Graffiti in Pompeii: Ancient Social Media
Walk the streets of Pompeii and you’ll see insults, love notes, and dirty jokes scratched right onto the walls.
Rosa Bonheur — "The Horse Fair" (1852–55), public domain
Pompeii’s Walls Talked Back
Walk the streets of Pompeii and you’ll see insults, love notes, and dirty jokes scratched right onto the walls. The city’s buildings are festooned with graffiti—thousands of messages, some crude, others slyly clever.
Bathroom Stalls of the Ancient World
Archaeologists have found everything from “I was here” boasts to raunchy invitations and poetic one-liners. There are even political slogans and complaints about bad bread. Graffiti wasn’t hidden—it was public conversation.
Archaeologists have uncovered thousands of graffiti messages in Pompeii—ranging from explicit love declarations, to complaints about landlords, to simple boasts like “Secundus likes to screw boys.” Some are poems, others are lewd sketches, and many read like the bathroom stalls of today. This wasn’t vandalism—it was daily communication, seen by neighbors, slaves, and the city’s elite alike.
