Roman graffiti
In archaeological terms, graffiti is a mark, image or writing scratched or engraved into a surface. There have been numerous examples found on sites of the Roman Empire, including taverns and houses, as well as on pottery of the time. In many cases the graffiti tend toward the rude, with a line etched into the basilica in Pompeii reading "Lucilla made money from her body," phallic images, as well as erotic pictures. Other graffiti took on a more innocent nature, taking the form of simple pictures or games. Although many forms of Roman graffiti are indecipherable, studying the graffiti left behind from the Roman Period can give a better understanding of the daily life and attitudes of the Roman people with conclusions drawn about how everyday Romans talked, where they spent their time, and their interactions within those spaces.
Graffiti samples
Inscriptions cover a range of topics from poems, advertisements, political statements, to greetings. There are two forms of graffiti: painted inscriptions and inscribed inscriptions. Many forms of graffiti also give insight to what certain locations acted as during the Roman Empire.Pompeii
Over 11,000 graffiti samples have been uncovered in the excavations of Pompeii. Archaeologists have been studying and recording graffiti in Pompeii since the 1800s. These documentations remain the best evidence of over 90 percent of recorded graffiti from the area, which has not survived the elements. Most of the graffiti archaeologists were able to uncover took the form of friendly messages and games that required Roman numerals. Many of these recorded graffiti were found in public areas such as stairwells and entrances. Due to the simple nature of the graffiti, many archaeologists were early to dismiss the importance of the wall writings as it concerned life in ancient Pompeii. However, this thought pattern changed with the discovery of the House of Maius Castricius.House of Maius Castricius
This domestic residence shows that ancient graffiti was not limited to the public sphere, as graffiti is in modern day. This site, discovered in the 1960s, has benefited from preservation efforts, leaving the graffiti samples in their original context and remain legible. There is a unique feature of eleven graffiti containing multiple lines of poetry. For the most part, the poems are arranged vertically and respect the space of the others. This mix of original work and common phrases is not a miscellaneous group because of the number and composition; instead, it appears that a conversation has formed.One passage on the staircase reads:
vasia quae rapui, quaeris formosa puella
accipe quae rapui non ego solus; ama.
quisquis amat valeat
Which translates to:
Beautiful girl, you seek the kisses that I stole.
Receive what I was not alone in taking; love.
Whoever loves, may she fare well.
Many of the inscriptions found in the House of Maius Castricius that blend both image and writing have been ignored by archaeologists due to errors in the form of documentation. The methodology used by the archaeological department responsible for recording the House of Maius Castricius site have focused on primarily deciphering the Latin and Greek texts of the graffiti but have no clear way of interpreting images that have no clear description accompanying them.
Outside the shop of Fabius Ululitremulus
An example here demonstrates a familiarity with Virgil and hexameter verse. On the doorpost of the shop near pictures of Aeneas and Romulus is written:
Fullones ululamque cano, non arma virumque.
Translating to:
I sing of cloth-launderers and an owl, not arms and a man.
The owl is a signifier of Minerva, the goddess who has been said to be protector over the profession of fullones.
Mary Beard notes that there are more than fifty examples of graffiti referring to Virgil in Pompeii alone, but also notes that the majority of the references are to the opening lines of Book 1 or Book 2 of the Aeneid, suggesting that these lines may have been widely known in the fashion "To be, or not to be" is known today.
Ovid's ''Heroides'' 4
One finding in Pompeii that was uncommon was a literary-based inscription referring to Ovid's Heroides 4. Heroides 4 was a poem about the Greek character Phaedra falling in love with her husband's son, Hippolytus. This graffiti found in particular was located next to a painting describing the Roman mythical version of Pompeii. Similar to the House of Maius Castricius, there have been few ways to interpret images to graffiti; however, archaeologists have used the Heroides 4 graffiti to show that Roman citizens possibly were able to understand art in a refined manner, both for the literary reference as well as the painting of Pompeii.''Calos'' graffiti
One popular term found in many of the discovered graffiti walls in Pompeii was calos, a Latin translation of the Greek word for beauty. Initially starting as a form of praise for upstanding citizens in Greek pottery, calos found its way into becoming a popular Pompeian graffiti writing sometime during the first-century. Calos was typically used before someone's name, for example:"calos Castrensis"translates to:
"beautiful Castrensis"
The calos graffiti has been assumed by archaeologists to have been used for listing sexual partners, describing sexual conduct, and prostitution specifically locations of brothels. Calos helps us understand some typical graffiti writings that citizens of Pompeii might have had strong association with.
Roman Market in Athens
An archaeological excavation of the Roman Agora in Athens discovered a nearly perfectly preserved row of columns that contain Roman graffiti. Many of the inscriptions have been interpreted by archaeologists as pertaining to Christianity which began to become a popular religion in Athens later in the Roman Empire. Other inscriptions include possible names of writers that vary from common Roman names to cryptic Roman names most likely to hide the author.Another important theme that the graffiti in the Roman market holds is of a sexual nature. Some of the graffiti found is assumed to hold a mystical form as a sexual charm that either will grace the reader with pleasure or punish a former sexual partner. One particular description found at the market in particular is a curse placed on a woman by a former lover:
I bind you, Theodotis, daughter of Eus, to the tail of the snake and to the mouth of the crocodile
and the horns of the ram and the poison of the asp and the whiskers of the cat and the forepart of the
god so that you cannot ever have intercourse with another man nor be f***** nor be buggered nor
fellate and not do anything for pleasure with another man, if it is not me alone, Ammonion, son of Hermitaris.
Britannia
Ancient graffiti has been found on sites in the Roman province of Britannia. In 2022, a piece of lewd graffiti, dated to around the 3rd century AD, was found on the site of Vindolanda, near Hadrian’s Wall in northern England. It had a phallic description and was translated by historians to say “Secundius the shitter”.Dialogues
Graffiti is often meant to be seen and expects to be read. A dialogue is formed between the reader and the inscription and can be simple as they speak directly to the readers in forms such as "if anyone sits here, let him read this before everything else..." as well as "He who writes this is in love... and I who reads this am a prick."There are also dialogues where one passage answers another. These responses take the forms of greetings, insults, prayers, etc.
Successus textor amat coponiaes ancilla
nomine Hiredem quae quidem illum
non curat sed ille rogat illa comiseretur
scribit rivalis vale
Translates to:
Successus the weaver is in love with the slave of the
Innkeeper, whose name is Iris. She doesn't care about
him at all, but he asks that she take pity on him.
A rival wrote this
A response to this translates to:
You're so jealous you're bursting. Don't tear down
someone more handsome―
a guy who could beat you up and who is good-looking.
Games and riddles
Word squares and riddles are also common forms of the culture of graffiti. In addition to this, many games played through graffiti also use numbers through the use of Roman numerals. These show a level of mental agility and flexibility of language.Children
Examples of handwritten alphabets are common graffiti in Pompeii and could be evidence of children practicing their alphabet. This lends to the argument that children were responsible for much of the graffiti. However, the height of the inscriptions and location may contradict this.Commentary
Writing around 100 AD, Plutarch wrote of graffiti: "There is nothing written in them which is either useful or pleasing – only so-and-so 'remembers' so-and-so, and 'wishes him the best', and is 'the best of his friends', and many things full of such ridiculousness".Twenty-first century scholars have found more to study and enjoy in the visual art and intertextuality of Roman graffiti.
More than simply text and thought, Roman graffiti give insight into the use of space and how people interacted within it. Studying the motivation behind the marks reveals a trend for the graffiti to be located where people spend time and pass most frequently as they move through a space. Common places for graffiti are staircases, central peristyle, and vestibule. The use of graffiti by Romans has been said to be very different from the defacing trends of modern day, with the text blending into the walls and rooms by respecting the frescoes and decoration with the use of small letters. In this way, the environment influences the graffiti by subject and organization, and the graffiti in turn changes and influences the environment.