Graffiti and election posters on buildings and tombs show the Roman games were as popular in Pompeii as elsewhere in the Roman world. Playing on enthusiasm for the games, local politicians used them to win support, paying for lavish spectacles involving gladiators and wild beasts. So passionate were the Pompeiians about the games they even caused a riot.

The Games and Politics

Dipinti were electoral posters painted in red and black on the plaster facades of Pompeii’s buildings. They are a common find in Pompeii as the year of Vesuvius’s eruption was also an election year. They show that local politicians tried to win support at elections by paying for and staging games for the town’s citizens. Over 70 posters in Pompeii detail these spectacles — where they occurred and who was paying for them.

Gladiators and animals were not all the patrons of the games paid for. They also covered the costs of the spectator’s comfort as an added incentive. Some posters mention water sprinkled on the crowd to cool them or how awnings provided spectators with shade from the sun. 

By drawing attention to the provision of such amenities, the patron highlighted his generosity to the voters because these “extras” were not a regular part of the show and came at an extra cost.

The Popularity of the Games

The Pompeians had an appetite for the blood and violence of the games. An advert for spectacles financed by the Pompeian magistrate Cn. Alleius Nigidus Maius assured the populace that his games would include “fights without intervals”.

The frequency of the games also supports the idea of a thirst for violent entertainment in Pompeii. Posters and graffiti in Pompeii from the year of the eruption demonstrate that September, October and December were the only months when games did not occur in the city. There was at least one set of games held every other month, except for May and November, when several sets of games were staged in the town. If there were no games in Pompeii, supporters could travel to other towns.

Venues for the Games

The games would have been initially held in the forum before Roman colonists constructed the amphitheatre in the first century BC. However, the forum continued as a venue even after the arena’s construction. Advertisements for games given in 1 BC by Aulus Clodius Flaccus stated that events would be held in the amphitheatre and the forum.

The games did not just consist of gladiatorial combat. Posters show that spectators could also expect to watch bullfights, boxing matches and hunts of wild animals such as boars and bears.

The Riot with Nuceria

In 59AD, the Pompeians lost the right to hold games in their town after a riot in the arena with rival fans from nearby Nuceria, during which several Nucerians died. The senate in Rome was so outraged by the scandal that it imposed a ten-year ban on Pompeii. However, this was repealed in 62AD, possibly in response to the earthquake that decimated the town or perhaps because Poppea, wife of the emperor Nero and a native of Pompeii herself, interceded on her hometown’s behalf.

Resources

 Dobbins, J J and Foss, P W (2007) The World of Pompeii. Routledge: London and New York.

Pompeii: An Archaeological Guide. Istituto geografico de agostini

Cooley, A E and M G L, (2004), Pompeii: A Sourcebook. Routledge: London and New York