milan, 2017) 246-77.
*Spal, A. Poesie-Erotik-Witz: Humorvoll-spöttische Versinschriften zu Liebe und Körperlichkeit in
Pompeji und Umgebung. Berlin and Boston, 2016.
Väänänen, V. Le latin vulgaire des inscriptions pompéiennes. 3rd ed. Berlin, 1966.
*Varone, A. Erotica Pompeiana: Love Inscriptions on the Walls of Pompeii. Rome, 2002.
Varone, A., and G. Stefani. Titulorum pictorum Pompeianorum qui in CIL vol. IV collecti sunt imagines.
Rome, 2009.
Varone, A. “Readings of Iscrizioni Privatissime,” in R.R. Benefiel and P. Keegan, eds., Inscriptions in the
Private Sphere in the Greco-Roman World (Leiden, 2016) 113-30.
*Wallace, R.E. An Introduction to Wall Inscriptions from Pompeii and Herculaneum. Waucanda, 2005.
Wick, F.C. “Vindiciae carminum pompeianorum,” Atti della Reale Accademia di Archeologii, Lettere e
Belle Arti 25 (1908) 199-236.
Williams, C. Roman Homosexuality. 2nd ed. Oxford and New York, 2010. [esp. App. 4]
Williams, C. Reading Roman Friendship. Oxford and New York, 2012.
Williams, C. “Sexual Themes in Greek and Latin Graffiti,” in T.K. Hubbard, ed., A Companion to Greek
and Roman Sexualities (Malden, 2013) 500-15.
Wilson, S. The Means Of Naming: A Social and Cultural History of Personal Naming in Western Europe.
London, 1998.
Woeckner, E. “Women’s Graffiti from Pompeii,” in L.J. Churchill, P.R. Brown, and J.E. Jeffrey, eds.,
Women Writing Latin: From Roman Antiquity to Early Modern Europe, vol. 1 (New York, 2002) 67-
84.
Zadorojnyi, A.V. “Transcripts of Dissent? Political Graffiti and Elite Ideology under the Principate,” in J.
Baird and C. Taylor, eds., Ancient Graffiti in Context (New York, 2011) 110-33.
87
Images
Fig. 1: House of Pansa (CIL IV.138)

(Pirson fig. 1)
88
Fig. 2: “Lente Impelle” (CIL IV.794)
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8478/8279041116_0f11595388_b.jpg
89
Fig. 3: Plaque with phallus (CIL IV.950)
http://www.pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/R9/9%2001%2013_files/image022.jpg
Fig. 4a: Riot in the Amphitheater at Pompeii (cf. ad 8356)

(Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, inv. no. 112222)
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fXxkmWeGi4w/maxresdefault.jpg
90
Fig. 4b: Riot in the Amphitheater at Pompeii (cf. ad 8356)
(Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, inv. no. 112222)
https://www.petersommer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Pompeii-amphitheatre-in-fresco.jpg
91
Fig. 5: CIL IV.1293
(Hartnett #33)
Fig. 6: Faustus Itaci (CIL IV.1421)

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7c/9c/9c/7c9c9c3b4978e6f719d573efc94a674f.png
92
Fig. 7: Spiculus and Aphthonetus (CIL IV.1474)
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/4/8465256_915644ceb3_m.jpg
Fig. 8: Venus Fisica Pompeiana, with branch, scepter, and ship’s rudder, flanked by cupids (CIL IV.1520)
https://pompeiinetworks.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/image013.jpg
93
Fig. 9: CIL IV.1837
(Kruschwitz 2008: fig. 11)
Fig. 10: CIL IV.2183

(Benefiel 2004: fig. 3)
94
Fig. 11: The Labyrinth (CIL IV.2331)
http://www.pompeiiinpictures.eu/r9/9%2003%2005%20p11_files/image011.jpg
Fig. 12: Houses I.4.5 and 25 (CIL IV.2375)

https://sites.google.com/site/ad79eruption/pompeii/regio-i/reg-i-ins-4/house-of-the-citharist
95
Fig. 13: Felicio tormentare (CIL IV.4266)
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/4/8465256_915644ceb3_m.jpg
Fig. 14: Philoctetes (CIL IV.5213)

http://www.pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/r9/9%2008%2006%20house%20part%2018_files/image017.jpg
96
Fig. 15: Greek Abecedarium (CIL IV.5461)
Fig. 16a: Triclinium: House of the Moralist (CIL IV.7698a-c)

http://www.pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/r3/3%2004%2003%20p3_files/image008.jpg
97
Fig. 16b: Triclinium: House of the Moralist (CIL IV.7698c)
Fig. 17: Cacator, cave malum (cf. CIL IV.7716)

(Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Aquileia inv. 50397)
http://www.quaderni.archeofriuli.net/wp-content/uploads/QFA-25-Baratta.pdf
98
Fig. 18: Fortunata (CIL IV.8185)
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/0691b3_e6e19dc2fb224eae97230b8d1a3bd13a.jpg/v1/fill/w_1636,h_666,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/0691b3_e6e19dc2fb224eae97230b8d1a3bd13a.jpg
Fig. 19: Amantes ut apes (CIL IV.8408a)

99
Figs. 20a & b: Romulus and Aeneas (CIL IV.9131)
http://www.pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/r9/9%2013%2005_files/image010.jpg
http://www.pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/r9/9%2013%2005_files/image008.jpg
Fig. 21: Owl perched on a bleaching frame (CIL IV.9131)

http://pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/R6/6%2008%2020%20p2.htm
100
Fig. 22: Rufus (CIL IV.9226)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Rufus_est_caricature_villa_misteri_Pompeii.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/9226%28Rufus_est%29.jpg
Fig. 23: Gari flos scombri Scauri (CIL IV.9406)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Garum_Mosaik_Pompeji.JPG
101
Fig. 24: Fortunata (CIL IV.10005)
http://pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/R1/1%2009%2005%20p4_files/image013.jpg
Fig. 25: Promus Fellator (CIL IV.10222)

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/0691b3_7f820925da75411ab837f65be9c4fb71.jpg/v1/fill/w_716,h_864,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/0691b3_7f820925da75411ab837f65be9c4fb71.jpg
102
Fig. 26: Games of M. Cominius Heres (CIL IV.10237)
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/5/8465093_c70b1370d5_b.jpg
103
Index
CIL IV.64.1-4 1938 3117 7716

138 1940 3498 8034
317 1969 3711 8185
429 2021 3932 8230
538 2048 4008 8259 (with 8258)
794 2145 4024 8297
813 2146 4087 8356
950 2175 4091 8384
1189 2176 4185 8400
1261 2178 4196 8408a
1293 2178a 4239 8442
1383 2183 4259 8475
1393 2184 4264 8483
1421 2186 4289 8562
1474 2188 4307 8715b
1516 2192 4342 8767
1520 2193 4485 8792a
1574 2204 4488 8898
1645 2210 4523 8903
1649 2217 4566 8940
1679.7-13a 2240 4592 8972
1751 2246 4917 9131
1787 2257 4954 9226
1798 2265 4957 9246b
1816 2270 4976 9406
1820 2273 5007 9839b
1824 2274 5048 10004
1826 2275 (with 2259) 5092 10005
1830 2278 5105 10030
1837 2279 5187 10070
1852 2288 5213 10195
1854 2292 5244 10222
1863 2310b 5251 10231
1864 2331 5279 10237
1880 2375 5372 10488
1881 2400 5461 10619
1882 2425 6641 10675
1883 2450 (with 2440) 6842 10677
1884 3042 7038 10678
1904 (#165) 3061 7089 Varone p. 71 (#159)
1926 3103 7698
104
Elegiac Couplets Dactylic Hexameter Iambic Senarii
1516 813 (?) 1820
1645 1520 [1852] (?)
1649 1824 1863
1679.7-13a (?) 4485 (?) 1882
1824 [7038] 1884
1837 9131 4008
[1880] 4488
1904 Trochaic Septenarii 5092
3042 (?) 1830 8408a
3498 1883 [8903]
3932 2246 (?) 10030
4091 [4239] (?)
4957 8562
6842
7698 Asynartetic
9246b 5007
10195
105

Graffiti PDF

Cargado por

Información del documento

Título original

Derechos de autor

Formatos disponibles

Compartir este documento

Compartir o incrustar documentos

Opciones para compartir

¿Le pareció útil este documento?

¿Este contenido es inapropiado?

Copyright:

Formatos disponibles

Graffiti PDF

Cargado por

Copyright:

Formatos disponibles

A Sampling of Graffiti and

Other Public and Semi-Public Texts from Pompeii and Herculaneum

© J.R. Porter, 2018

() — omitted characters (abbreviation)

7) CIL IV.813 [hexameter?]

10) CIL IV.1261

11) CIL IV.1293

12) CIL IV.1383

13) CIL IV.1393

14) CIL IV.1421

15) CIL IV.1474

16) CIL IV.1516 (elegiac couplet)

17) CIL IV.1520 (dactylic hexameter)

18) CIL IV.1574

19) CIL IV.1645 (elegiac couplet)

20) CIL IV.1649 (elegiac couplet)

21) CIL IV.1679.7-13a (elegiac couplet?)

22) CIL IV.1751

23) CIL IV.1787

24) CIL IV.1798

25) CIL IV.1816

27) CIL IV.1824 (elegiac couplet followed by a pair of dactylic hexameters)

28) CIL IV.1826

29) CIL IV.1830 (trochaic septenarii)

30) CIL IV.1837 (elegiac couplets)

c) (hand 3) qui supra scrip[sit]. |

d) (hand 4) vere dicis

31) CIL IV.1852 (embedded senarius?)

33) CIL IV.1863 (iambic senarius)

34) CIL IV.1864

35) CIL IV.1880 (embedded pentameter)

36) CIL IV.1881

37) CIL IV.1882 (iambic senarius)

38) CIL IV.1883 (trochaic septenarius)

39) CIL IV.1884 (iambic senarius)

40) CIL IV.1926

41) CIL IV.1938

42) CIL IV.1940

44) CIL IV.2021

45) CIL IV.2048

46) CIL IV.2145

47) CIL IV.2146

Selections 48-71: From the Purpose-Built Brothel in Pompeii (VII.12.18)

48) CIL IV.2175

49) CIL IV.2176

50) CIL IV.2178

51) CIL IV.2178a

53) CIL IV.2184

54) CIL IV.2186

55) CIL IV.2188

56) CIL IV.2192

57) CIL IV.2193

58) CIL IV.2204

59) CIL IV.2210

60) CIL IV.2217

61) CIL IV.2246 (trochaic septenarius?)

62) CIL IV.2257

64) CIL IV.2265

65) CIL IV.2270

66) CIL IV.2273

67) CIL IV.2274

68) CIL IV.2278

69) CIL IV.2279