Pompeii's Electioneering

Vesuvius's eruption last week (see p. 27) speeded the translation and reporting of wall signs in Pompeii, which diggers are still clearing of the ashes poured on that pleasure resort by the volcano in A. D. 79. The signs are painted on the walls and are chiefly electioneering vaunts. Examples: ''Mansa Sabinus never gets drunk"; "If you care for good bread and better plays, vote for Cleonius Prisus"; ''Vote for Julius Politius, a man as handsome as the god Apollo."