19 
gladiators that a battle took place, and they were suspended 
for ten years. Another class of the graffiti consists of adver¬ 
tisements of trades carried on within. Among these the wine 
shops are conspicuous. Intoxication has not been the national 
vice of the Italians, yet its effects may have been witnessed by 
one who wrote on the wall Carminibus Circe socios mutavit 
Ulyxis ” (Virg. Eel. 8), suggesting a warning like that which 
Shakespeare puts into the mouth of the repentant Cassio. It 
should seem as if there was nothing in the thoughts or feelings 
of a Pompeiian which he might not take a fancy to record on 
the wall in prose or verse. Much of what they have written is 
of such a quality that we can sympathise with the writer who, 
in a Latin distich, expresses his wonder that the wall had not 
fallen under the weight of so much nonsense. 
Admiror paries te non cecidisse ruina 
Cum tot scriptorum tcedia sustineas. 
One writer records that he was troubled with phlegm. Another 
expresses, with a false quantity, his displeasure with those who 
do not invite him to dinner. 
Ad guem non vocor, harharus ille mild est. 
Very delicate secrets are revealed. Serena Isidorum fastidit: 
Serena scorns Isidorus ; no doubt a suitor. Private character 
is not spared; Oppins Emholarius is called Fur furuncidus, thief 
and larcener. Some express good wishes by Vale, Feliciter 
vivas, &c.; some the reverse ; Samius exhorts Cornelius to hang 
himself: Samius Cornelio, Suspendere. There is one good wish 
suggestive of grave thoughts when read in connexion with 
the fate of Pompeii: ^^Januarios nobis felices multis annis^^ 
Happy new year to us and many of them.” Perhaps before 
January came round, the city may have been buried, and with 
it both the author of the wish and those for whom it was 
uttered. 
This volume contains much that is instructive in regard to 
the three languages in use in Pompeii—Latin, Greek, and 
Oscan, especially to the Latin, its grammar, orthography, 
and written character. For these uses, however, minute 
study and close inspection would be necessary. 
E 2 
