from the elections of 70, but its neat placement below the second line
of the advertisement for Paquius for Duovir (from the election of
- makes it seem more likely that it dates to the quinquennial elections
of 75. Thus, the words from theAeneidwould have to have been painted
between 75 and the city’s destruction in August of 79; the only other
painting activity, also in black, on this section of wall during that time was
the advertisement for Cuspius Pansa, which must have gone up in the
first months of 79. Finally, it is important to remember that this section of
wall—admittedly the site of quite a flurry of painting activity over the
years before Pompeii’s destruction—was surrounded by untouched white
plaster, so that, had the painter wished simply to leave the words as a
random unattached trace, there were many meters of open wall from
which he could have chosen.
But exactly what function does theAeneidquotation have here? By
way of background to this question, it is worth noting that sign writers in
other contexts seem to have been guilty of filling in space with words and
phrases unrelated to the candidate or event they were hired to advertise.
Often these relate to the activities of the sign painter himself, as,
for example, inCIL4.3884 where, beside a notice advertising a gladia-
torial combat, we are offered the information that ‘‘Aemilius Celer wrote
this, alone, by the light of the moon’’ (scripsit Aemilius Celer singulus ad
lunam). More puzzling isCIL4.7679, an advertisement for ‘‘Gavius’’ for
aedile. Painted beneath the usual GAVIUM AED, however, is the neatly
lettered sentenceMarcellus Praenestinam amat et non curatur(‘‘Marcellus
loves Praenestina and isn’t cared for [by her?]’’). It seems doubtful that
this last sentiment has anything to do with Gavius’s candidacy, although it
neatly fills in the space that in traditional programmata is used to express
the candidate’s qualifications and the name or names of his supporters.
Although this ‘‘local gossip’’ may have had meaning to some readers, it
seems likely that to others—especially those whose literacy was min-
imal—the words would simply function as part of the apparatus of the
sign, less significant for what they say than the fact that someone paid to
have them said.
It is perhaps in this vein that we should see the quotation from the
Aeneidin the advertisement for Cuspius Pansa: although it is possible that
certain readers might recognize the words as a ‘‘learned’’ quotation, others
might simply see them as words and nothing more. They might—and in
the case of those whose literacy reached only to being able to pick out the
letters of names and offices, surely did—simply extend visually the space
of the sign supporting Cuspius Pansa. Here again it is important to note
that the black color of the paint used in the programma for Cuspius Pansa
and the words of theAeneidserves both to connect these two texts to one
another and to differentiate them from the earlier writing on this part of
the wall, which was all done in red. I would argue, however, that in
addition to this basic visual and pragmatic reading of theAeneidquota-
tion, there is also a second, more ‘‘literary,’’ interpretation that should be
296 Institutions and Communities