A new project looking at ancient graffiti uncovers the importance of gladiatorial games in the lives of everyday Romans.
Fans have always been passionate about athletics and sporting events, and so it makes sense that a common theme in ancient graffiti found at sites like Pompeii, Herculaneum, Zeugma, Aphrodisias, and many others is gladiatorial combat. A new NEH-funded project directed by Rebecca Benefiel at Washington & Lee University seeks to document the ancient graffiti of Pompeii and the neighboring city of Herculaneum. Often bawdy and rarely boring, these etchings give us insight into the importance of the Roman games in the lives of everyday people and indicate the different types of gladiators who fought in the arena.
Although a number of inscriptions on statue bases and epitaphs survive from antiquity, graffiti give us unique insight into the lives of everyday Romans. They also indicate that Romans used walls, columns, and many other private and public areas within the ancient city as common writing surfaces. Whereas graffiti is legislated against and largely frowned upon today, the same attitudes do not appear in regard to most areas in the ancient city. What would modern cities look like if there was no paper and few regulations on where one could write?
Papyrus, parchment, and wax tablets were much more expensive for regular people than simply leaving a message on the wall. A number of graffiti from a peristyle house in Pompeii called 'The House of the Gladiators' tell us, for instance, that there was a heartthrob of a gladiator named Celadus whom women in the 1st century CE simply swooned over and wrote about: "Pride of the Girls / Celadus the Thracian."
In particular, the Herculaneum Graffiti Project is novel in that it brings together students from Washington & Lee University, Millsaps College, Sewanee: The University of the South, and the University of Richmond in order to document thousands of etchings that are quickly disappearing. It will then contextualize these Latin and sometimes Greek graffiti on a map of Herculaneum, a city which often takes a backseat to the more well-known Pompeii.
Teaching students about ancient handwriting and graffiti gives them a window into the life of two towns lost in the Vesuvian eruption of 79 CE and allows students to connect with the thousands that died tragically in the wake of the disaster (cont. on next page)