Friday, April 18, 2008

Oh those Romans.....

In doing research for my English class, I stumbled accross some striking evidence that the ancient Romans were no different from our civilization. In the perserved ruins of the city Pompeii, archeologist have found what they beilive to be one of the most compelling pieces of evidence on the use of modern graffiti. Carved on the city walls are various phrases that gives us insight into what the people of Pompieii were like. Some phrases included...

Pecunia non olet -"Money doesn't stink".

Lucrum gaudium -"Profit is happiness!"

Luci Istacidi, at quem non ceno, barbarus ille mihi est. - "Someone at whose table I do not dine, Lucius Istacidius, is a barbarian to me."

While these phrases show liking or dismay, other messgages recovered from the ruins were highly sexualy oriented. It seems as though the Ancient Romans though nothing wrong graffiti and accepted it as part of daily life.

In doing more reasearch on why Graffiti is Rhetorical, I have come to the hypothesis that graffiti is nuetral in the way people think about vandalism. It is only though the spectators own personal judgement on graffit that he will consider it vandalism.