It Pays to Advertise.

The ancient Romans weren't coy about sex. On a visit to Pompeii some years ago, I was interested to read some of the bawdy and lewd graffiti written on the outside walls of houses and shops. One I remember very well as it referred to the bar/brothel owned by Innulus and Papilio. The unknown graffitist wrote -

"Weep, you girls. My penis has given you up. Now it penetrates men's behinds. Goodbye, wondrous femininity!"

Obviously the man had found the delights of male on male sex.

Brothels were important features of Roman communities and the prostitutes/whores - both male and female - were usually slaves. A feature of the Pompeiian streetscape is the erect penises carved into the stone pavements with the heads all pointing in the one direction; to a nearby brothel.

I also saw a similar penis carved into the pavement outside the library of  Ephesus in Turkey which suggests these signs were in common usage throughout the Roman world.

Today, both Pompeii and Ephesus are inland from the sea. However, two thousand years ago, both were busy sea-ports and its highly probable these penis signs were placed there for the convenience of visiting seafarers, merchants, traders and other visitors.

How convenient these signs must have proved for those who couldn't speak Latin. Rather than ask a local  - "where is the nearest brothel?" - all they had to do was follow in the direction the erect penis heads were pointing.

Photo and text supplied by me.