Page 79 - All About History - Issue 56-17

Graffiti through the Ages

Romans Go Home
In the 1979 Monty Python film The Life of Brian, the “Celadus the Thracian gladiator is the delight of all held up so much tedious graffiti that I am amazed
protagonist is given the unpleasant task of trying to the girls.” Other writings are simply unprintable in that you have not already collapsed in ruin.”
correctly conjugate the phrase ‘Romans go home!’ translation due to their explicit vividness. Interestingly, one of the earliest known and
as he paints it all over the walls of Pontius Pilate’s Perhaps the most fascinating graffiti from possibly most controversial depictions of Jesus
palace in Jerusalem. The Romans themselves Pompeii are those left by women. Female voices was found in a Roman graffito. In 1857, an image
needed no help in making graffiti. When from the ancient world are rare — those outside scratched in plaster was discovered on the Palatine
archaeologists began to uncover and systematically of the political or literary elite are usually almost Hill. Called the Alexamenos Graffito, it shows a
study Roman ruins, they found so many illicit entirely silent. On the walls of Pompeii, however, Roman soldier with his hand raised to a crucified
markings that they had to coin the very word we find that “Atimetus got me pregnant,” while, in figure, with a Greek caption reading, “Alexamenos
‘graffiti’ — from the Italian for ‘scratched’ — for them. another house, “I don’t want to sell my husband, worships his God.” Not so shocking, you might
The amazing preservation of Pompeii, buried not for all the gold in the world.” think, but the person on the cross has the head of
in layers of ash from the catastrophic eruption As is the case today, graffiti was seen as a a donkey. It has been tentatively dated to around
of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, gives historians a problem by at least some of the citizens. One 200 CE, a time when Christians were still being
unique insight into Roman life. There is grime vexed person scratched out, “O walls, you have actively persecuted.
among the grandeur and it feels all the more
vibrant for it. The walls of Pompeii were covered
Roman walls were often home One of the earliest
in a smooth, soft layer of plaster — simply too to advertisements known depictions
inviting for anyone with a pot of paint or a knife. of Jesus shows him
on a crucifix with
In Pompeii we find political slogans painted the head of an ass
directly onto the walls, showing us the average
citizen’s political leanings. “Epidius with his
household want and support Cn. Helvius
Sabinus as aedile [a magistrate],” runs one of
the more straightforward signs. A bit of negative
campaigning certainly wasn’t out of the question:
“The little thieves ask for Vatia as aedile.”
They were also not afraid to mix religion with
politics, either: “All the worshippers of Isis call
for Cn. Helvius Sabinus as aedile.” In Rome, just
before Julius Caesar’s assassination, slogans like
“If only now you were Brutus!” and “Brutus, wake
up!” began to appear, urging the senator to turn on
the increasingly despotic ruler.
Graffiti gives us a window into the lives of
people who we would otherwise know nothing
about. Some inscriptions are just the ancient The graffiti of 10th-century
version of “So-and-so was here”. Others wouldn’t bishops on a Roman cornice
look out of place in a modern toilet block: “To the
one defecating here. Beware of the curse...” Like
boys everywhere, there was also a lot of boasting:

A Christian graffito of Saint
Peter from the 1st century

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