

Surprisingly modern graffiti from the walls of Pompeii - willwhitney
http://pompeiana.org/Resources/Ancient/Graffiti%20from%20Pompeii.htm

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tborg
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.

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Ergomane
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.

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griffindy
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

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sopooneo
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?

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griffindy
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

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toomuchcoffee
"Modern?" They were way ahead of us.

