Wayment and Grey, Jesus Followers in Pompeii 127
which may have contained a small impluvium with a well and a cistern (though few traces survive). The atrium was decorated with a black plinth and was likely an area of high traffic in the hotel, as guests came in and out of the building and gathered for the types of social activity often associated with ancient hotels. 84 It was on the southwest wall of this atrium that the Christianos graffito was written along with the derogatory graffiti mentioned previously. 85 Additional graffiti found in the atrium included two erotic references (one of which preserves the Egyptian name Rete), 86 a graffito with a crude sketch of the Emperor Vespasian, 87 and mention of an Ἀθηνοδώρος whose name is written in Greek rather than Latin letters. 88 Some of these graffiti attest to the transient and multiethnic character of the hotel’s guests. 89 At the north/northwest of the atrium and flanking door no. 11 are “two little rooms” (c and d) which likely served as guest bedrooms. 90 In the north
observation is that the cumulative evidence seems to support the scholarly consensus that the building operated as a hotel in its final phase. 84 For descriptions of the entryway and atrium see PPM 7.2:465 (no. 1), which indicates that the entryway was paved with cocciopesto (lime mixed with crushed pottery). For discussion on the activities typically associated with hotel atriums, see the references in n. 77 above. 85 See CIL IV.813, 2016, and 2018c. 86 De Rossi was the first to note that there were two erotic graffiti in this room, but he did not describe their contents; see de Rossi, “Una memoria dei Cristiani,” 72. These probably refer to CIL IV.2010, which depicts a phallus alongside the name “Rete,” and CIL IV.2013, which may refer to “Nicerate,” a “treacherous slut” (or “vain little pig”) who seduces her lover(s?); see Antonio Varone, Erotica Pompeiana: Love Inscriptions on the Walls of Pompeii (trans. Ria Berg: Roma: L’Erma di Bretschneider, 2001), 116. 87 CIL IV.2014. 88 CIL IV.2017. 89 Several dozen other graffiti were found in or near Insula 11, but imprecise (and likely incomplete) reports in the CIL make their exact location difficult to determine with certainty; see CIL IV.677–679, 812–815, 1996–202IV, 3579–3580, and 9062–9077a. In any case, most of the graffiti associated with Insula 11 or discovered on one of the three adjoining streets deal with mundane matters such as greetings, names, and dates. 90 Della Corte, “L’Albergo,” 75, mentions two beds found in these rooms, leading Ruddell, “Inn, Restaurant, and Tavern Business,” 105–106, to identify them as “bedrooms.” This is a reasonable identification but, as far as we can determine, no traces of the beds survive.