Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T20:04:19.542Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pompeii's Safaitic Graffiti

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2021

Kyle Helms
Kyle Helms*
Affiliation:
St. Olaf College
*
helms1@stolaf.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In 1987, nine groups of graffiti written in Safaitic were published from Pompeii's theatre corridor (VIII.7.20). Safaitic, a south Semitic script used to record a dialect of Old Arabic, had never previously been documented in the West, and the appearance of these inscriptions at Pompeii since their publication has largely remained a mystery. I argue that Pompeii's Safaitic graffiti were inscribed by nomads from the Ḥarrah who had been incorporated into the Roman army, and who marched into Italy with Legio III Gallica during its campaign to install Vespasian as emperor.

Keywords

Latin graffitiSafaiticepigraphyPompeiithe ḤarrahRoman army
Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 111 , November 2021 , pp. 203 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I thank audiences at the University of Puget Sound, St. Olaf College and CAMWS (2019 annual meeting) for feedback on earlier versions of this project. Thanks also to Rebecca Benefiel, Hannah Cochran, Jacqueline DiBiasie-Sammons, Ian Haynes, Matthew Loar, Holly Sypniewski, and especially to Bill Barry, for his encouragement and support at a critical moment. Finally, I offer my gratitude to the editor, Peter Thonemann, and the Journal's anonymous readers for their invaluable feedback. Any remaining errors or misunderstandings are, of course, my own.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adams, J. N. 1982a: The Latin Sexual Vocabulary, London.Google Scholar
Adams, J. N. 1982b: ‘Anatomical terms used pars pro toto in Latin’, Proceedings of the African Classical Associations 16, 37–45.Google Scholar
Adams, J. N. 2003: Bilingualism and the Latin Language, Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9780511482960CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Al-Jallad, A. 2015: Outline of the Grammar of the Safaitic Inscriptions, Leiden.10.1163/9789004289826CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Al-Jallad, A. 2019: ‘Safaitic’, in Pat-El, N. and Huehnergard, J. (eds), The Semitic Languages (2nd edn), New York, NY, 341–66.Google Scholar
Al-Jallad, A. 2020: The Damascus Psalm Fragment: Middle Arabic and the Legacy of Old Ḥigāzī, Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
Al-Jallad, A. and Al-Manaser, A. 2015: ‘New Epigraphica from Jordan I: a pre-Islamic Arabic inscription in Greek letters and a Greek inscription from north-eastern Jordan’, Arabian Epigraphic Notes 1, 51–70.Google Scholar
Al-Jallad, A. and Al-Manaser, A. 2016: ‘New Epigraphica from Jordan II: three Safaitic-Greek partial bilingual inscriptions’, Arabian Epigraphic Notes 2, 55–66.Google Scholar
Al-Jallad, A., Al-Salameen, Z., Shedeifat, Y. and Harahsheh, R. 2020: ‘Gaius the Roman and the Kawnites: inscriptional evidence for Roman auxiliary units raised from the nomads of the ḥarrah’, in Akkermans, P. M. M. G. (ed.), Landscapes of Survival: The Archaeology and Epigraphy of Jordan's North-Eastern Desert and Beyond, Leiden, 355–61.Google Scholar
Al-Jallad, A. and Jaworska, K. 2019: A Dictionary of the Safaitic Inscriptions, Leiden.10.1163/9789004400429CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Al-Manaser, A. and Macdonald, M. C. A. 2017: The OCIANA Corpus of Safaitic Inscriptions: Preliminary Edition. Oxford. Available at http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/resources/ociana/corpora/ociana_safaitic.pdfGoogle Scholar
Baird, J. A. and Taylor, C. (eds) 2011: Ancient Graffiti in Context, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Benefiel, R. R. 2008: ‘Amianth, a ball-game, and making one's mark: CIL IV 1936 and 1936a’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 167, 193–200.Google Scholar
Benefiel, R. R. 2010: ‘Dialogues of ancient graffiti in the house of Maius Castricius in Pompeii’, American Journal of Archaeology 114, 59–101.10.3764/aja.114.1.59CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benefiel, R. R. and Sypniewski, H. M. 2016. ‘Images and text on the walls of Herculaneum: Designing the Ancient Graffiti Project’, in Felle, A. E. and Rocco, A. (eds), Off the Beaten Track: Epigraphy at the Borders. Proceedings of 6th EAGLE International Event (24–25 September 2015, Bari, Italy), Oxford, 29–48.Google Scholar
Benefiel, R. R. and Sypniewski, H. M. (eds) 2020: Regio I. Latium et Campania. Pompeii: tituli scariphati, Italia Epigrafica Digitale II, 2.5, Rome.Google Scholar
Calzini Gysens, J. 1987: ‘Graffiti safaitici a Pompei’, Dialoghi di Archeologia 5, 107–17.Google Scholar
Calzini Gysens, J. 1990: ‘Safaitic graffiti from Pompeii’, Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 20, 1–7.Google Scholar
Cheesman, G. L. 1914: The Auxilia of the Roman Imperial Army, Oxford.Google Scholar
Clackson, J., Patrick, J., McDonald, K., Tagliapietra, L. and Zair, N. (eds) 2020: Migration, Mobility and Language Contact in and around the Ancient Mediterranean, Cambridge.10.1017/9781108763943CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dąbrowa, E. 1979: ‘Les troupes auxiliaires de l'armée romaine en Syrie au Ier siècle de notre ère’, Dialogues d'histoire ancienne 5, 233–54.10.3406/dha.1979.1387CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dąbrowa, E. 2000: ‘Legio III Gallica’, in Bohec, Y. Le and Wolff, C. (eds), Les légions de Rome sous le Haut-Empire, Paris, vol. 2, 309–15.Google Scholar
De Ligt, L. and Tacoma, L. E, . (eds) 2016: Migration and Mobility in the Early Roman Empire, Leiden.10.1163/9789004307377CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dussaud, R. and Macler, F. 1901: Voyage archéologique au Ṣafâ et dans le Djebel Ed-Drûz, Paris.Google Scholar
Eschebach, L. 1993: Gebäudeverzeichnis und Stadtplan der antiken Stadt Pompeji, Cologne.Google Scholar
Forni, G. 1953: Il reclutamento delle legioni da Augusto a Diocleziano, Rome/Milan.Google Scholar
Forni, G. 1974: ‘Estrazione etnica e sociale dei soldati delle legioni nei primi tre secoli dell'impero’, Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.1, 339–91.Google Scholar
Graham, C. 1859: ‘Additional inscriptions from the Hauran and the eastern desert of Syria’, Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom, 270–323.Google Scholar
Haynes, I. 2013: Blood of the Provinces: The Roman Auxilia and the Making of Provincial Society from Augustus to the Severans, Oxford.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199655342.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holder, P. A. 1980: The Auxilia from Augustus to Trajan, Oxford.10.30861/9780860540755CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunink, V. 2011: Glücklich ist dieser Ort! 1000 Graffiti aus Pompeji, Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Ivleva, T. 2016: ‘Peasants into soldiers: recruitment and military mobility in the early Roman Empire’, in De Ligt and Tacoma 2016, 158–75.Google Scholar
Kennedy, D. L. 1980: The Auxilia and Numeri Raised in the Roman Province of Syria, DPhil. Thesis, Oxford.Google Scholar
Langner, M. 2001: Antike Graffitizeichnungen: Motive, Gestaltung und Bedeutung, Wiesbaden.Google Scholar
Letellier-Taillefer, É. 2019: ‘Nouvelles recherches sur les théâtres de Pompéi’, Revue archéologique 1, 178–84.Google Scholar
Letellier-Taillefer, É. and Chapelin, G. 2019: ‘Théâtres de Pompéi: Campagnes 2017’, in Chronique des activités archéologiques de l’École française de Rome [En ligne]: Les cites vésuviennes, https://doi.org/10.4000/cefr.3246Google Scholar
Levin-Richardson, S. 2019: The Brothel of Pompeii: Sex, Class, and Gender at the Margins of Roman Society, Cambridge.10.1017/9781108655040CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lo Cascio, E. and Tacoma, L. E., (eds) 2016: The Impact of Mobility and Migration in the Roman Empire: Proceedings of the Twelfth Workshop of the International Network Impact of Empire (Rome, June 17–19, 2015), Leiden.10.1163/9789004334809CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, M. C. A. 1993: ‘Nomads and the Ḥawrān in the late Hellenistic and Roman periods: a reassessment of the epigraphic evidence’, Syria 70, 303–403, reprinted with addenda and corrigenda in Macdonald 2009a.10.3406/syria.1993.7341CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, M. C. A. 1998: ‘Some reflections on epigraphy and ethnicity in the Roman Near East’, Mediterranean Archaeology 11, 177–90.Google Scholar
Macdonald, M. C. A. 2009a: Literacy and Identity in Pre-Islamic Arabia, Farnham.Google Scholar
Macdonald, M. C. A. 2009b: ‘On Saracens, the Rawwāfah inscription and the Roman army’, in Macdonald 2009a, 1–26.Google Scholar
Macdonald, M. C. A. 2014: ‘“Romans go home”? Rome and other “outsiders” as viewed from the Syro-Arabian desert,’ in Dijkstra, J. H. F. and Fisher, G. (eds), Inside and Out: Interactions between Rome and People in the Arabian and Egyptian Frontiers in Late Antiquity, Leuven, 145–63.Google Scholar
Macdonald, M. C. A. 2018: ‘Tweets from antiquity: literacy, graffiti, and their uses in the towns and deserts of ancient Arabia’, in Ragazzoli, C., Harmanşah, Ö., Salvador, C. and Frood, E. (eds), Scribbling Through History: Graffiti, Places and People from Antiquity to Modernity, London, 65–81.Google Scholar
Macdonald, M. C. A. and Al-Manaser, A. 2019: ‘Recording graffiti in the black desert: past, present, and future’, Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies 7, 205–22.10.5325/jeasmedarcherstu.7.2.0205CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, M. C. A., Mu'azzin, M. and Nehmé, L. 1996: ‘Les inscriptions safaïtiques de Syria, cent quarante ans après leur découverte’, Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 1, 435–94.Google Scholar
Mann, J. C. 1983: Legionary Recruitment and Veteran Settlement During the Principate, London.Google Scholar
McGinn, T. A. J. 2004: The Economy of Prostitution in the Roman World: A Study of Social History and the Brothel, Ann Arbor, MI.10.3998/mpub.17679CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millar, F. 1993: The Roman Near East, 31 BC–AD 337, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Morgan, G. 2006: 69 A.D.: The Year of Four Emperors, Oxford.Google Scholar
Norris, J. and Al-Manaser, A. 2018: ‘The Nabataeans against the Ḥwlt – once again. An edition of new Safaitic inscriptions from the Jordanian Ḥarrah desert’, Arabian Epigraphic Notes 4, 1–24.Google Scholar
Pollard, N. 2000: Soldiers, Cities, and Civilians in Roman Syria, Ann Arbor, MI.10.3998/mpub.16525CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roselaar, S. T. 2016: ‘State-organised mobility in the Roman Empire: legionaries and auxiliaries’, in De Ligt and Tacoma 2016, 138–57.Google Scholar
Sartre, M. 1982: Trois études sur l'Arabie romaine et byzantine, Brussels.Google Scholar
Sartre, M. 2015: ‘Rome et les Arabes nomades: le dossier épigraphique de Eeitha’, in Genequand, D. and Robin, C. J. (eds), Les Jafnides: Des rois arabes au service de Byzance (VIe siècle de l’ère chrétienne). Actes du colloque de Paris, 24–25 novembre 2008, Paris, 37–51.Google Scholar
Seyrig, H. 1971: ‘Le culte du Soleil en Syrie a l’époque romaine’, Syria 48: 337–73.10.3406/syria.1971.6255CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solin, H. 2012: ‘On the use of Greek in Campania’, in Leiwo, M., Halla-aho, H. and Vierros, M. (eds), Variation and Change in Greek and Latin, Helsinki, 97–114.Google Scholar
Southern, P. 1989: ‘The numeri of the Roman imperial army’, Britannia 20, 81–140.10.2307/526158CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spaul, J. 1994: ALA2: The Auxiliary Cavalry Units of the Pre-Diocletianic Imperial Roman Army, Andover.Google Scholar
Spaul, J. 2000: COHORS2: The Evidence for and a Short History of the Auxiliary Infantry Units of the Imperial Roman Army, Oxford.Google Scholar
Stern, K. B. 2018: Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and the Forgotten Jews of Antiquity, Princeton, NJ.Google Scholar
Tacoma, L. E. and Tybout, R. A. 2019: ‘Inscribing Near Eastern mobility in the Hellenistic and Roman periods’, in Yoo, Zerbini and Barron 2019, 43–69.Google Scholar
Terpstra, T. 2015: ‘Roman trade with the far East: evidence for Nabataean middlemen in Puteoli’, in Romanis, F. De and Maiuro, M. (eds), Across the Ocean: Nine Essays on Indo-Mediterranean Trade, Leiden, 73–96.Google Scholar
Tran Tam Tinh, V. 1972: Le culte des divinités orientales en Campanie, Leiden.Google Scholar
Väänänen, V. 1966: Le latin vulgaire des inscriptions pompéiennes (3rd edn), Berlin.Google Scholar
Varone, A. 2002: Erotica Pompeiana: Love Inscriptions on the Walls of Pompeii, Rome.Google Scholar
Varone, A. 2012: Titulorum graphio exaratorum qui in C.I.L. IV collecti sunt imagines (2 vols), Rome.Google Scholar
Waddington, W. H. 1870: Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, recueillies et expliquées, Paris.Google Scholar
Weeber, K.-W. 2003: Decius war hier … Das Beste aus der römischen Graffiti-Szene, Düsseldorf.Google Scholar
Wellesley, K. 1989: Cornelius Tacitus II.1: Historiae, Leipzig.Google Scholar
Wellesley, K. 2000: The Year of the Four Emperors (3rd edn), London.Google Scholar
Winnett, F. V. and Harding, G. L. 1978: Inscriptions from Fifty Safaitic Cairns, Toronto.Google Scholar
Woolf, G. 2016: ‘Movers and stayers’, in De Ligt and Tacoma 2016, 438–61.Google Scholar
Wordsworth, W. 1837: Inscriptiones Pompeianæ; or, Specimens and Facsimiles of Ancient Inscriptions Discovered on the Walls of Buildings at Pompeii, London.Google Scholar
Yoo, J., Zerbini, A. and Barron, C. (eds) 2019: Migration and Migrant Identities in the Near East from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, London.Google Scholar