The legacy of the Lupanar at Pompeii derives from the erotic frescoes found during Fiorelli’s excavations in 1862. The existence of the erotic panels has overshadowed all other aspects of the brothel, including the presence of 134 graffiti of varying content and the physical aspects of the structure. Scholarship relating to the brothel has almost exclusively focused on the erotic images, which themselves have only recently come into a sophisticated discursive arena with Clarke’s 1998 Looking at Lovemaking. The graffiti are usually only mentioned insofar as their sexual content, and then most often as a fulfillment of one of the three criteria for identifying a brothel. I propose a radical approach to the brothel that evaluates images, graffiti and space in order to understand the social and sexual relationships that were formed and acted out in the brothel.

This tripartite examination will reveal that different modes of viewing were employed with respect to the images and the graffiti. The arrangement of the frescoes allows only a passive viewing experience and denies any interaction between image and viewer. The graffiti, on the other hand, welcomes interaction and active viewing by its location at eye-level with the viewer and its interspersion among and interaction with the other graffiti. The (inter)active quality of the viewing experience is supported by the graffiti itself, which even records greetings from one customer to another.

By understanding the double viewing experiences that are taking place at the brothel, we can place (over)due emphasis on the graffiti as the key to unlocking social and sexual relationships in the Lupanar. This examination, in turn, reveals the authorship of the female prostitutes, illustrates multiple sexual practices, and hints at the brothel as a locus for male leisure and societas as well as sexual activity.

The examination of the brothel with respect to modes of viewing has elaborated our understanding of sexual practice and has added an entirely new dimension of female literacy and male societas.

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