Inscriptions and Wall Writings as evidence
 Pompeii is a vast archive of formal inscriptions on stone, marble
and bronze, and is famous for it’s ‘spontaneous epigraphy’ –
otherwise known as graffiti.
 Inscriptions and graffiti can be sources for many different topics,
including everyday life, religion, and political life of Pompeii
 Permanent inscriptions on stone marble or bronze included:
- civic charters and regulations on the walls of public buildings
- dedications by wealthy citizens who had paid for public buildings,
temples and statues
- funerary inscriptions found on tombs
 from these inscriptions, historians are able to learn who the
prominent families were, the structure of government, the main
political players, when buildings were constructed or renovated,
and the economic, political and social transformations that
occurred in society.
 Public notices found on walls in Pompeii refer to activities and
events that took place in the years just before the eruption.
 These notices were written in red or black ink on whitewashed
walls.
 They were executed by the professional scribes who also dealt
with official communications, the sentences of the tribunal, the
buying and selling of slaves and public decisions. There are
around three thousand electoral inscriptions in Pompeii and most
of them can be dated to the city's final year of existence, given that
it was customary to rub out the old inscriptions to make way for
new ones
 Many notices are evidence of political propaganda, and are
electoral manifestos or slogans which urge people to vote for a
certain candidate.
 Notices which announced shows coming to the amphitheatre
would list the local magistrate or political candidate that was
paying for the event – historians have been able to learn much
about the type of entertainment that took place, and the names of
the local aristocracy.
 The graffiti, on the other hand, are the messages which were made
by scratching on the walls of the houses: these relate to the most
disparate subjects and paint an extremely vivid and frank picture
of contemporary social life: they include risque jokes, comments
on a particular person or event, caricatures of famous people,
reflections on love, as well as appreciative remarks about a
beautiful woman or the pleasure experienced in the privacy of one
of the rooms in the brothel. In addition there are several which are
concerned with the buying and selling of materials or livestock
and the calculation of merchandise. Many refer to the
entertainments on offer in
the city or are in praise of the champions put to the test in the
gladiatorial games.
A collection of ancient Roman graffiti immortalised in ash at
Pompeii, which shows that people are the same, no matter
where, or when, they live.
(exterior of the House of Menander): Satura was here on
September 3rd
(House and Office of Volusius Iuvencus; left of the door):
Secundus says hello to his Prima, wherever she is. I ask, my
mistress, that you love me.
(Bar of Astylus and Pardalus): Lovers are like bees in that they live
a honeyed life
(Pottery Shop or Bar of Nicanor; right of the door): Lesbianus, you
defecate and you write, ‘Hello, everyone!'
(gladiator barracks): Floronius, privileged soldier of the 7th legion,
was here. The women did not know of his presence. Only six
women came to know, too few for such a stallion.
(gladiator barracks): On April 19th, I made bread
(House of Pascius Hermes; left of the door): To the one defecating
here. Beware of the curse. If you look down on this curse, may
you have an angry Jupiter for an enemy.
(House of Caecilius Iucundus): Whoever loves, let him flourish.
Let him perish who knows not love. Let him perish twice over
whoever forbids love.
(just outside the Vesuvius gate): Defecator, may everything turn
out okay so that you can leave this place
(barracks of the Julian-Claudian gladiators; column in the
peristyle): Celadus the Thracian gladiator is the delight of all the
girls
(on the Street of Mercury): Publius Comicius Restitutus stood right
here with his brother
(House of Sextus Pompeius Axiochus and Julia Helena; left of the
door): Hectice, baby, Mercator says hello to you
(vico degli Scienziati): Cruel Lalagus, why do you not love me?
(Bar of Salvius; over a picture of a woman carrying a pitcher of
wine and a drinking goblet): Whoever wants to serve themselves
can go on an drink from the sea.
(atrium of a House of the Large Brothel): Blondie has taught me to
hate dark-haired girls. I shall hate them, if I can, but I wouldn't
mind loving them. Pompeian Venus Fisica wrote this.
(House of Caesius Valens and Herennius Nardus): Rufus loves
Cornelia Hele
(atrium of the House of Pinarius): If anyone does not believe in
Venus, they should gaze at my girl friend
(vicolo del Panattiere, House of the Vibii, Merchants): Atimetus got
me pregnant
(House of Caprasius Primus): I don't want to sell my husband, not
for all the gold in the world
(House of the Calpurnii): Crescens is sweet and charming
(
(Vico d' Eumachia, small room of a possible brothel): Vibius
Restitutus slept here alone and missed his darling Urbana
( (in the basilica): No young buck is complete until he has fallen in
love
(in the basilica): Epaphra, you are bald!
(in the basilica): Chie, I hope your hemorrhoids rub together so
much that they hurt worse than when they every have before!
(in the basilica): Samius to Cornelius: go hang yourself!
(in the basilica): The one who buggers a fire burns his penis
(House of Poppaeus Sabinus): If you felt the fires of love, muledriver, you would make more haste to see Venus. I love a
charming boy; I ask you, goad the mules; let's go. Take me to
Pompeii, where love is sweet. You are mine...
( (in the basilica): O walls, you have held up so much tedious
graffiti that I am amazed that you have not already collapsed in
ruin.
I wonder, Wall, that you do not go smash, Who have to bear the
weight of all this trash.
 Wax tablets and rolls of papyri have also been excavated from
Pompeii and Herculaneum, and record business transactions
and activities, and legal documents