Poems in Pompeian Graffiti

There are numerous poems among the Pompeian graffiti. Many of them are quotes from well-known Roman authors such as Vergil but some of them seem to be original creations of graffito writers in Pompeii. Many of the poems had attained almost proverbial status and recurred in Pompeii and elsewhere in the Roman empire.

A typical characteristic of ancient poetry was the use of poetic meters. The most popular meters in Pompeii were the elegiac and iambic meters but many other poetic meters were used as well. Some of the poems in Pompeian graffiti are metrically irregular and faulty, and the metricality of some graffiti is debatable.

CIL IV = Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum, vol. 4, Berlin, 1871–.

CIL IV 1227
Venimus huc cupidi multo magis hire (cupimus)     ut liceat nostros visere Roma Lares.	We came here desiring; so much more we desire to go so that we might be permitted, Rome, to see our homes.
Elegiac couplet. Translation: Milnor 2014, 183. This poem is repeated in various forms in Pompeii and elsewhere, e.g. Pompeii: CIL IV 2995, 6697, 8231a, 8891, 9849, 10065a; Herculaneum: CIL IV 10640; Narbonne: AE 1997, 1068.
CIL IV 1516
hic ego nu[nc f]utui formosa(m) fo[r]ma puella(m)     laudata(m) a multis set lutus intus {e}erat	Here I've at last screwed a beautiful girl, praised by many, but inside there was a mudhole.
Elegiac couplet. Translation: Varone 2002, 119. The beginning of this graffito is repeated in CIL IV 1517.
CIL IV 1520
Candida me docuit nigras odisse puellas. Odero se potero, se non invitus amabo. Scripsit Venus Fisica Pompeiana.	Blondie has taught me to hate dark girls. I shall hate them, if I can, but I wouldn’t mind loving them. Pompeian Venus Fisica wrote this.
Two dactylic hexameters. Translation: Cooley 2014, 102. The graffito or the beginning of it is repeated in e.g. CIL IV 1526, 1528 and 9847. The poem is a combination and an adaptation of verses by Propertius and Ovid: Prop. 1,1,5: donec me docuit castas odisse puellas; Ovid. Am. 3,11,35-36: odero, si potero; si non, invitus amabo.
CIL IV 1595
[Ser]pentis lusus si qui sibi forte notavit,     Sepumius iuvenis quos fac(i)t ingenio, spectator scaenae sive es studiosus e[q]orum:     sic habeas [lanc]es se[mp]er ubiq[ue p]a[res]	If anyone has chanced to observe the snake-game, In which young Sepumius has shown his skill, Whether you are a spectator of the theatrical stage or a devotee of horses, May you always have balance equal to his everywhere.
Elegiac couplets. Translation: Cooley 2014, 106. The graffito was written in the form of a meandering snake. See photo.
CIL IV 1820
Chie opto tibi ut refricent se ficus tuae ut peius ustulentur quam ustulatae sunt	Chios, I hope your piles again become sore, So that they smart more than they smarted before.
Iambic senarius. Translation: Cooley 2014, 109.
CIL IV 1882
accensum qui pedicat urit mentulam	Anyone who buggers the "inflamed", burns his organ.
Iambic senarius. Translation: Varone 2002, 122. The word accensus can be a proper name Accensus, or it can refer to a Roman magistrate's attendant or a person suffering from some sort of inflammation. The joke is likely based on these multiple meanings of the word.
CIL IV 1884
qui verpam vissit quid cenasse illum putes	The man who shits a dick–what would you think he dined on?
Iambic senarius. Translation: Milnor 2014, 178. The verb vissit has often been interpreted as visit 'to visit', but the verb vissire means to fart (Adams 1982, 249).
CIL IV 1904
Admiror o parie{n}s te non cecidisse ruinis     qui tot scriptorum taedia sustineas	I admire you, wall, for not having collapsed at having to carry the tedious scribblings of so many writers.
Elegiac couplet. Translation: Cooley 2014, 110. This verse is repeated in e.g. CIL IV 2461 ja 2487.
CIL IV 1939
[[- - -]] fu{e}ere quondam `Virei ́ opulentissumi non ideo tenuerunt in manu sceptrum pro mutunio itidem quod tu factitas cottidie in manu penem tenes	Once upon a time the wealthy family of the Vibii lived in Pompeii (?), but they did not hold in their hands the sceptre like a member, as you do every single day, when you hold your penis in your hand.
Trochaic septenarius. Translation: Varone 2002, 93. The word missing in the beginning has variously been conjectured as e.g. Romai (CIL IV, ad loc.) and Pum[pei]s (Varone 2002). The family named in the graffito has long been read as Vibii but according to Antonio Varone and Heikki Solin it is Virei (CIL IV addenda, s. 1717).
CIL IV 2360
amat qui scribet pedicatur qui leget qui opscultat prurit paticus est qui praeterit ursi me comedant et ego verpa(m?) qui lego	He loves, the one who writes; the one who reads is fucked, The critic wants it bad. Who passes by? He sucks. Bears eat me! I’m the reader and a dickhead too.
Iambic senarius. Translation: Milnor 2014, 243 footnote 28. The last line can also be read et ego verpa(m) qui lego 'I who read eat the cock'. The same text is repeated in CIL IV 4008.
CIL IV 2416
Miccio ciocio [t]u [t]uo patri cacanti confregisti peram. // Miccionis statum cosiderate	Miccio, huckster, you depleted the wallet of your shitting father. – Reflect upon the position of Miccio.
The beginning seems to be a trochaic dimeter. Translation: Levin-Richardson 1995, 230. For different interpretations of the word ciocio see CIL IV addenda p. 1767–1768.
CIL IV 3948
talia te fallant utinam medacia copo     tu vedes acuam et bibes ipse merum	If only such lies would deceive you, innkeeper: you sell water to others but drink unmixed wine yourself.
Elegiac couplet. Translation: Joonas Vanhala.
CIL IV 4091
Quisquis amat valeat pereat qui nescit amare.     Bis tanto pereat quisquis amare vetat.	Whoever loves, let him flourish. Let him perish who knows not love. Let him perish twice over whoever forbids love.
Elegiac couplet. Translation: Cooley 2014, 103. This verse is repeated several times in Pompeii, e.g. CIL IV 1173, 3199, 5272, 9130 and 9202. Also found in Rome.
CIL IV 4235
Barbara barbaribus barbarant barbara barbis	–
Dactylic hexameter. A nonsense poem that is impossible to translate.
CIL IV 4832
[A]rma virumque cano Troia(e) qui primus ab oris	I sing of arms and the man who first from the land of Troy...
Dactylic hexameter. Translation: Joonas Vanhala. The beginning of Vergil's Aeneid is repeated several times in Pompeian graffiti. See also CIL IV 9131 which parodies this verse.
CIL IV 4957
Miximus in lecto fateor peccavimus hospes,     si dices quare, nulla matella fuit.	We peed in the bed. I confess it, we made a mistake, my host. | If you should ask, “why [did you do it]?”—there wasn’t a chamber pot.
Elegiac couplet. Translation: Milnor 2014, 27. Written close to a door leading into a possible inn (VIII 6,7). Read more on Twitter.
CIL IV 4966
[quid f]it? vi me, oculei, posquam deducxstis in ignem     [no]n ob vim vestreis largificatis geneis. [porr]o non possunt lacrumae restinguere flamam,     [hae]c os incendunt tabificantque animum.	What is happening? Alas, eyes, first you led me into the fire, Now of your own accord you give generously to your cheeks. But tears cannot put out the flame; They inflame the face and melt the spirit.
Elegiac couplets. Translation: Cooley 2014, 102. The poem is signed Tiburtinus epoese 'Tiburtinus made (this)'. It is assumed that this Tiburtinus also wrote CIL IV 4967–4973 on the same wall.
CIL IV 5296
O utinam liceat collo complexa tenere     braciola et teneris oscula ferre label- lis. I nunc ventis tua gaudia pupula crede.     Crede mihi levis est natura virorum. Saepe ego cu(m) media vigilare(m) perdita nocte     haec mecum medita(n)s: multos Fortuna quos supstulit alte, hos modo proiectos subito     praecipitesque premit. Sic Venus ut subito co(n)iunxit corpora amantum dividit lux et se AAREES quid AAM	Oh, if only I could hold your sweet arms around my neck In an embrace and place kisses on your tender lips. Go now, entrust your joys to the winds, my darling, Believe me, fickle is the nature of men. Often I have been wakeful in the middle of a wasted night Thinking these things to myself: many men whom Fortune has raised up on high, Now suddenly rush headlong, and fall, overwhelmed by her. In this way when Venus has suddenly joined together lovers’ bodies, Light parts them and [–]
Elegiac couplets. Translation: Cooley 2014, 103. Most likely a woman writing to another woman (Milnor 2014, 191–224). See photo.
CIL IV 7065
aedilem Proculam [[CR]] cunctorum turba probavit     hoc pudor ingenuus postulat et pietas	The entire crowd has approved of Procula as aedilis. This is demanded by innate bashfulness and dutifulness.
Elegiac couplet. Translation: Kruschwitz 2010, 165. Procula is a name of a woman which makes this graffito peculiar since women couldn't be elected in public office. It has been proposed that the graffito is mocking a man named Proculus. Several men named Proculus are known to have run for or held office in Pompeii.
CIL IV 8899
Hospes adhuc tumuli ni meias ossa prec[antur]     nam si vis (h)uic gratior esse, caca. Urticae monumenta vides: discede cacator.     Non est hic tutum culu(m) aperire tibi.	Guest, do not urinate against this tomb, the bones beg you, for, if you wish to be more pleasing to this man, shit. You look upon the monuments of Urtica [‘Nettle’]; go away, shitter. It is not safe for you to open your ass here.
Elegiac couplets. Translation: Milnor 2014, 65.
CIL IV 9131
Fullones ululamque cano, non arma virumque	I sing of fullers and an owl, not of arms and a man.
Dactylic hexameter. Translation: Cooley 2014, 101. This verse is a prody of the beginning of Vergil's Aeneid. See CIL IV 4832 above.
CIL IV 9246
[H]ic ego cum domina resoluto clune [p]er[e]gi, [- - -]d versu scribere [tu]r[p]e fuit	Here I have penetrated my lady's open buttocks; but it was vulgar of me to write these verses.
Elegiac couplet. Translation: Varone 2002, 74–75.

Sources:

Adams 1982 = J. N. Adams, The Latin Sexual Vocabulary, London: Duckworth.

Cooley 2014 = A. Cooley, Pompeii and Herculaneum: a Sourcebook, London: Routledge.

Kruschwitz 2010 = P. Kruschwitz, "Romanes eunt domus! Linguistic Aspects of the Sub-Literary Latin in Pompeian Wall Inscriptions" in The Language of the Papyri, ed. by T. V. Evans & D. Obbink, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 156–170.

Levin-Richardson 2015 = S. Levin-Richradson, "Bodily Waste and Boundaries in Pompeian Graffiti" in Ancient Obscenities: Their Nature and Use in the Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds, ed. by D. M. Dutsch & A. Suter, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 225–254.

Milnor 2014 = K. Milnor, Graffiti and the Literary Landscape in Roman Pompeii, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Varone 2002 = A. Varone, Erotica Pompeiana : Love Inscriptions on the Walls of Pompeii (Studia archaeologica 116), Roma: ”L’Erma” di Bretschneider.

AE = L'Année épigraphique