THE ‘THRACIAN’ ATTICUS OF THE SAME SCHOOL And of Fourteen Fights _Awnings will be provided against the sun_ “_Euge! Euge!_ Bravo, Balbus!” cry the expectant idlers as they go back to their game, and Celer hurries off to repeat his notice on some wall in the next street. The dice contest can be omitted. Not so with the wall inscriptions which we now discover are scattered over almost every space of available stucco along the thoroughfare. Some are formal notices of games, articles for sale, auctions, tenements to let, etc., written with some skill, although with many puzzling abbreviations, by professional sign-writers like Celer. Thus on one building can be read in tall red letters: “_To rent, from the first of July, shops with the floors above them and a house in the Arrius Pollio block, owned by Nigidius Maius. Prospective lessees may apply to Primus his slave_,” and another sign advertises the “_Venus baths, fitted up for the best people, shops, rooms over shops and second story apartments, in the property owned by Julia Felix_.”[12] =23. Wall Scribblings.=--More interesting really are the wall scribblings of the humble. “The walls were the writing paper of the poor,” will be declared later by students of Rome. All kinds of sentiments are scratched upon the stucco; sometimes with considerable care with a stylus; sometimes with merely a finger nail; sometimes drawn with charcoal or a red crayon. There are indeed so many writings, especially in frequented places, that we notice a wag has actually added a word of protest: I wonder O wall, That your stones do not fall All scribbled thus o’er By the nonsense of all! Every kind of opinion is to be found along a limited stretch of wall. Coarse insults abound where your enemy can promptly see them: “Vile wretch,” “Bold rascal,” “Old fool,” “I hope you’ll die!” “May you be crucified!”--these are merely the mildest. Then other sentiments are more friendly: “Luck to you!” “Good health to you everywhere!” “A Happy New Year and a lot of them,” and “What wouldn’t I do for _you_, dear eyes of Luscus” (the names of the enemy or friend involved being often added). Lovers also take up their tale. A girl records her frank opinion: “Virgula to her dear Tertius--You are mighty mean.” A penitent swain spreads forth this “personal” to his mistress: “_Do_ have pity on me and let me come back.” A young lady announces tartly: “Where Verus is there’s nothing _veracious_” (a pun on words). A gay philanderer explains, “A blonde girl taught me to hate brunettes, and I _will_ hate them if I can--but loving them would come so much easier!” And another youth demands passionately: “My dear Sava, please do love me!” While finally a jealous suitor has broken into verse: