"When Pompeii was rediscovered in the eighteenth century, no one was
particularly interested in the rash of graffiti scratched on its walls.
Excavators at the time were too busy carting away bulky and aesthetically
pleasing works of art as trophies for the Bourbon kings. It was not until
the mid-nineteenth century, and the advent of “romantic” archaeology, that
one open-minded director, Francesco Maria Avellino, had the foresight to
start conserving these fragile, less prestigious relics, thousands of which
still survive, either in situ or detached with their original plaster. Other
early enthusiasts included Chateaubriand and Bishop Wordsworth, both of whom
recognized the “primitive” appeal of the insignificant-looking scrawls and
their power to safeguard the noisy, if sometimes indecorous, opinions of
Pompeii’s dramatically silenced inhabitants: the trials of school (“If
Cicero pains you, you’ll get a flogging”), the pangs of love (“Rufus loves
Cornelia”), threats (“Beware of shitting here”), electioneering (“Cuspius
for aedile”) and insults (“Narcissus is a giant cocksucker”)."
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