The article discusses the prevalence and historical significance of graffiti, especially in Roman times, pointing out that it has been a part of human expression for centuries. A video highlights thousands of examples of ancient graffiti found in Pompeii, some of which reveal personal sentiments, while others are crude or explicit. The narrator compares the audacity of this old graffiti to modern-day high school bathroom stalls. Researchers curate these historical records, categorizing them into themes that provide a lens into ancient Roman life.
"Many, many of the prominent pieces of graf­fi­ti, espe­cial­y in Pom­peii, are too sex­u­al or vio­lent to show here, compar­ing their sensi­bil­i­ty to that of 'a high-school bath­room stall.'"
"As for why the Eng­lish word comes direct­ly from the Ital­ian, per­haps it has some­thing to do with the his­to­ry of writ­ing on the walls - a his­to­ry that... stretches at least as far back as the Roman Empire."
"Romans didn­’t just write on the walls - a prac­tice that seems to have been encour­aged, at least in some places - they also drew on them."
"You can read more of them at The Ancient Graff­iti Project, whose archive is brows­able through cat­e­gories like 'love,' 'poet­ry,' 'food,' and 'glad­i­a­tors' (as decent a sum­ma­ry as any of life in ancient Rome)."
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