Surprisingly modern graffiti from the walls of Pompeii

pompeiana.org

11 points·willwhitney··6 comments

What do you think is modern about the language? Try Aristophanes.

That said, this is a cool collection. I think it would benefit from more interesting presentation, in terms of web design. Also, a more modern / freer translation technique might suit the content better than the stilted rendition offered here.

The inscription in I.7.1 - 8075 translated here as: "The finances officer of the emperor Nero says this food is poison" is in latin "CVCVTA AB RATIONI[B]VS NERONIS AVGVSTI".

An alternative, sarcastic, translation has been proposed: Poison is Nero's secretary of finance.

as a classics majors, I love running across these things, and I'm especially glad to see it on HN, though I agree with tborg that both the presentation and translations could be more up to date. something to work on if I'm bored tomorrow. Now I just need to find the Latin

How were these words applied to walls? Did vandals have to walk around with a paint bucket and brush? Was it carved out? Or perhaps walls were finished with some sort of wet plaster and people had a short window of time to write in it with their fingers?

as far as I remember, it was all paint. they would go around at night with buckets of red paint and write, sometimes over other words, it could be a mess. only because Pompei was so frozen in time did the paint not wear away

"Modern?" They were way ahead of us.

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