Universitätsbibliothek HeidelbergUniversitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
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Mau, August
Pompeii: its life and art — New York, London: The MacMillan Company, 1899

DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61617#0558

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PART VI

THE INSCRIPTIONS OF POMPEII

CHAPTER LV
IMPORTANCE OF THE INSCRIPTIONS. — MONUMENTAL
INSCRIPTIONS AND PUBLIC NOTICES
The inscriptions discovered at Pompeii number more than
six thousand. They cover a wide field, ranging from com-
memorative tablets put up at public expense to the scribblings
of idlers upon the plastered walls. It would be an exaggeration
to say that they contribute to our knowledge of antiquity much
that is new; their value lies rather in the insight which they
give into the life of the city and its people.
In one respect the evidence derived from inscriptions, though
often of the most fragmentary character, is especially satisfac-
tory. We feel that we are handling original documents, without
the intervention of that succession of copyists which stands
between the author of a Greek or Roman masterpiece and the
modern reader. The shapes of the letters and the spelling are
just as they were left by the stonecutter or the scribbler ; the
various handwritings can still be as plainly distinguished on the
charred tablets of Caecilius Jucundus as though the signatures
were witnessed only yesterday. Through the inscriptions we
are brought into contact with the personality of the Pompeians
as in no other way.
The inscriptions may be classified either according to the
subject matter or according to the form in which they appear,
whether cut in stone, or painted, or scratched upon a smooth
surface with a stylus. No detailed classification need be given
here ; it will be sufficient for our purposes to discuss the main
divisions briefly under four heads,— monumental inscriptions and
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