SARAH LEVIN-RICHARDSON

C ALOS

GRAFFITI AND INFAMES AT

P OMPEII

aus: Zeitschrift fr Papyrologie und Epigraphik 195 (2015) 274282

Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn

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C A L OS

GR A F F I T I A N D I NFA M ES AT

P OM PEI I

A total of twenty Pompeian wall graffiti use the word calos a transliteration of the Greek word into
Latin characters in the context of modifying a male (or sometimes female) name.1 These graffiti range in
length and complexity from the solitary calos written in the House of Siricus (CIL 4.2301; VII.1.47) to the
calos Edone, beautiful Hedone, and calos Castrensis, beautiful Castrensis, within the multi-line tavern
advertisement found in the atrium of the House of the Bear (CIL 4.1679 Add. 210, 463, 704; VII.2.45; for
a complete list of calos graffiti, see the appendix).2 While it has long been acknowledged that Pompeian
calos graffiti have origins in the acclamations praising the beauty of respectable citizen boys on
Archaic and Classical Athenian pottery,3 scholars have not yet delved into how this Greek phenomenon
transformed in the hands of first-century CE Pompeians.4
This article examines the meanings and associations the word calos might have had for individuals
in first-century CE Pompeii. Through analyzing the content and locations of these graffiti, as well as the
types of graffiti nearby, three related features become apparent. First, some of the graffiti are associated
with marginalized sexual behavior. Second, these graffiti are often located in, or refer to, spaces where sex
could be sold. Finally, actors are disproportionately represented as calos. Ultimately, I argue that Pompeian
calos graffiti built upon the Greek tradition of acclamation found on pottery, but in a way that was
uniquely Roman. Specifically, I suggest that the word calos at Pompeii was associated with desirable but
problematic categories of individuals such as actors and prostitutes.
I. Sexual Behavior
The most telling evidence for the sexual valence of calos at Pompeii comes from a graffito written on the
exterior of the House of the Tragic Poet (VI.8.3) along the Vicolo della Fullonica: Sabine calos Hermeros
te amat, o beautiful Sabinus, Hermeros loves you (CIL 4.1256). Smothers, the editors of TLL, and Varone
all take the calos as modifying Sabinus, and thus beautiful Sabinus as the beloved of another male.5 Indeed,
1 CIL 4.652 Add. 1241, 1256, 1283, 1285, 1286, 1294 Add. 206, 1309 Add. 206, 1679 Add. 210, 463 and 704, 2150 Add.
215, 2179, 2180, 2301, 3069, 4567, 4725, 5018, 5136, 5138, 5148, 9146h; transcription, translation, and location information of
each can be found in the appendix. The appendix also includes all other examples of calos writing in either Latin or Greek
at Pompeii that are known to me, such as wall graffiti in which the word does not modify a proper name (CIL 4.2253 and
CIL 4.4839) and appearances of the word in other media (CIL 4.5898 Add. 725 and CIL 4.65676571). The word calos is not
declined in these graffiti, even when modifying a female name; see further E. R. Smothers, in Acclamation, Traditio
5, 1947, 157, 19. All translations are my own unless otherwise noted. Calos may also be a transliteration of the adverbial form
, though Smothers, , at least, does not identify impersonal uses until the mid 2nd century CE (4952).
2 I have chosen here and throughout to translate calos as beautiful; for the full range of meanings of the Greek original,
see LSJ s.v. . Note that several sources take calos Edone impersonally (CIL; TLL 3.183.5354 [fortasse]; E. Woeckner,
Womens Graffiti from Pompeii, in L. J. Churchill, P. R. Brown and J. E. Jeffrey (eds.), Women Writing Latin from Roman
Antiquity to Early Modern Europe, volume 1, New York 2002, 6784, 82n2).
3 E.g., G. Fiorelli, Giornale degli scavi di Pompei, Naples 1862, 50.
4 Discussion in scholarship is minimal. L. Richardson, Jr., Pompeii: The Casa dei Dioscuri and its Painters, Rome 1955,
notes (about CIL 4.1294) only, the transliterated Greek word calos is uncommon in Pompeii (93); J. L. Franklin, Jr., Pantomimists at Pompeii: Actius Anicetus and His Troupe, AJP 108, 1987, 95107 offers, the transliterated calos [is] common to
many of these theatrical graffiti (99); A. Varone, Erotica Pompeiana: Iscrizioni damore sui muri di Pompei, Rome 1994,
says in a footnote, Lacclamazione calos [] rivolta ai giovanetti in fiore mutuata di peso dalla lingua e dalla cultura greca,
dove frequentamente impiegata gi sui vasi dei ceramografi attici del VI e V secolo a.C. (124n203), and lists only CIL 4.652,
1283, 5138, and 5148 as examples. Smothers, , however, does note that these individuals have no pretension to social
status They are not the scions of great families (20). For Greek acclamation, see, e.g., L. Morenz, Kalos inscriptions,
Brills New Pauly, Leiden 2005, 1113; Smothers, ; H. A. Shapiro, Leagros the Satyr, in C. Marconi (ed.), Greek Vases:
Images, Contexts, and Controversies, Leiden 2004, 111.
5 Smothers, , 19; TLL 3.183.4849; Varone, Erotica, 123. I do not attempt to track through other Pompeian graffiti
any of the individuals described as calos, since a town of 1020,000 inhabitants would have had multiple individuals with the

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Varone takes this as evidence of the musa puerilis at Pompeii.6 Moreover, the statement is repeated nearly
verbatim lower on the wall, and each iteration of the graffito ends with a victory palm, heightening the eroticism of the statement with the well-known trope of victory in the arena of love.7
The sexual connotation of calos Victor ubique, beautiful Victor everywhere (CIL 4.652 Add. 1241),
written inside the northern pier of the Porta Marina, is confirmed by the graffito Victor cum Phylotero ubique, Victor with Phyloterus everywhere (CIL 4.653), written above it in the same medium and
followed (once again) by a victory palm.8 The formula x with y everywhere was also used in the purpose-built brothel (VII.12.1820), where, for example, one large graffito claims Ias cum Magno ubique,
Ias with Magnus everywhere (CIL 4.2174). Ias most likely was a prostitute and Magnus her client;9 by
analogy, in our version, Victor might have been a prostitute and Phyloterus his client.10 Perhaps it is not
insignificant that above these graffiti the name Victor was written again (CIL 4.654) along with the portrait
of a man presumably Victor himself.
We may be able to interpret other calos graffiti in a similar fashion. Calos qoponi, o beautiful tavern
boy (CIL 4.9146h), was written on the portico outside the upper floor of the Suburban Baths (VII.16.a)
along with eleven other graffiti.11 Just as Richlin takes the phrase puer cauponius in Plautus to refer to an
object of desire who would evoke associations with prostitution, so too should the beautiful tavern boy here
be interpreted in the same way.12 The association of taverns with prostitution can also be seen in the jurist
Ulpian, who clarifies that a prostitute, according to the Lex Julia et Papia, is a woman [who] openly makes
a living [by her body] not only where she makes herself available in a brothel, but also if (as is customary)
she squanders her chastity in taverns, inns, and other places (Dig. 23.2.43.pr3).13 The same holds for the
definition of pimps in the Praetors Edict, namely, that someone is a pimp whether he plies his trade in a
brothel, inn, or tavern (Dig. 3.2.4.203).14
A calos graffito from the Via di Mercurio, near one of the entrances to the house of the Centaur
(VI.9.3), lists a price: Thalia invicta / calos pagita I / Thy, unconquerable Thalia, beautiful country-boy
(for) 1 (as), Thy (CIL 4.1309 Add. 206).15 The word pagita is of uncertain origin, but it may be related
same cognomen. For example, the wax tablets of the Pompeian banker Caecilius Iucundus record six different individuals with
the cognomen Ampliatus (see the index to the tabulae ceratae in CIL 4.2, pp. 443448).
6 That is, Varone, Erotica, includes this graffito in his chapter named as such.
7 The second line reads Sabinei calos Hermeroe te amata; the victory palms are noted in CIL.
8 The victory palm is noted in CIL.
9 For this graffito, see also S. Levin-Richardson, Facilis hic futuit: Graffiti and Masculinity in Pompeiis Purpose-built
Brothel, Helios 38, 2011, 5978, 72.
10 Note, however, that this formula was also used in electoral programmata, where the rogatores are often listed at
the end with this formula. None of the individuals described as calos are included in McGinns list of possible prostitutes,
though he focuses on womens names written in or near brothels and taverns, and includes male names only if they list a price
(T. McGinn, The Economy of Prostitution in the Roman World: A Study of Social History and the Brothel, Ann Arbor 2004,
295302, with rationale on 295296).
11 For debate on the identification and function of this space, see, e.g., L. Jacobelli, Le pitture erotiche delle Terme Suburbane di Pompei, Rome 1995, 97.
12 Poenulus 1298; for commentary, see A. Richlin, Rome and the Mysterious Orient, Berkeley 2005, 270.
13 Translation R. Flemming, Quae corpore quaestum facit: The Sexual Economy of Female Prostitution in the Roman
Empire, JRS 89, 1999, 3861, 52. For Roman laws concerning prostitution, see especially T. McGinn, Prostitution, Sexuality,
and the Law in Ancient Rome, Oxford 1998. For the connection between bars/drinking and brothels/purchasing sex, see also
A. Wallace-Hadrill, Public Honour and Private Shame: the Urban Texture of Pompeii, in T. J. Cornell and K. Lomas (eds.),
Urban Society in Roman Italy, London 1995, 3962, 5053, 5556; McGinn, The Economy of Prostitution, 1522; R. Laurence, Roman Pompeii: Space and Society (2nd edition), London 2007, 70, 7880.
14 See, e.g, McGinn, The Economy of Prostitution, 5358; Flemming, Quae corpore, 51.
15 While P. G. Guzzo and V. Scarano Ussani, Ex corpore lucrum facere: La prostituzione nellantica Pompei, Rome 2009,
list Thalia in their chart of individuals mentioned in sexually explicit graffiti (126), pagita is mentioned neither here nor in their
chart of prices. Smothers, , takes calos as modifying Thalia invicta, but perhaps this is because he does not relay the
graffito in its entirety (19).

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to pagus; this is indeed how the word is used in later Latin.16 The unfinished third line is completed by two
graffiti below, both of which record the name Thalia (CIL 4.1309a, 1309b). In our graffito, one individual is
female, the other male, and there seems to be a play between the erotic unattainability of Thalia as invicta
and the availability, for a small price, of the beautiful country-boy.
While other calos graffiti are too brief to include explicit sexual content, they may have been interpreted as erotic in the context of other graffiti nearby. For example, in the House of the Argenteria (VI.7.20),
a column of the portico accumulated four graffiti, three of which included the word calos. One recorded
calos / Hedia, beautiful Hedia (CIL 4.1283); another is a poorly preserved graffito with calos written
three times in a row, followed by a couple of attempts at the name Aeneas (CIL 4.1285); and the third states
calos / Epictesis, beautiful Epictesis (CIL 4.1286). The final graffito on the column claimed Secund / fellat, Secund[a/us] sucks (CIL 4.1284), and thus may have reinforced the association between individuals
described as calos and the giving of sexual pleasure.
Likewise, in the house at VI.14.40, calos Acti, o beautiful Actius (CIL 4.4567), flanked the right side
of the doorway from the garden to the triclinium, with a drawing of an ithyphallic man to the left side of
the same door (CIL 4.4566), again drawing a readers attention to potential similarities and differences in
the erotic associations of the two.17 A context of sex for sale may have been read into calos ave, hail, o
beautiful one! (CIL 4.3069), from the exterior of the Porta Marina, as it was located near this tantalizing
graffito written above a bench just outside the gate: siquis hic sederit / legat hoc ante omnia / siqui futuere
volet / Atticen quaerat a xvi, Whoever sits here should read the following in particular: Anyone who wants
a fuck should ask for Attice: 16 asses (CIL 4.1751).18
Thus, the word calos was associated with sexual desirability and availability, as with beautiful Sabinus
who is loved by Hermeros, the beautiful tavern boy, and the beautiful country boy for 1 as. In other cases,
sexual graffiti nearby may have prompted sexual readings of otherwise short calos graffiti.
II. Locations
While the locations in which calos graffiti were written varied from brothels to the interiors of houses, a
large number (half the corpus) of calos graffiti were associated with places where sex could be bought and
sold.
For example, two calos graffiti were written in close proximity to each other on the west wall of room f
of the purpose-built brothel (VII.12.1820): calos Paris, beautiful Paris (CIL 4.2179), and calos Castrensis s(alutem), beautiful Castrensis (sends) g(reetings) (CIL 4.2180). These graffiti stand out in the brothel
for their reference to physical appearance. Other graffiti that surround these describe males according to
their sexual acts, their occupations, or their origins. Thus we find Felix / bene futuis, Felix, you fuck well
(CIL 4.2176), Phoebus unguentarius / optume futuit, Phoebus the perfumer fucks best (CIL 4.2184 Add.
215), and Marcus Scepsini ubique sal, Marcus of Scepsus (sends) greet(ings) everywhere (CIL 4.2201),
all written on the same wall as our calos graffiti. Perhaps these two calos graffiti influenced the orthography of a boast in the next room over (room e), where what should be an omega in the adverbial has
been replaced with an omicron: / , Syneroos, you fuck good (CIL 4.2253).19
16 W.-H. Maigne dArnis, Lexicon manuale ad scriptores mediae et infimae latinitatis, Paris 1858, s.v. pagita. Other

possible derivations of pagita include coming from the Greek word , meaning a trap or snare, and sometimes used of
women (LSJ s.v. ). It may also be a misspelling of pacata, the feminine past participle of pacare, meaning to till the land
or subdue individuals (OLD s.v. paco2 1b and 2), in which case it would make an interesting contrast with Thalia invicta. There
is a Pacatus mentioned in CIL 4.10132.
17 TLL takes Acti as a female name (3.183.5051). For CIL 4.4566, see also P. P. Abreu Funari, Apotropaic Symbolism at
Pompeii: A Reading of the Graffiti Evidence, Revista de Histria 132, 1995, 917, 11.
18 Translation C. Williams, Sexual Themes in Greek and Latin Graffiti, in T. K. Hubbard (ed.), A Companion to Greek
and Roman Sexualities, Hoboken 2014, 493508, 503.
19 Indeed, the writer has misspelled the name as well, putting the omega that belongs in the adverbial where the
omicron in the last syllable of the name should be. For these boasts, see further Levin-Richardson, Facilis hic futuit.

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In addition to the two graffiti from the purpose-built brothel, three calos graffiti appear on the exterior
of the House of Jason (IX.5.18), the upstairs of which has been suggested is a brothel.20 Among many other
graffiti listing names and prices,21 calos Probe, o beautiful Probus, was written twice (CIL 4.5136, 5138).
Another originally read Romulus calos, beautiful Romulus (CIL 4.5148); perhaps as a joke, someone
altered the calos of this graffito to calvos, turning Romuluss beauty into baldness.22
Taverns are another locus where calos graffiti appear, or to which calos graffiti refer. As mentioned
above, calos qoponi (CIL 4.9146h) refers to a tavern boy. Its location, moreover, was just outside the upper
story of the Suburban Baths (VII.16.a), which many scholars think operated like a brothel (based on the
presence of explicit erotic frescoes in the changing-room of the bath complex).23 Likewise, the famous
tavern advertisement mentioning calos Edone, beautiful Hedone, and calos Castrensis, beautiful Castrensis (CIL 4.1679 Add. 210, 463, 704), was written just past the rear doorway of the so-called Tavern
of Hedone (VII.2.44), inside the atrium of the House of the Bear (VII.2.45).24 The text seems to entice
readers both with wine and perhaps with the beautiful Hedone and the beautiful and even unconquered
(invicte) Castrensis:25 invicte Castresit / habeas propiteos / deos tuos tresit / e et qui leges / calos Edone
/ valeat qui legerit / Edone dicit / assibus hic / bibitur dipundium / si dederis meliora / bibes quantus /
si dederis vina F / Falena bib calos Castresit I, Unconquered Castrensis, may you have your three
favorable divinities, and likewise you who reads this: may beautiful Hedone, who will have read this, be
well. Hedone says one drinks here for (single) asses; you will drink better if you will have given two asses;
if you will have given four you will drink Falernian. Beautiful Castrensis.26 As discussed above, taverns
had a well-known association in Roman literary and legal texts with the sale of sex,27 and many scholars
have identified suites of rooms at the back of taverns as locations where sex-for-sale took place.28
Finally, calos graffiti can be found in inns and on city gates, both of which were also associated in the
cultural imaginary with prostitution. Someone wrote the following greeting in an inn (VII.12.35) on the Vicolo
di Eumachia: Castresis vale / Castresis va(le) / calos Acti Castr / Castresis va(le) / Anicete va(le), Hello
Castrensis, hey Castrensis, o beautiful Actius, Castr(ensis), hey Castrensis, hey Anicetus (CIL 4.2150 Add.
215),29 and the passages of Ulpian discussed above list inns as probable locations where prostitutes and pimps
worked.30 Gates are mentioned as a place to find prostitutes in a graffito from the House of Menander (CIL
4.8356; I.10.4), and two calos graffiti, already mentioned above, were found in or on the Porta Marina: calos
Victor ubique (CIL 4.652 Add. 1241) was written inside the gate, and calos ave (CIL 4.3069) on the exterior of
the gate.
In sum, five calos graffiti were written in places identified as brothels, with another five associated with
places where sex may have been sold, namely taverns, inns, and city gates.
20 M. della Corte, Case ed abitanti di Pompei (2nd edition), Pompeii 1954, 134135, describes it as a brothel based on
the presence of prices and the number of repeated names. McGinn, The Economy of Prostitution, includes this in his list of
possible brothels, noting, however, that several scholars disagree (284). Guzzo and Scarano Ussani, Ex corpore lucrum, list it
among possible brothels at Pompeii (54).
21 A total of thirty graffiti were written on this portion of wall (CIL 4.51275157). A price is given for someone with good
morals (CIL 4.5127; 9 asses); a best home-born slave is offered for 2 asses (CIL 4.5105); and another graffito records Somene
dupondium XL locat (CIL 4.5123).
22 We also find Romulus / calos (CIL 4.4725) in the peristyle of the House of Tryptolemus (VII.7.5).
23 See discussion in T. McGinn, Pompeian Brothels and Social History, in Pompeian Brothels, Pompeiis Ancient History,
Mirror and Mysteries, Art and Nature at Oplontis, and the Herculaneum Basilica, Portsmouth 2002, 746, 8, 12, 35, 41.
24 On this graffito, see especially Franklin, Pantomimists, 100, and Woeckner, Womens Graffiti.
25 Franklin, Pantomimists, 106, interprets this word in the spirit of theatrical competition.
26 Translation Franklin, Pantomimists, 100n22, with modification. Note that CIL, TLL 3.183.5354, and Woeckner, Womens Graffiti, 82n2, take the word calos in line 5 impersonally. Franklin, Pantomimists, 100n22, leaves calos untranslated.
27 See above, page 275 and 275n1314.
28 See, e.g., discussion in McGinn, Pompeian brothels, 9, 11, 13, 3637.
29 TLL 3.183.53 takes the calos adverbially; CIL compares it to a Greek inscription on the Palatine, ; though
here, as in CIL 4.2253, I would suggest that we see a form of quantitative metathesis (I thank Deborah Kamen for this observation).
30 See above, page 275 and 275n1314.

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III. Actors

We come now to the seven graffiti in which individuals thought by scholars to be actors are described as
calos.31 One of the most extensive of these was the graffito just mentioned above, from the inn at VII.12.35:
Castresis vale / Castresis va(le) / calos Acti Castr / Castresis va(le) / Anicete va(le) (CIL 4.2150 Add.
215). Some of these names have appeared elsewhere in calos graffiti. Calos Castrensis sent his greetings in
the purpose-built brothel (CIL 4.2180; VII.12.1820), where another graffito preserves just his name (CIL
4.2190), and he was the capstone to the multi-line tavern advertisement we examined before (CIL 4.1679
Add. 210, 463, 704; VII.2.45). Calos Acti, o beautiful Actius (CIL 4.4567), has already been seen flanking
a doorway opposite a drawing of an ithyphallic man (CIL 4.4566) in the house at VI.14.40, and we find the
same also written (CIL 4.5018) in the porticus of the House of Casellius Marcellus (IX.2.26) on the same
pillar as a snippet of the Aeneid and thirty-one other graffiti.32
Franklin argues that this Actius is the Actius Anicetus mentioned as a pantomime in an inscription
from Puteoli (CIL 10.1946), and described in other Pompeian graffiti as dominus scaenicorum, master
of stage performers (CIL 4.5399).33 Moreover, Franklin notes that graffiti concerning Actius can also
be found at Herculaneum; one refers to Actius along with both a certain Mysticus, who is described as a
musician, and another individual described as a comic (CIL 4.10643c).34 Actius Anicetus even had fans
who described themselves as Anicetiani in their graffiti.35 Franklin argues that Castrensis was probably a
member of Actius troupe, based on their joint appearance together.36
Two other calos graffiti are also thought to refer to actors. As mentioned above, calos Paris (CIL 4.2179)
was written close to calos Castrensis s(alutem) (CIL 4.2180) in the purpose-built brothel (VII.12.1820),
and calos Paris isse / Septentrio, beautiful Paris himself, Septentrio (CIL 4.1294 Add. 206), was written along the Via di Mercurio near the doorway to the House of Castor and Pollux (VI.9.6).37 Regarding
Septentrio, Richardson thinks that he was an actor based on the rarity of this name, its appearance elsewhere only in the context of actors, and another Pompeian graffito where Paris and Septentrio appear
together (CIL 4.2133).38 Paris is likewise thought to be an actor: the name is very popular among actors in

31 CIL 4.1294 Add. 206; 1679 Add. 210, 463, 704; 2150 Add. 215; 2179; 2180; 4567; 5018. Presumably around the same
time these graffiti were being written, Nero known for his love of theater and for himself acting on stage insisted that he be
hailed as (D.C. LXI (LXII) xixxx, on which see Smothers, , 18).
32 Aeneid I.234 (CIL 4.5012); for graffiti on the pillar, see CIL 4.50035036. Note that calos Acti Castresis was written
on a small vase found in a funerary context in San Cassiano (near Alba), on which, see E. C. Gastaldi, Epigraphica subalpina
(Viva Azio Castrese), Bollettino storico-bibliografico subalpino 82, 1984, 441450.
33 Franklin, Pantomimists, 9699. Inscription from Puteoli: C. Ummidius / Actius / Anicetus / Pantomimus (CIL 10.1946);
Franklin, Pantomimists, 97, notes that the Actius of this inscription must have belonged to the troupe owned by Ummidia
Quadratilla. Not much information is given in CIL other than it was claimed to have been found in the villa Ciceronis in
Puteoli, in the year 1586 (which may be a transposition for 1856). The full graffito from the Porta Nocera necropolis reads: Acti
dominus / scaenicorum va(le) (CIL 4.5399). For further bibliography on this connection, see Gastaldi, Epigraphica, 446n20.
34 Franklin, Pantomimists, 99, 101.
35 Franklin, Pantomimists, 104; CIL 4.2155 and 2413d.
36 Franklin, Pantomimists, 99100. Smothers, , also makes this hypothesis, though with little explanation (20); he
also suggests, however, that some of these individuals mentioned as calos were legionaries or gladiators, though he does not
produce any supporting evidence (Smothers, , 20). Franklin partly uses the adjective calos as evidence that Castrensis
was an actor, but this argument can become circular in nature (Franklin, Pantomimists, 99). Franklin further asserts that Castrensis was a favorite of the clientele at the Tavern of Hedone (Franklin, Pantomimists, 99). Gastaldi, Epigraphica, notes that
other scholars have taken Castrensis (qua Actius Castrensis) as a freedman of Actius Anicetus (446); for more on Castrensis at
Pompeii, see A. Varone, Nella Pompei a luce rosse: Castrensis e lorganizzazione della prostituzione e dei suoi spazi, Rivista di
Studi Pompeiani 16, 2005, 93109, 101104.
37 Smothers, , 20, translates this as Septentrio is fair Paris himself. Richardson, Casa dei Dioscuri, 93, describes
its location as from the main doorway of the Casa dei Dioscuri presumably inside .
38 Richardson, Casa dei Dioscuri, 9394. For other appearances of the name Septentrio, see CIL 12.188, 14.2113 and 2977
(Richardson, Casa dei Dioscuri, 93n84).

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Roman culture;39 it appears connected with the word scaneae in a Pompeian graffito (CIL 4.3867);40 and
fans of Paris left graffiti around town.41 Richardson argues that the Paris in these graffiti was the famous
pantomime L. Domitius Paris, a freed slave of Neros aunt and a favorite of Nero until Nero had him killed
in 67 CE.42 The Paris referred to in the brothel may or may not be L. Domitius Paris, since the brothel was
re-stuccoed in 72 CE and the graffiti inscribed afterwards.43 Thus we may have a posthumous acclamation,
or perhaps a male prostitute taking on the name of the more-famous Paris.
There remains debate on the exact names of these individuals (if, for example, the names Castrensis
and Actius refer to the same individual; if there were multiple actors named Actius),44 and Varone has
suggested that this group of individuals was connected not through acting, but through prostitution.45 The
two occupations need not have been mutually exclusive, however, since actors were often known for their
excessive sexuality. Pliny the Elder, for example, claims that two men died while having sex with the same
pantomime actor, Mysticus, an outstanding beauty [forma praecellente] of his day (NH 7.184).46 Other
individuals known to have had sexual affairs with male actors include Claudius, Domitian, Sulla, Maecenas, and Trajan.47 Indeed, the theater itself was often connected with licentiousness. As Tacitus claimed,
actors frequently fomented sedition against the state and stirred up debauchery in private houses; the old
Oscan farce, once the light entertainment of the common people, had attained such extremes of immortality and power, that it had to be contained by the authority of the senate (ann. 4.14).48
Regardless of the precise names of the individuals, and whether they were actors or prostitutes or both,
we have a significant subset of calos graffiti in which a male described as calos was associated with occupations that fall under the legal category of infamia.49 As Edwards has shown, practitioners of these professions were assimilated in that they hired out their bodies for the visual or sexual pleasure of others, often
indiscriminately in a public sphere, and were characterized by licentiousness, effeminacy, and dissem39 For Paris as a popular stage-name for Pantomimists, see E. Wst, Paris, Paulys Realencyclopdie der classischen

Altertumswissenschaft, Stuttgart 1949, 14841538, 15361538.

40 Richardson, while making this observation, also notes that there are at least six different individuals by the name of
Paris in Pompeii (Casa dei Dioscuri, 93n82).
41 As Paridiani; see Gastaldi, Epigraphica, 448449; Franklin, Pantomimists, 103104; CIL 4.7919, 8885, and 8888ac.
For further bibliography on Paris, see Gastaldi, Epigraphica, 446n23.
42 Richardson, Casa dei Dioscuri, 9395, bases this identification on a probable reference to the Pompeian duumvir of
59 CE in another graffito with Paris (CIL 4.3866), and on how Paris was described in other graffiti (CIL 4.148 and 820a) with
language (specifically, the word Aug or Augusti) suggesting he belonged to an imperial troupe. He also uses as evidence the
location of one graffito with the name Paris near the scene building of the great theater (CIL 4.1085). For L. Domitius Paris,
see also Wst, Paris, 15361537.
43 See, e.g., E. La Rocca, M. de Vos, and A. de Vos, Guida archeologica di Pompei, Milan 1976, 303.
44 See, e.g., Gastaldi, Epigrafica, who suggests that there was an actor at Pompeii named L. Actius Anicetus, different
from the C. Ummidius Actius Anicetus of the inscription from Puteoli (447), as well as an actor or fan named Actius Castresis
(448, 450); Varone, Pompei a luce rosse, argues for an individual named Actius Castresis and another named Actius Anicetus
(103).
45 Varone, Pompei a luce rosse, 104.
46 Translation C. Williams, Roman Homosexuality (2nd edition), Oxford 2010, 43.
47 C. Edwards, The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome, Cambridge 1993, 129130. Tertullian even suggested, in his
tirade against spectacles, that being sexually penetrated was part of the training of actors (de spect. 17; Edwards, Politics, 130).
48 Translation Edwards, Politics, 129. Edwards establishes that moralists characterized the theater as a storehouse of
obscenity, a place where lust, laughter, and political subversion were incited in almost equal measures. Actors were viewed as
base person, of ambiguous and venal sexuality, whose words could not be trusted (Edwards, Politics, 99).
49 For infamia, see, e.g., C. Edwards, Unspeakable Professions: Public Performance and Prostitution in Ancient Rome, in
J. P. Hallett and M. B. Skinner (eds.), Roman Sexualities, Princeton 1997, 6695; T. McGinn, Prostitution, passim; Flemming,
Quae corpore, 5056. This is not to say that actors at Pompeii (or Rome) have unambiguously negative associations. A. Clodius
Flaccus bragged in his funerary inscription (CIL 10.1074d) that he brought the famous pantomimist Pylades to Pompeii, and
C. Norbanus Sorex, an actor, received honorary busts and inscriptions (CIL 10.814) in the building of Eumachia and the Temple
of Isis (see also Franklin, Pantomimists, 9596). Note too the important role of theater in Roman civic life (Edwards, Politics,
107119), despite the negative portrayals in literature.

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bling.50 As such, they were subject to social and legal restrictions, from bans on marrying freeborn Romans
or serving in the army, to a loss of the right to vote and ability to make accusations against others.51
Conclusions
Whereas in Greece, the word was used to hail the beauty of respectable citizen boys, at Pompeii,
the word calos was associated with individuals and places on the margins of society: with prostitutes,
tavern-boys, and actors; and with gates, taverns, inns, and whorehouses.52 That is, Pompeians found the
word appropriate to describe those who willingly put themselves on display for the public the infames of
Roman society, whose position provoked both desire and disparagement.

Appendix: Graffiti with forms of calos or at Pompeii in CIL53

54

55

CIL 4

Text

Translation

Location

652
Add. 1241

calos Victor ubique

beautiful Victor everywhere

Porta Marina: interior of

northern pier

1256

Sabine calos Hermeros

te amat / Sabinei calos
Hermeroe te amata

o beautiful Sabinus, Hermeros

loves you. O beautiful Sabinus,
Hermeroe lovesed you

Vicolo della Fullonica: exterior wall of the House of the

Tragic Poet (VI.8.3)

1283

calos / Hedia

beautiful Hedia

House of the Argenteria

(VI.7.20): corner pillar of the
old peristyle

1285

calos / calos / co /
Aene / Aenean //////ctue /
etar

beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

House of the Argenteria

(VI.7.20): corner pillar of the
old peristyle

1286

calos / Epictesis

beautiful Epictesis

House of the Argenteria

(VI.7.20): corner pillar of the
old peristyle

1294
Add. 206

calos Paris isse /

Septentrio

beautiful Paris himself,

Septentrio55

Via di Mercurio; near a doorway to the House of Castor

and Pollux (VI.9.7)

1309
Add. 206

Thalia invicta / calos

pagita I / Thy

unconquerable Thalia, beautiful

country-boy (for) 1 (as), Thy

Via di Mercurio: to the right

of an entrance to the House of
Centaur (VI.9.3)

Aeneas, Aenea.54

50 Edwards, Politics. See also Williams, Homosexuality, who describes the connection thus: The profession of actors
was often assimilated to prostitution, the assumption apparently being that if someone takes money to entertain audiences by
performing onstage, she or he might just as well engage in more private, but no less mercenary forms of entertainment (43).
51 Edwards, Politics, 124126; Williams, Homosexuality, 42.
52 This holds whether or not some of the uses of calos in the graffiti are impersonal.
53 This list was assembled through searching for cal- and kal- in Manfred Clausss Epigraphic Database and consulting
TLL s.v. calos, and is therefore restricted to graffiti published in volumes of CIL. Since the readings of CIL 4.1377 (listed under
calos in TLL 3.183.4648) and CIL 4.1553 are very tenuous, these graffiti are excluded from analysis.
54 For forms of Aeneas, see OLD s.v. Aeneas.
55 Smothers, , has Septentrio is fair Paris himself (20).

Calos graffiti and infames at Pompeii

281

56 57 58 59

1679
Add. 210,
463, 704

invicte Castresit / habeas propiteos / deos tuos

tresit / e et qui leges /
calos Edone / valeat qui
legerit / Edone dicit /
assibus hic / bibitur
dipundium / si dederis
meliora / bibes quantus /
si dederis vina F / Falena
bib calos CastresitI

Unconquered Castrensis, may

you have your three favorable
divinities, and likewise you who
reads this: may beautiful Hedone,
who will have read this, be well.
Hedone says one drinks here for
(single) asses; you will drink better
if you will have given two asses;
if you will have given four you
will drink Falernian. Beautiful
Castrensis.56

House of the Bear (VII.2.45):

south wall of the atrium

2150
Add. 215

Castresis vale / Castresis

va(le) / calos Acti Castr /
Castresis va(le) / Anicete
va(le)

Hello Castrensis, hey Castrensis,

o beautiful Actius, Castr(ensis), hey
Castrensis, hey Anicetus57

Inn VII.12.34: north wall of

the atrium

2179

calos Paris

beautiful Paris

Purpose-built brothel
(VII.12.1820): west wall of
room f

2180

calos Castrensis s(alutem)

beautiful Castrensis (sends)

g(reetings)

Purpose-built brothel
(VII.12.1820): west wall of
room f

2253

Syneroos, you fuck good58

Purpose-built brothel
(VII.12.1820): east wall of
room e

2301

calos

beautiful

House of Siricus (VII.1.47):

interior [CIL: on the right
wall]

3069

calos ave

hail, o beautiful one

Porta Marina: exterior to the

left of the larger tunnel

4567

calos Acti

o beautiful Actius59

House VI.14.40: in the garden

to the right of the door to the
triclinium

4725

Romulus / calos

beautiful Romulus

House of Tryptolemus
(VII.7.5): on a column of the
peristyle

56 Translation Franklin, Pantomimists, 100n22, with modification. CIL and TLL 3.183.5354 suggest the calos in line 5
(with Hedone) is possibly adverbial. Woeckner, Womens Graffiti, 82n2, translates accordingly as way to go.
57 TLL lists this as an adverbial calos (3.183.53).
58 Note here that the omicron that should be the penultimate letter of Syneross name has been transposed with the omega
that should be the penultimate letter of the second word; in other words, the second word should be taken (based on how common this formula is in the structure) as a misspelled adverbial .
59 TLL lists this as a female name (3.183.5051). Smothers, , 20n162, offers a rebuttal.

282
60

S. Levin-Richardson

61

62 63

4839

/ ,

.

Amerimnus here auspiciously

records the harmony of his lady,
the number of whose beautiful
name is 103560

Vicolo del Gallo: between

VII.15.11 and 12

5018

calos Acti

o beautiful Actius61

House of Casellius Marcellus

(IX.2.26): on second pillar
from the right of the porticus

5136

calos Prob[e]

o beautiful Probus

House of Jason (IX.5.18):

exterior between doorway 19
and the south-west corner of
the insula

5138

calos Probe

o beautiful Probus

House of Jason (IX.5.18):

exterior between doorway 19
and the south-west corner of
the insula

5148

Romulus calos

beautiful Romulus

House of Jason (IX.5.18):

exterior between doorway 19
and the south-west corner of
the insula

5898b
Add. 725

oi / kal [on an amphora]

good wine

Between insula VI.15 and

VI.16

6567

/ / [on an
amphora]

? 62

IX.5.9

6568

/ / [on an
amphora]

IX.5.9

6569

/ / [on an
amphora]

IX.5.9

6570

/ / [on
an amphora]

IX.5.9

6571

/ [on an
amphora]

IX.5.9

9146h

Calos qoponi63

O beautiful tavern boy

Suburban Baths (VII.16.a):

on the west face of a post of
the porticus outside the upper
floor

Sarah Levin-Richardson, Department of Classics, Box 353110, University of Washington, Seattle WA

98195, USA
sarahlr@uw.edu

60 A. Varone, Erotica Pompeiana: Love Inscriptions on the Walls of Pompeii, trans. R. T. Berg, Rome 2002, 130.
61 TLL lists this as a female name (3.183.5051); Smothers, , 20n162, offers a rebuttal.
62 On the unclear meaning of these texts (CIL 4.65676571), see Smothers, , 21n165.
63 CIL notes: pro kalos puer coponi.