Erotica Pompeiana

Antonio Varone's Erotica Pompeiana: Love Inscriptions on the Walls of Pompeii offers a comprehensive epigraphic analysis of the popular Latin graffiti discovered throughout the Vesuvian city, illuminating the socio-cultural dynamics of daily life and intimacy in Roman antiquity. By systematically evaluating hundreds of wall inscriptions—ranging from poetic elegies and gallant declarations to crude boasts, commercial transactions, and expressions of unrequited passion—the study demonstrates how colloquial Latin (sermo rusticus) reflects the genuine emotional and moral landscape of Pompeian society. Varone situates these textual artifacts alongside contemporary literary topoi and visual culture, contending that Roman attitudes toward love, eroticism, and public expression operated without modern notions of prudery or guilt. Ultimately, the work underscores the crucial role of epigraphy in understanding linguistic evolution from Classical Latin to early Romance forms while restoring a deeply human dimension to classical archaeology.