Source: Graffiti in Pompeii



Source 1: Graffiti in Pompeii

The Roman city of Pompeii was destroyed Augustus 24, 79 C.E. by a volcanic eruption. While the eruption was tragic for those who lived it, the result was a well preserved Roman city through which archaeologists have uncovered a tremendous amount of information. Below you will find several inscriptions taken from walls throughout the city of Pompeii. These inscriptions are comparable to modern day graffiti. Each inscription begins with a reference to where it was found (region.insula.door number).  The second number is the reference to the publication of the inscription in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, Volume 4. Some of the inscriptions are lewd, so be prepared. As you read, consider does the graffiti here compares to that in our own society?

I.4.5 (House of the Citharist; below a drawing of a man with a large nose); 2375: Amplicatus, I know that Icarus is buggering you.  Salvius wrote this.

II.2.1 (Bar of Astylus and Pardalus); 8408: Lovers are like bees in that they live a honeyed life

II.2.3 (Bar of Athictus; right of the door); 8442: I screwed the barmaid

II.7 (gladiator barracks); 8792: On April 19th, I made bread

II.7 (gladiator barracks); 8792b: Antiochus hung out here with his girlfriend Cithera

VI.6.1 (House of the Olii; on the Via Consolare); 139: The city block of the Arrii Pollii in the possession of Gnaeus Alleius Nigidius Maius is available to rent from July 1st.  There are shops on the first floor, upper stories, high-class rooms and a house.  A person interested in renting this property should contact Primus, the slave of Gnaeus Alleius Nigidius Maius.

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Source: Online at

Source: The Private Life of the Romans

By Harold Whetstone Johnston

The source below is an excerpt from the book The Private Life of the Romans written by Harold Whetstone Johnston in 1903. In it, Johnston remarks on schools in Rome. How does the Romans view of education compare with modern views?

462. Schools. But the municipalities did not show the large and elaborate school buildings conspicuous in our towns now (§ 120), nor were there likely to be school taxes. Until a very late period education remained generally a private matter. There were occasional endowments from the wealthy for educational purposes, as, more often, for other charitable foundations. Elementary schools must have been established in the Italian towns and throughout the provinces generally with the spread of Roman influence. The more advanced schools would naturally be found only in the larger towns and cities. At the beginning of the second century of our era Pliny the Younger tells of contributing largely to a fund to open a school in his native town of Comum, that the boys might not have to go to Mediolanum (Milan). The arguments he uses for the education of the boys at home are very much like those used for the establishment of junior colleges in many of our towns at present. Some boys were sent to Rome for the sake of better schools and more famous teachers than the country and provincial towns afforded. Agricola found the establishment of schools in Britain a useful aid in strengthening the Roman hold on the conquered territory

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Source: The Private Life of the Romans

by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston

Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932)

Source 3: Sarcophagus of M. Cornelius Statius,

Death is part of every society, but the rituals and objects surrounding death have varied across centuries and continents. They can often reveal many things about the role of children and families within a culture, from the nature of grieving to representations of childhood, from artistic preferences to child rearing norms. Dating from the first half of the 2nd century, CE, this Roman marble sarcophagus was an expensive funerary item created to commemorate the death of a young boy. The sarcophagus depicts a series of points in the life cycle of a child, from a newborn infant to a young child at play to an older child engaged in studies. The epitaph was dedicated by the boy's parents and the boy's name indicates that he was a freeborn Roman citizen.

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Source: "M. Cornelius Statius [Sarcophagus]," in Children and Youth in History, Item #50, (accessed March 8, 2012). Annotated by Beryl Rawson

Source 4: Romans Playing Ball

|Romans Playing Ball - This fresco shows several young men playing at ball. It is from an underground tomb in Rome, 1st |

|century CE |

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Source 5: Two Views of Roman Women

Women in the ancient world generally did not have many rights. As you read below, consider what rights, if any, women had.

Document A is an excerpt from the Twelve Tables. Document B is a selection from the second century CE by a lawyer named Gaius.

Source 6: Gods and Goddesses of Greece and Rome

The mythology of Greece and Rome is often referred to collectively as Greco-Roman Mythology. As you study the chart, think about the impact that Greek mythology must have had on the Romans.

|  |Roman god |Greek god |What they do |

|1 |Jupiter |Zeus |Head god/keeper of gate |

|2 |Mars |Ares |God of war |

|3 |Juno |Hera |Protect-punishes men / mother god |

|4 |Venus |Aphrodite |Goddess of love |

|6 |Mars |Demirter |Goddess of agriculture |

|7 |Diana |Artemis |Goddess of hunting |

|9 |Minerva |Athena |Warrior goddess |

|10 |Mercury |Hermes |Messenger/medicine god |

|11 |Pluto |Hades |God of the underworld/wealth |

|12 |Neptune |Poseidon |God of the sea |

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