Outdated Drivers Are Slowing You Down
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware match
Windows Errors? Fix Them Before They Spread
Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstall
ThatPainter is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn More
Some Pompeii graffiti are funny because they complain about scribblers, tease travelers, or turn Virgil’s epic into a joke about fullers and an owl. Here are three examples with their recorded Latin, published translations, and the limits of what each can tell us.
What counted as graffiti in Pompeii?
In epigraphic usage, graffiti usually means writing incised or scratched into a surface. Painted notices, known as dipinti, are related but distinct. Pompeii’s wall writing includes names, greetings, love messages, jokes, insults, literary lines, drawings, and everyday notes.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
The examples below are linked to catalogue records and findspots. Their English wording is translation, not a modern verbatim copy of the marks on the wall. Brackets, normalized spellings, punctuation, and readings of damaged letters can reflect editorial decisions; consult the [PompeiiItaly overview] and its linked records for those details.
Three funny Pompeii graffiti examples
1. The wall complains about writers
Latin: Admiror o pariens te non cecidisse ruinis qui tot scriptorum taedia sustineas.
#1 Best Overall
- New
- Mint Condition
- Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
- Guaranteed packaging
- No quibbles returns
Published translation: “I am amazed, O wall, that you have not fallen into ruins since you hold the boring scribbles of so many writers.”
The Tool Desk
Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Recorded in the Basilica (VIII.1.1) and linked to CIL 04, 01904, this incised joke gives the wall a voice. It pretends the surface is so burdened by tedious writing that its survival is surprising. The catalogue-linked English is a translation of the inscription, not a quotation in modern English from the wall.
Rank #2
2. Bread at Pompeii, a drink at Nuceria
Latin: Viator, Pompeis pane(m) gustas / Nuceriae bibes.
Published translation: “Traveler, at Pompeii you eat bread; at Nuceria you will drink!”
The compact joke turns on a contrast between two places: bread in Pompeii, a drink in Nuceria. The surviving wording does not explain why Nuceria is associated with drinking, so it is best enjoyed without supplying a backstory the inscription does not give.
Recommended Free Tools
3. Fullers and an owl replace Virgil’s heroes
Latin: Fullones ululam e[go] cano non arma virumq(ue).
Caroline Barron’s translation: “I sing of fullers (and an) owl, not of arms and a man.”
This graffito was found near the entrance on the exterior wall of the so-called House of Fabius Ululitremulus. It reworks arma virumque cano—“I sing of arms and a man”—the opening of Virgil’s Aeneid. The comic switch from epic subject matter to fullers, or cloth-workers, and an owl is an interpretation of the parody; the record discusses possible connections with the trade and nearby imagery but does not establish the writer’s intention. See the [Ancient Graffiti Project record] for its text and discussion.
Best Value
A lighter extra: a honeyed life for lovers
Latin: Amantes, ut apes, vita(m) mellita(m) exigunt / Velle(m)!
Published translation: “Lovers, like bees, lead a honeyed life. I wish [it]!”
The PompeiiItaly overview locates this verse at the Casa degli Amanti (I.10.11) and notes that another hand wrote the second line. That difference could suggest a response, but it does not prove that the lines were a confirmed exchange between two people.
How much do these jokes tell us?
These inscriptions are vivid evidence that some people wrote jokes, literary play, and personal messages on Pompeii’s walls. They do not establish what all Pompeians thought, or who the writers were. The [Pompeii Online overview] describes graffiti as evidence for ordinary communication while cautioning against treating individual inscriptions as the views of society as a whole. What survives is also selective: preservation and excavation shape the record.
For closer reading, the [Ancient Graffiti Project] is a searchable scholarly resource for Pompeii and Herculaneum. Individual entries can give a text, translation, findspot, language, writing style, editorial apparatus, and bibliography. One inspected entry, for example, identifies an incised Latin graffito at the Casa degli Epigrammi and cites CIL 04, 05456. Its corpus is not a safe proxy for a total count of all Pompeii graffiti; the PompeiiItaly overview explicitly distinguishes selected-area coverage from the full corpus.
What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
