An Introduction to Wall Inscriptions from Pompeii and Herculaneum

185 Pages·2005·2.1 MB·English

by  Rex E. Wallace

WallInscriptionsCopyrightPg102704.qxp 11/2/2004 2:26 PM Page 1
An Introduction to
W
ALL
I
NSCRIPTIONS
from Pompeii and Herculaneum
REX E. WALLACE
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc.
Wauconda,Illinois USA
WallInscriptionsCopyrightPg102704.qxp 11/2/2004 2:26 PM Page 2
General editor:
Laurie Haight Keenan
An Introduction to WallInscriptions
From Pompeii an Herculaneum
by Rex E.Wallace
© 2005 Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc.
1000 Brown Street, Unit 101
Wauconda, Illinois 60084
www.bolchazy.com
ISBN 0-86516-570-X
Printed in the United States of America
by United Graphics
2005
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wallace, Rex.
An introduction to wall inscriptions from Pompeii and Herculaneum :
introduction, inscriptions with notes, historical commentary, vocabulary
/ Rex E. Wallace.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-86516-570-X (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Inscriptions, Latin--Italy--Pompeii (Extinct city) 2.
Inscriptions, Latin--Italy--Herculaneum (Extinct city) 3. Pompeii
(Extinct city)--Antiquities. 4. Herculaneum (Extinct
city)--Antiquities. I. Title.
CN533.W35 2003
937'.7--dc22
2003023037
CONTENTS
Preface v
Grammatical Abbreviations vii
Introduction ix
1. Inscriptions from Pompeii and Herculaneum ix
2. The Language of the Wall Inscriptions xxiv
3. Features of the Text xxxvii
4. Bibliography xliii
Wall Inscriptions from Pompeii and Herculaneum 1
I. Dipinti from Pompeii 2
1. Electoral Announcements 2
2. Gladiatorial Announcements 20
3. Gladiatorial Dipinti 28
4. Advertisements for Rentals and Sales 29
5. Lost and Found 31
6. Public Acclamations and Salutations 32
7. Miscellaneous Dipinti 36
II. Graffiti from Pompeii 42
1. Salutations and Wishes 42
2. Curses and Insults 50
3. Gladiators 55
4. Soldiers 61
5. Entertainers 63
6. Lists, Memoranda, Notices 64
7. Love and Lust 71
8. Citations from Latin Poets 80
9. Miscellaneous Graffiti 83
iii
iv Contents
III. Dipinti and Graffiti from Herculaneum 98
1. Dipinti 98
2. Graffiti 99
Facsimiles of Inscriptions 105
Abbreviations In Wall Inscriptions 111
Index of Proper Names 115
Vocabulary 121
PREFACE
The aim of this text is to provide Latinists with a reasonably
comprehensive introduction to wall inscriptions from the
Campanian cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. There is much to be
learned about Latin and about the Roman world from these
inscriptions, particularly the graffiti, of which a good portion was
written by less educated members of society. In composing this
book, I attempted to balance the needs of undergraduates with
those of more advanced students. I also hope that classicists,
historians and linguists, particularly Romance linguists, will find it a
useful resource.
This text is organized into two parts. Part I is introductory
material. This includes a short overview of inscriptions from
Pompeii and Herculaneum, a more detailed discussion of wall
inscriptions, and a description of orthographic and linguistic
features characteristic of the dipinti and graffiti from these two
cities. Part I concludes with a short bibliography. Part II is a
selection of wall inscriptions from Pompeii and Herculaneum. A
selection of facsimiles of dipinti and graffiti, a list of abbreviations
used in the inscriptions, an index of proper names, and a list of
vocabulary are located at the end of the text.
The inscriptions presented here were chosen in order to provide
the reader with a representative selection of the different types of
wall inscriptions that have been recovered at Pompeii and
Herculaneum. The selection includes inscriptions that illustrate
variation in the orthography, pronunciation, morphology and syntax
of Latin during the first century AD. These features are attested
with greater frequency in graffiti and for this reason I have included
a greater number of this type of wall inscription in the text.
Translating wall inscriptions is not always as easy as it appears
at first glance. This is particularly true of graffiti because it is often
difficult, if not impossible, to reconstruct the contexts in which they
were written, and also because orthography and grammar may
diverge rather sharply from the literary norms to which most
Latinists are accustomed. Accordingly, I have supplied notes and
commentary as an aid to readers unfamiliar with the language of the
v
vi Preface
inscriptions. All words used in the inscriptions are alphabetized in
the Vocabulary. Proper names found in the wall inscriptions are
given in an Index of Proper Names.
The final section of this text includes facsimiles of wall
inscriptions. Mat Olkovikas, a former graduate student at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst, copied, detailed and
digitized the facsimiles from drawings published in the Corpus
Inscriptionum Latinarum, Volume IV.
Many of the inscriptions in this text were field-tested in
undergraduate and graduate classes that I taught at the University.
I am especially grateful to the students who participated in my
undergraduate seminar on Wall Inscriptions. They worked through
large portions of the inscriptions and the commentary, and provided
valuable feedback.
I thank Charles Babcock, Joe Eska, Gilbert Lawall, Willis Regier,
George Ryan, and Maureen Ryan for comments on earlier versions of
the text. I alone am responsible for any errors in the text, but there
would have been many more had these folks not given generously of
their time and expertise. I am indebted to Mat Olkovikas for
cheerfully undertaking the task of preparing and editing the digital
images of the facsimiles. I also thank Wendy Watkins, Curator of
the Center of Epigraphical Studies at The Ohio State University,
who helped me track down several articles on Pompeiian
inscriptions. Finally, I wish to acknowledge the assistance of
Katherine Hofmann and Bethanie Sawyer. During the final stages of
editing and proofreading the text their keen eyes were invaluable.
Rex E. Wallace
University of Massachusetts Amherst
July 9, 2004
GRAMMATICAL ABBREVIATIONS
abl. ablative
acc. accusative
act. active
adv. adverb
cond. conditional
conj. conjunction
dat. dative
dep. deponent
fem. feminine
fut. future
gen. genitive
impf. imperfect
impv. imperative
indecl. indeclinable
indef. pron. indefinite pronoun
inter. pron. interrogative pronoun
masc. masculine
neut. neuter
nom. nominative
num. number
part. particle
pass. passive
perf. perfect
pers. pro. personal pronoun
pl. plural
pres. present
rel. adv. relative adverb
rel. pron. relative pronoun
sent. sentence
sg. singular
subj. subjunctive
vii
ii
INTRODUCTION
§1. Inscriptions from Pompeii and Herculaneum
The ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum are two
of the most abundant sources for Latin inscriptions. There are over
8,000 inscriptions incised or painted on the walls of homes,
businesses, and public buildings in these two cities. If inscriptions
on wax tablets and inscriptions incised on stone, ceramic, and metal
are included in the count, the total is closer to 11,000. Most of these
inscriptions are written in Latin, but there are also inscriptions in
Etruscan, Greek, and Oscan. Thus, Pompeii and Herculaneum
constitute one of classical antiquity’s most precious epigraphic
resources.
§1.1 Types of Inscriptions
Latin inscriptions from Pompeii and Herculaneum can be
arranged into categories based on the function or purpose that they
served and based on the material on which they were written.
The most familiar types of inscription at Pompeii and
Herculaneum are those incised on stone. These were carved by
professional stonecutters and were erected at public expense in
order to commemorate the construction of public buildings, the
careers of distinguished political figures, and so forth. Professional
craftsmen also carved funerary inscriptions, especially those of
prominent Pompeiians. These inscriptions were set up on funerary
monuments in the necropolises located outside of the city gates.
One of the most important epigraphic finds at Pompeii was
made in the house of a businessman named Lucius Caecilius
Iucundus (V, 1, 26). In a wooden box stashed in the atrium
Iucundus had stored 153 receipts of business transactions. These
were incised in cursive style on wooden tablets whose writing
surface was coated, in most cases, with a thin layer of a wax-like
substance (hence the label, wax tablets). These tablets, together with
those from Herculaneum and those recently discovered in a luxury
hospitality center located just south of Pompeii in Agro Murecine,
are invaluable for the study of business and economy at Pompeii.
ix