Greece & Rome · 1st century AD, before AD 79 · Pompeii, Campania, Italy
Hidden graffiti of gladiators and lovers found in Pompeii theatre corridor
Photographic imaging revealed 79 unknown inscriptions on plaster exposed since 1794, bringing the corridor's graffiti to nearly 300, including a gladiator duel and a love note.
Official announcement
Pompeii, Italy Researchers using a computational photography technique have identified 79 previously unknown inscriptions and drawings in a corridor in Pompeii's theatre district. The passage was excavated in 1794. Millions of visitors walk past it every year.
The new finds include a scene of two gladiators fighting and a fragmentary love message. They bring the number of graffiti recorded in the corridor to nearly 300.
The work is the main result of a project called "Bruits de couloir", a French expression for corridor rumours. Louis Autin and Éloïse Letellier-Taillefer of Sorbonne University conceived it with Marie-Adeline Le Guennec of the University of Québec in Montreal. They worked in collaboration with the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.
The team worked on site in two campaigns, in 2022 and 2025. It has published its results in the park's e-Journal degli Scavi di Pompei.
The corridor linked the theatre district to the Via Stabiana, one of the city's main streets. Arkeonews reports that it is roughly 27 metres long. It has long been known for one of the densest concentrations of graffiti in Pompeii. About 200 inscriptions there had already been documented.
Like everything else in the town, they were written before the eruption of Vesuvius buried Pompeii in AD 79. The plaster walls have been exposed to the weather since their excavation. Many of the inscriptions were too shallow or eroded to read with the naked eye.
Light from many angles shows the faint lines
The team used Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI). The method takes many photographs of the same surface, each lit from a different angle. Software combines them into an interactive model in which the light can be moved across the wall.
Faint grooves left by a metal stylus or a piece of charcoal then stand out from the natural texture of the plaster. This works even where the eye sees nothing.
The researchers covered both walls of the corridor with RTI. They placed a virtual grid over the surface. This let them record each inscription with its exact position and its spatial and thematic links to its neighbours.
The project combined epigraphy, archaeology, philology and digital humanities.
A gladiator fight and a broken love message
One of the new finds is a lightly incised drawing of two gladiators in combat. It is close to a staircase that led to the theatre seating. According to Arkeonews, each figure is only about 10 centimetres high.
One fighter leans back while stepping forward on his right leg. His sword is raised and his shield is held out in front. His opponent takes the same stance.
Gladiator graffiti are common in Pompeii. The researchers note the drawing's fluid lines. They think the artist worked from memory of the arena rather than from observation.
Another new inscription reads "Erato amat..." ("Erato loves..."). Erosion has broken it, and the rest of the text is lost. Palaeographic analysis, the study of the handwriting, suggests it once continued across the wall.
Arkeonews reports that the name Erato is known from other Roman contexts. It was often borne by enslaved or freed women.
Clearer readings of known messages
The imaging also gives clearer readings of texts that were already known. In one, Methe, a slave of Cominia of Atella, declares her love for Cresto. She asks the Venus of Pompeii to favour them both so that they may always live in harmony.
Another tells a certain Sava: "I'm in a hurry; take care, my Sava, make sure you love me!" A third mocks a man called Miccio. It makes a crude joke about his father rupturing his belly while defecating.
We are working on a project designed to protect and improve understanding of the graffiti, which number over 10,000 across all of Pompeii; an immense legacy.
Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii
As a result of the research, the park is completing the design of a permanent roof over the corridor. The design is now in its final stages. The roof is meant to protect the original plaster.
The team's next aim is a 3D platform for viewing and annotating the inscriptions together. It would combine photogrammetry, the RTI data and the epigraphic records. It is intended for researchers and, eventually, for visitors.
Sources
- Nearly eighty ancient inscriptions with declarations of love, insults, and slogans left by the public in the corridors of the theaters discovered in Pompeii (La Brújula Verde)
- 3D Technology Reveals 2,000-Year-Old Gladiator Graffiti and Love Messages in Pompeii (Arkeonews)
- High-Tech Tools Reveal Inscriptions on Pompeii Wall (Archaeology Magazine)
- Pompeii: Scenes of gladiators and love stories (Archaeology Wiki)
Paper: Autin, L., Le Guennec, M.-A., & Letellier-Taillefer, É. (2026). "Bruits de couloir": Shedding new light on ancient graffiti. e-Journal degli Scavi di Pompei, 2026(1). Parco Archeologico di Pompei.
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