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VERNAE AND PROSTITUTION AT POMPEII

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2023

Sarah Levin-Richardson
Sarah Levin-Richardson*
Affiliation:
University of Washington
*
sarahlr@uw.edu
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Abstract

Vernae—often but not exclusively taken to be home-born slaves—are usually thought to have had a privileged role within the ancient Roman household. While previous studies have highlighted how these individuals were represented with affection or as surrogate members of the freeborn family, this article uses epigraphic evidence from Pompeii to argue that the reality for at least some vernae was much more grim. A full examination of Pompeian attestations of the word verna reveals that there was a connection to prostitution in over seventy per cent of extant appearances of the noun. Furthermore, contextualizing this phenomenon within the corpus of prostitution-related graffiti more broadly reveals that verna was the single most commonly used descriptor in advertisements for sexual services at Pompeii. Ultimately, the epigraphic evidence from Pompeii suggests that vernae were not safe from sexual exploitation, and it may have been their status as vernae that made them attractive to those wishing to purchase sex.

Keywords

epigraphyexploitationgraffitiPompeiiprostitutionRomeslavesvernae

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Type
Research Article
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The Classical Quarterly , Volume 73 , Issue 1 , May 2023 , pp. 250 - 256
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association

Recent epigraphic studies of vernae (a term that could refer to home-born slaves among other meanings; see more below) have argued that these individuals occupied a relatively privileged position in the Roman household. They were described in affectionate terms, could be treated as surrogate children or siblings for free members of the household, and were sometimes manumitted at a young age. Hanne Sigismund-Nielsen, for example, notes that young vernae are ‘frequently commemorated affectionately as “dear small children”’, as in the epitaph from Ostia in which Junia Eutychia marks the death of Aphrodite, her almost-two-year-old ‘sweetest verna’ (vernae dulcissimae, CIL 14.592).Footnote 1 As noted by Beryl Rawson and Sigismund-Nielsen, some epitaphs go further and present vernae as equivalent to freeborn children, as in the parallel funerary commemoration of Publicia Glypte's son and her verna as togate children with scrolls (CIL 6.22972), or the epitaph that states that the verna Aulus Furius Crassus ‘was considered in place of a son’ (loco f(ilii) hab(itus) es(t), CIL 6.18754 Add. p. 3915).Footnote 2 Moreover, the tria nomina of the latter verna implies that he had been manumitted (perhaps informally) much younger (in this case, by his death at 4 years, 6 months and 29 days old) than the legal threshold for manumission, a not infrequent practice that has been attributed to the verna's ‘favored position in the household’.Footnote 3

This article offers a less rosy view of those represented as vernae, building on the observation made by Jana Kepartová, Elisabeth Herrmann-Otto, Michele George and Polly Lohmann that some Pompeian graffiti attest to the prostitution of vernae.Footnote 4 In what follows, I first examine all epigraphic attestations of the word verna at Pompeii, highlighting how depictions of prostituted vernae were much more prevalent than other types of representations (such as funerary commemorations). I then contextualize these prostituted vernae within the milieu of Pompeian prostitution more broadly, ultimately suggesting that it was their identification as vernae that made these individuals marketable as providers of sex.

EPIGRAPHY OF VERNAE AT POMPEII

A search of the Epigraphic Database Clauss-Slaby (EDCS) for variations of the word verna at Pompeii yields twenty-one occurrences. Seven of these attestations refer to individuals with the cognomen Verna, and will be described rather briefly. A certain Verna champions his preferred political candidate in a painted electoral advertisement from the Via dell'Abbondanza near its intersection with the forum: Capellam ⋅ d(uo) ⋅ v(irum) ⋅ i(ure) ⋅ d(icendo) ⋅ o(ro) ⋅ v(os) ⋅ f(aciatis) ⋅ || Verna cum / discent(es) ⋅ f̣ạc̣[it], ‘I ask that you make Capella duumvir for proclaiming the law. Verna makes this with his students’ (CIL 4.694 Add. p. 461, p. 1247; exterior of VIII.3.2).Footnote 5 In another case, a certain Lucius Aelius Verna is listed as a witness on a heavily damaged wax tablet from Caecilius Jucundus’ archive of auction receipts (CIL 4.3340.79 [= t. 79]).Footnote 6 One graffito, from the exterior of the basilica along the Via Marina, just has the cognomen Verna listed twice, one above the other (CIL 4.3076 Add. p. 1783; VII.1.2),Footnote 7 while in a graffito from near the entrance of the house of Pinarius Cerialis, a certain Verna is greeted (Vern(a) va(le), ‘hey Verna!’, CIL 4.8846; III.4.b).Footnote 8 The cognomen also appears in a list of three different men—Nauplius / Onesi<m>us / Verna (CIL 4.5175)—on the exterior of IX.6.5,Footnote 9 and CIL 4.1334 Add. p. 1647, from an unknown location along the east side of the Via di Mercurio,Footnote 10 records a certain Verna Vernionis, ‘Verna [the son of] Vernio’.Footnote 11 Finally, one graffito from the south side of insula IX.6 seems to offer sexual services from Verna: Verna aeris ⋅ Ị, ‘Verna for 1[?] coins’ (CIL 4.5206 Add. p. 1874).Footnote 12

In the remaining fourteen occurrences, verna appears as a noun. Antonio Varone and Lohmann take verna in Pompeian graffiti to indicate a home-born slave and I am inclined to agree, although we cannot rule out other possible meanings of the term, including native (freeborn) inhabitant (Lewis and Short s.v. verna IIa).Footnote 13 Indeed, Rawson has shown that verna was used in unexpected ways in the epigraphic material, as in some funerary epitaphs from Rome where a freed verna is commemorated as verna suus, ‘their own verna’, by an individual who cannot have been the formal manumitter (that is, the verna bears a different nomen than the commemorator). One explanation for this (albeit rare) phenomenon is that verna denotes some sort of affective connection rather than legal ownership.Footnote 14 I refrain, therefore, from translating verna in the examples below.

The noun appears once in a funerary epitaph from the fondo Santilli beyond the Porta Stabia, referring to a verna of a family otherwise unknown at Pompeii: Fortunatus / Pisulliae ⋅ vern(a) ⋅ / vix(it) ⋅ ann(os) ⋅ IIII, ‘Fortunatus, verna of Pisullia, lived four years’ (NSA 1897 276.7).Footnote 15 A verna named Severus is hailed in a graffito from the peristyle of the House of the Painters at Work (Severus verna val(e), ‘hey verna Severus!’ AE 2000, 328; IX.12.19),Footnote 16 while a graffito in the rear peristyle of the House of the Faun mentions a verna of Papius; according to Heikki Solin (at Add. p. 1664), the name of the verna was probably written in the poorly preserved second line (Papi virna / …, ‘ …, verna of Papius’, CIL 4.1480 Add. p. 207, p. 1664; VI.12). In a fragmentary graffito from the peristyle of the House of M. Vesonius Primus (CIL 4.4512 Add. p. 1837; VI.14.20), Hermas the verna is listed along with several other individuals:

Felicita(s) ⋅ Primi
Ḥeros ⋅ Pagiao [sic]
Hermas ⋅ verna
… Footnote 17

These other individuals probably were enslaved; line 1 records ‘Felicitas [slave] of Primus’—probably M. Vesonius Primus, according to the CIL—and line 2, according to Solin, probably records ‘Heros [slave] of Paccia’.Footnote 18

The remaining ten occurrences link vernae to sexual activity or the sale of sex, either implicitly or (more often) explicitly. One example, from the rear room of taverna I.3.1, contains a list of names and prices, including ‘Chresimus, verna, for 4 asses’ (CIL 4.3964 Add. p. 1795):

Communis a(sses) IIIFootnote 19
Successus a(sses) III
Nicep(h)or sexFootnote 20
Amunus a(sses) IV
C(h)resimụṣ v[e]ṛn(a) a(sses) IVFootnote 21

Two other graffiti were written just next to or just inside the entrance of house V.I.15 along the Via del Vesuvio: Felicla virna a(ssibus) II, ‘Felicla, verna, for 2 asses’ (CIL 4.4023 Add. p. 1799) and Successa verna V / bellis moribus / …, ‘Successa, verna with charming ways, for 5 [asses]’ (CIL 4.4025 Add. p. 1799).Footnote 22 The latter was accompanied by imagery including a palm branch, activating the well-known association between sexual activity and victory, and we find Successa's name repeated directly below in another graffito (CIL 4.4026 Add. p. 1799).Footnote 23

The entryway of the House of the Vettii (VI.15.1) attracted two more examples. One reads Eutychis / vern<a> a(ssibus) II / moribus bellis, ‘Eutychis, verna with charming ways, for 2 asses’ (CIL 4.4592 Add. p. 1841).Footnote 24 At some point, someone carefully altered the word verna to Graeca, changing the meaning of the graffito to ‘Eutychis the Greek with charming ways, for two asses’. The other offers a verna—perhaps Eutychis, with her name spelled differently—for two asses: Euticis verna a(ssibus) II (CIL 4.4593 Add. p. 1841).Footnote 25

Another two graffiti appear on the south side of insula IX.6.Footnote 26 There is Logas / verna / (a)eris VIII, ‘Logas the verna for 8 bronze coins’ (CIL 4.5203 Add. p. 1874) and a verna, whose name is not extant, for 5 coins (… / verna aeris V, CIL 4.5204 Add. p. 1874).Footnote 27 Other sexual graffiti include Optata / verna a(ssibus) II, ‘Optata the verna for two asses’ (CIL 4.5105 Add. p. 1871) from the exterior of IX.5.16,Footnote 28 and Euche / [[ [ve] ]]rna / [[ [aeris] ]] a(ssibus) II, ‘Euche the verna for 2 asses’ (CIL 4.5345 Add. pp. 1881–2), from the exterior of IX.7.12.Footnote 29 Finally, one statement was written on the back side of the House of the Vettii, along the Vicolo del Labirinto. It reads Isidorus / verna P̣utiolanus / cunnuliggeter / gẹter, ‘Isidorus, the Puteolean verna, lickingly ingly cunt’ (CIL 4.4699 Add. pp. 1844–5). Isidorus’ name appears in isolation elsewhere on the same stretch of wall, closer to the southern corner of the insula (CIL 4.4700 Add. p. 1845).

The prose of these attestations is spare, making the fact that so many of them mention sexual activity and/or prices striking. In total, seventy-one per cent (10/14) of Pompeian attestations of the noun verna suggest that these individuals sold sex. I turn now to advertisements of sexual services, seeking to assess the terms with which individuals offered sexual services and the role of vernae within this larger milieu of Pompeian prostitution.

EPIGRAPHY OF PROSTITUTION AT POMPEII

Pier Guzzo and Vincenzo Scarano Ussani have compiled a list of forty-seven Pompeian graffiti that offer a named individual or sexual act for a specific price.Footnote 30 Since many of the graffiti that constitute their data set are poorly written or poorly preserved, alternative readings are possible that affect a final count of this type of graffiti, and where available I use the updated readings by Solin in CIL 4 Supplement 4.2. I subtract five graffiti from Guzzo and Scarano Ussani's catalogue that do not seem to mention a price,Footnote 31 and add two from the purpose-built brothel (VII.12.18–19) that Guzzo and Scarano Ussani list as ‘casi incerti’Footnote 32 as well as one additional graffito from the above analysis of vernae (CIL 4.4025 Add. p. 1799)Footnote 33 for a total of forty-five examples examined in this section.Footnote 34 While most of these graffiti are taken as straightforward advertisements for sexual services, a few—especially those with male names offering cunnilingus—could alternatively (or additionally) be understood as defamatory in intent.Footnote 35

As with the epigraphy of vernae discussed in the previous section, the epigraphy of prostitution is fairly laconic, with many texts including only a name and a price. It is especially interesting and informative, then, when graffiti do include additional information. Most common (eleven examples) is specification of the type of sexual act (usually oral sex).Footnote 36 The next most common descriptor identifies the individual selling sex as a verna (nine examples).Footnote 37 Finally, five examples describe the individual with the phrase bellis moribus, ‘with charming ways’ or ‘with good manners’.Footnote 38 If each type of sexual act in the first category is tallied and considered separately—five offers of fellatio, three for cunnilingus, three for other sexual acts—designation as a verna becomes the single most common attribute in our data set with nine attestations.

CONCLUSION

When verna is used as a noun in Pompeian epigraphy, a clear majority of extant occurrences (10/14 or 71%) connect those so identified with a sexual act or price. Verna is also the most common descriptor in prostitution-related graffiti at Pompeii. It seems likely that the inclusion of the term verna was a way to attract attention from potential clients, and to differentiate these sex workers from those who were not vernae.Footnote 39

However we might understand or translate the term verna in the examples above, we are left with a stark image of vernae being sexually exploited—a scenario also present in some literary representations—for profit.Footnote 40 Indeed, it seems to have been their identification as vernae that made these individuals marketable as purveyors of sex.Footnote 41 Ultimately, the Pompeian evidence adds nuance to the current scholarly understanding of vernae as occupying a privileged position in the Roman household (as discussed at the beginning of this article). Alongside slaveholders’ representation of their affection for, and family-like treatment of, vernae, the majority of Pompeian graffiti highlight how vernae, like so many low-status and enslaved individuals, were vulnerable to sexual exploitation.

Footnotes

I thank the anonymous reviewers for comments and suggestions.

References

1 Sigismund-Nielsen, H., ‘Slave and lower-class Roman children’, in Grubbs, J.E. and Parkin, T. (edd.), The Oxford Handbook of Childhood and Education in the Classical World (Oxford, 2013), 286–301Google Scholar, at 294.

2 Rawson, B., ‘Degrees of freedom: vernae and Junian Latins in the Roman familia’, in Dasen, V. and Späth, T. (edd.), Children, Memory, and Family Identity in Roman Culture (Oxford, 2010), 195–22110.1093/acprof:oso/9780199582570.003.0009CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 198; Sigismund-Nielsen (n. 1), 294.

3 Sigismund-Nielsen (n. 1), 294; also Rawson (n. 2), 196, 203.

4 Kepartová, J., ‘Kinder in Pompeji: eine epigraphische Untersuchung’, Klio 66 (1984), 192–209, at 196CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Herrmann-Otto, E., Ex ancilla natus: Untersuchungen zu den ‘hausgeborenen’ Sklaven und Sklavinnen im Westen des römischen Kaiserreiches (Stuttgart, 1994), 344Google Scholar; George, M., ‘The lives of slaves’, in Dobbins, J.J. and Foss, P.W. (edd.), The World of Pompeii (London, 2007), 538–49, at 539Google Scholar; Lohmann, P., Graffiti als Interaktionsform: Geritzte Inschriften in den Wohnhäusern Pompejis (Berlin, 2018), 349Google Scholar.

5 For the location of the advertisement and the use of cum with the accusative, see V. Weber at Add. p. 1247; the phrase cum discentes is attested in other programmata, such as CIL 4.275. The candidate is likely to be Lucius Caecilius Capella, who ran for office in the Flavian era; see P. Castrén, Ordo populusque pompeianus: Polity and Society in Roman Pompeii (Rome, 1975), 145; Weber at Add. p. 1247. For Verna as a cognomen here, see Kepartová (n. 4), 196.

6 Q(uinti) Coeli [---] / L(uci) [---] / M(arci) ⋅ Holconi ⋅ Prọc̣ụḷ(i) / L(uci) ⋅ Magulni ⋅ Dona[ti] / [-] C̣aeli Primog̣[enis] / P(ubli) Mulvi Frontoni[s] / L(uci) Ae[li] Verna[e]. There may have been one additional line after this that is not preserved (according to the CIL). At least five Lucii Aelii are known from Pompeii, according to Castrén (n. 5), 130–1.

7 For Verna as a cognomen here, see Kepartová (n. 4), 196. Solin (at Add. p. 1783) suggests it might also read Verna verna, that is, ‘Verna [i.e. the cognomen] the verna’.

8 The CIL notes a portrait of a youth facing left adjoining the greeting: see also Corte, M. Della, ‘Scavi sulla via dell'Abbondanza. (Epigrafi inedite)’, NSA 6 (1927), 89–116, at 106Google Scholar; perhaps the inscribed portrait depicts Verna (see, however, R.R. Benefiel, ‘Dialogues of ancient graffiti in the house of Maius Castricius in Pompeii’, AJA 114 [2010], 59–101, at 77 on the difficulty in connecting names in graffiti to inscribed drawings of faces).

9 For Verna as a cognomen here, see Kepartová (n. 4), 196.

10 This would be the west side of insula VI.9 or VI.10.

11 For this reading—that is, taking Verna as a cognomen and supplying filius—see Solin at Add. p. 1647. The name Secundus was written twice below and to the right with smaller letters; while it is included under the same CIL number, it was most likely written by a different person than whoever wrote the first line (see further CIL ad loc. plus Solin at Add. p. 1647; cf. A. Varone, ‘Organizzazione e sfruttamento della prostituzione servile: l'esempio del lupanare di Pompei’, in A. Buonopane and F. Cenerini [edd.], Donna e lavoro nella documentazione epigrafica [Faenza, 2003], 193–215, at 209, who takes it as one graffito indicating that Secundus was a verna).

12 A. Varone, Erotica pompeiana: Love Inscriptions of the Walls of Pompeii, transl. Ria Berg (Rome, 2002), 144 n. 243 and Solin at Add. p. 1874 list the location as IX.6.a–b. The mark indicating the price is not clear. For the use of the cognomen here, see Solin at Add. p. 1874. Herrmann-Otto (n. 4), 345 n. 9 reads CIL 4.5205 and 5206 together, taking the name Rufinus from 5205 and identifying him as the verna in 5206 (as also A. Mau, ‘Scavi di Pompei’, Bullettino dell'Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica [1881], 22–32, at 32; Mau clearly wanted CIL 4.5206 to use the same format seen in CIL 4.5203 and 5204); however, the original publication of these graffiti in 1879 (i.e. Sogliano's report quoted in G. Fiorelli, ‘Gennaio’, NSA [1879], 3–28, at 21) and the entry by Mau in CIL in 1909 seem to confirm that the two graffiti are to be read separately. CIL 4.5205 may also include an abbreviated greeting (ṣ<a>ḷ(utem)) after the name that would complicate reading this graffito together with 5206.

13 Varone (n. 12), passim; Lohmann (n. 4), 333 and passim. For scholars who equivocate about whether the noun verna in Pompeian examples means ‘home-born slave’ or ‘native (freeborn) inhabitant’, see Treggiari, S., ‘Lower-class women in the Roman economy’, Florilegium 1 (1979), 65–8610.3138/flor.1.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 84 n. 36 (who adds ‘in this context the two [definitions] would come to the same thing’); Herrmann-Otto (n. 4), 345; McGinn, T.A.J., The Economy of Prostitution in the Roman World: A Study of Social History and the Brothel (Ann Arbor, 2004), 29CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Rawson (n. 2), 201–18.

15 For the nomen gentilicium, see Castrén (n. 5), 204; Solin, H. and Salomies, O., Repertorium nominum gentilium et cognominum Latinorum (Hildesheim, 1988), 144Google Scholar.

16 See also A. Varone, ‘Inscrizioni parietarie inedite da Pompei (REG. IX, INS. 12)’, in G. Paci (ed.), ΕΠΙΓΡΑΦΑΙ: Miscellanea epigrafica in onore di Lidio Gasperini (Rome, 2000), 1071–93, at §66.

17 The graffito continues for another four short lines, of which only line 5 (Primogenes) is understandable; see further at Add. p. 1837.

18 Solin at Add. p. 1837. Could pagiao, alternatively, be a misspelling of Greek πυγαῖος, referring to someone who likes to be anally penetrated? Either for that reason, or because the original transcription of line 2 in CIL reads II Eros (seeming to indicate a price of two asses for Eros’ services), Herrmann-Otto (n. 4), 345 n. 9 classifies Hermas the verna as a male prostitute.

19 For the name, see Solin at Add. p. 1795.

20 The reading of the price is not clear; see further the CIL.

21 The reading of the last line is my own. The CIL records Cresi mu vern[a](?) A IV, which is often restored as C(h)resi Mu(la) verna (see EDCS, for example). However, the name C(h)resim(us) most likely appears on the very same wall in CIL 4.3965 Add. p. 1795, and Chresimus is a cognomen with at least four attestations at Pompeii (plus a fifth whose reading is uncertain; see CIL p. 748). Herrmann-Otto (n. 4), 345 n. 9 similarly takes the verna as Cresimus.

22 On the third line, centred between a drawing of a crown and a palm branch, were the letters A P (see CIL and Add. p. 1799).

23 For the metaphor of sexual activity as military conquest, see Fredrick, D., ‘Reading broken skin: violence in Roman elegy’, in Hallett, J. and Skinner, M. (edd.), Roman Sexualities (Princeton, 1997), 172–93Google Scholar, at 179–90; R.O.A.M. Lyne, ‘The life of love’, in P.A. Miller (ed.), Latin Erotic Elegy (London, 2002), 348–65, at 353–9. A third graffito on this wall offered sexual services on similar terms, but not from a verna, as far as we know: Menander | bellis moribus | aeris ass(ibus) II, ‘Menander with charming ways for two bronze asses’ (CIL 4.4024 Add. p. 1799); a graffito recording Men appears on the other side of the entranceway (CIL 4.4022 Add. p. 1799) and may refer to this same individual (as Solin at Add. p. 1799 likewise thinks).

24 Solin (at Add. p. 1841) suggests that the end of the second line might be aer(is) II; this would not affect the interpretation of the graffito offered here.

25 For this reading of the name, see Solin at Add. p. 1841. This graffito is listed under the category of verna meretrix by Herrmann-Otto (n. 4), 344 n. 9, but with unknown price; perhaps this is because the two lines indicating a cost of two asses might have been written by someone else, as Mau (see CIL ad loc.) suggests.

26 Varone (n. 12), 144 n. 243 and Solin Add. p. 1874 list the location as IX.6.a–b.

27 The first line of CIL 4.5204 has six or seven letters, most of which are indecipherable (see further the CIL).

28 For the location, see Varone (n. 12), 144 n. 243 and Solin at Add. p. 1871.

29 The beginning of lines 2 and 3 were erased in antiquity. Mau (CIL ad loc.) restores the second line as verna, which others, including Herrmann-Otto (n. 4), 344 n. 9, follow. Euche's name appears again on the same wall (CIL 4.5346 Add. p. 1882). For the location, see Solin at Add. p. 1881.

30 P.G. Guzzo and V. Scarano Ussani, Ex corpore lucrum facere: La prostituzione nell'antica Pompei (Rome, 2009), 121–2 (tabellae 1 and 2); cf. the catalogue in McGinn (n. 13), 42, which includes prices in Pompeian graffiti and as represented in literature.

31 CIL 4.4523 (see Solin at Add. p. 1838 for two possible readings, neither of which includes a price); 4699 Add. pp. 1844–5 (on which, see above); 5048 Add. p. 1868 (see Solin's reading of the first line at Add. p. 1868); 5061 Add. p. 1868 (Solin at Add. p. 1868 reads the final line as Veneriae rather than Veneria [assibus] II); 8225 (a fragment of tile from the House of the Four Styles [I.8.17] with a fragmentary set of numbers but no sexual acts, names, or any other information).

32 CIL 4.2228 Add. p. 1744 (A ⋅ V at the end of the graffito probably does indicate a(ssibus) V); CIL 4.2279 Add. p. 216, p. 1751 (for the difficulty in reading the word[s] before the price, see Guzzo and Scarano Ussani [n. 30], 122 and Solin at Add. p. 1751). At present, I do not include CIL 4.2189 Add. p. 1738 from the brothel (Helpis Β), although it is possible that the Greek beta after the name indicates a price of two asses (see S. Levin-Richardson, The Brothel of Pompeii: Sex, Class, and Gender at the Margins of Roman Society [Cambridge, 2019], 206 n. 44; cf. Solin's hesitation at Add. p. 1738), nor CIL 4.2289 Add. p. 1753 (Cor Iṣ [?]), which may indicate a price of 1.5 asses if the final letter is in fact an s (as Levin-Richardson [this note], 161 has it; see also Guzzo and Scarano Ussani [n. 30], 122), and not a c as Solin (at Add. p. 1753) prefers to read it.

33 The price in this graffito is indicated with a partially written (or partially preserved) V at the end of the first line (see e.g. Varone [n. 12], 144 n. 243), which may not have been noticed by Guzzo and Scarano Ussani.

34 CIL 4.1307 Add. p. 1644; 1751 Add. p. 211, p. 464, p. 1686; 1784 Add. p. 1689 (note that the end of the graffito, which Guzzo and Scarano Ussani [n. 30], 121 interpret as a price of 11 asses, is not very clear, however); 1969 Add. p. 1720; 2193 Add. p. 1739; 2228 Add. p. 1744; 2279 Add. p. 216, p. 1751; 2450 Add. p. 1772; 3964 Add. p. 1795; 3999 Add. pp. 1796–7; 4023 Add. p. 1799; 4024 Add. p. 1799; 4025 Add. p. 1799; 4150 Add. p. 1808; 4259 Add. p. 705, pp. 1819–20; 4277 Add. p. 1821; 4439 Add p. 705, p. 1832; 4441 Add. p. 1832; 4592 Add. p. 1841; 4593 Add. p. 1841; 5105 Add. p. 1871; 5127 Add. p. 1872; 5203 Add. p. 1874; 5204 Add. p. 1874; 5206 Add. p. 1874; 5338a Add. p. 1881; 5345 Add. p. 1882; 5372 Add. p. 1883 (the price might be one or two asses, depending on the reading; see further Solin at Add. p. 1883); 5408 Add. pp. 1887–8; 7068 Add. p. 1909; 7339; 7764; 8034; 8160; 8185; 8224; 8454; 8465a; 8483; 8511; 8812; 8939; 8940; 10078; Varone (n. 16), no. 40.

35 Graffiti often play with personas and voices, making their relationship to truth or transparency especially complicated; see further C. Williams, ‘Sexual themes in Greek and Latin graffiti’, in T.L. Hubbard (ed.), A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities (Malden, MA, 2014), 493–508, passim. For some of these graffiti as possible defamation, see e.g. McGinn (n. 13), 43–4.

36 Fellatio (n = 5): CIL 4.1784, Add. p. 1689; 1969 Add. p. 1720; 5408 Add. pp. 1887–8; 8160; 8185; cunnilingus (n = 3): CIL 4.3999 Add. pp. 1796–7; 8939; 8940; other (n = 3): CIL 4.1751 Add. p. 211, p. 464, p. 1644 (futuere); CIL 4.2193 Add. p. 1739 (futuit); CIL 4.8483 (mentula); one might add CIL 4.10078 (cinaede).

37 CIL 4.3964 Add. p. 1795; 4023 Add. p. 1799; 4025 Add. p. 1799; 4592 Add. p. 1841; 4593 Add. p. 1841; 5105 Add. p. 1871; 5203 Add. p. 1874; 5204 Add. p. 1874; 5345 Add. p. 1882.

38 CIL 4.4024 Add. p. 1799; 4025 Add. p. 1799; 4592 Add. p. 1841; 5127 Add. p. 1972; Varone (n. 16), no. 40. For the translation of this phrase as ‘with charming ways’, see Williams (n. 35), 497, and for the use of this phrase at Pompeii, see Berg, R., ‘Introduction: unveiling Roman courtesans’, in Berg, R. and Neudecker, R. (edd.), The Roman Courtesan: Archaeological Reflections of a Literary Topos (Rome, 2018), 43–63Google Scholar.

39 See also Kepratová (n. 4), 196, who comments that the inclusion of the term verna must have been beneficial or else it would not have been included. Cf. Berg (n. 38), 56 on the role of bellis moribus in Pompeii's prostitution graffiti: ‘Manners, then, may clearly distinguish the more exclusive courtesan from the streetwalker … ’.

40 e.g. Hor. Sat. 1.2.114–19.

41 George (n. 4), 547 n. 4 suggests that ‘[t]he use of “verna” in advertisements indicates that some customers valued the sheltered background of the house-born slave over the unknown origins of foreign-born prostitutes.’