The Forum
008
Kudos
Hershel Shanks’s “Protecting Cultural Property” (Editors’ Page, January/February 2004) is an excellent exposition of one of the prevailing ironies in cultural property law. Good work. You brightened my day.
Sweitzer Professor of Law
Stanford University
Stanford, California
Why January the First?
In “Got Nytt År” (Origins, January/February 2004), Jack Meinhardt rightly refers to an administrative change decreed by the Roman Senate in 153 B.C., but he does not explain that this was effected for military reasons. Previously, new consuls had taken command on March 15. By bringing the change-over point back to January 1, the Senate gained two and a half months for the mustering and transfer of legions to Spain, where the Celtic-Iberian tribes were proving hard to subdue. This arrangement proved advantageous for Rome’s imperial designs and was taken over by Julius Caesar in his major calendar reform that still dominates our civil year. So ultimately we celebrate New Year’s Day on January 1 because Hispania was a long way from Rome in the second century B.C.
Professor of Classics
Trinity College
Dublin, Ireland
Quintember and Sextember
Jack Meinhardt implies that the months of September, October, November and December (whose names derive from the Latin words for seven, eight, nine and ten) became the ninth through twelfth months when the first of the year was moved from March to January. I learned that these months were moved ahead when July and August were inserted into the calendar. Is something amiss?
Springfield, Illinois
Jack Meinhardt replies:
Rather than being inserted into the calendar, the months now called July and August were renamed at the behest of the Senate. Because of Julius Caesar’s work in reforming the calendar, the Senate decreed that the month of Quintilis (Fifth Month) be renamed “July.” Similarly, when Augustus rectified the calendar by abolishing several leap years, the Senate rewarded him by ordering that the month of Sextilis (Sixth Month) be renamed “August.”
A Sailor’s Paradise
Thomas McGinn (“How to Find a Brothel in Pompeii,” January/February 2004) writes that Pompeii “could not have supported so many [35] houses of prostitution.” But surely a bustling port city like Pompeii, which played host to hundreds of sailors at a time, would have experienced a higher-than-usual demand for the favors available in a brothel. Is 35 really too large a number? Perhaps some were only open part of the year to meet seasonal demands?
Simpsonville, South Carolina
010
Let Pompeii Be Pompeii!
During my first visit to Pompeii in 1975, our guide showed us many buildings, including a brothel. There was no mistaking what it was. Not only were male genitalia engraved on stones in the street, but a three-dimensional example was carved in the wall by the door. Inside were many frescoes depicting the baser side of human behavior.
My second visit to Pompeii in the mid-1980s was quite different. It was much tamer—no brothels and few frescoes. Are Pompeii’s tourism officials trying to sanitize the city’s image?
Idaho Falls, Idaho
Working Girls
Thomas McGinn’s very fine article on Pompeii probably underestimates the number of “brothels” in Pompeii. Ancient prostitutes would have worked anywhere that provided a bit of privacy, as prostitutes do today: in doorways, against walls in back lanes, in public washrooms, in cubicles over taverns, between the columns of temples, in theater archways, under bushes, and even in cemeteries or tombs.
Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
012
Why Publish Brothels?
For and Against Us
It comes as no surprise that the article “How to Find a Brothel in Pompeii” (January/February 2004), by Vanderbilt University classicist Thomas A.J. McGinn, scandalized some readers. Nor does it come as a surprise that other readers, anticipating a flood of criticism, applauded us for refusing to censor the ancient past. Here is a sampling of readers’ responses:
Stop the Smut-Mongering!
“How to Find a Brothel in Pompeii” was appalling! Archaeology Odyssey has fallen off the high road it has been on for some time.
Via internet
You have now tried my patience and exceeded the bounds of good taste. The brothels issue hit the trash can before my grandchildren arrived for Christmas.
Iron Mountain, Michigan
Although I enjoy reading about the daily lives of ancient people, I don’t want to be subjected to offensively explicit sexual material. Have pornographic pictures become works of art simply because centuries have passed? Do you think nudity makes one sophisticated? It doesn’t.
Hiawatha, Iowa
Please terminate my subscription immediately! “How to Find a Brothel in Pompeii” is inappropriate for a general audience because of its pictorial illustration of sexual practices.
Understand my predicament? I have young grandchildren visiting who might innocently pick up the issue and giggle at the article—if they’re not struck with total shock.
Lakeland, Florida
I am the librarian of a middle school, and our history teachers and students use Archaeology Odyssey for research in their world history classes. “How to Find a Brothel in Pompeii” would be fine in an adult magazine, but I am sure that many school libraries subscribe to Archaeology Odyssey as well. This article is totally inappropriate for them.
One of the most offensive aspects of the article is printed on page 21, where you quote a couple of examples of ancient graffiti: “Harpocras had a good fuck here with Drauca for a denarius; Fortunata gives head.” Just how relevant is this to the article?
Moreover, the full-color illustrations could have been printed in a “girly” magazine. For your magazine to do so amazes me.
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
The article on Pompeian brothels serves absolutely no purpose other than to titillate the more base of your readers or to snare the eye of those perusing adult-oriented material at the local book store. No, I’m no prude, but why publish the pictures? I’ve paid for this? This is Higher Learning? This is something to discuss with kids?
Your magazine will die an inevitable death due to such tripe within its pages.
Sturgis, Michigan
Tell It Like It Is!
You will no doubt receive howls of protest concerning “How to Find a Brothel in Pompeii.” I would like you to know that I fully support your no-holds-barred approach to presenting all aspects of life in antiquity. Keep up the honest and unashamed work. You can count on my support as a continuing subscriber.
Cullowhee, North Carolina
Thank you once again for not censoring the content of your magazine because of the fears and hang-ups of some people. Many of us, clergy as well as laity, immensely enjoy the scholastic depth and breadth of Archaeology Odyssey. I have never seen anything I would consider salacious in any of your issues. We are adults capable of putting such subjects as prostitution in the Roman world in their proper perspective.
Because of the quality of your publication, I have given subscriptions to my grandchildren, reasonably mature and intelligent teens who thirst for knowledge of mankind’s past, be it plain or checkered.
Index, Washington
I applaud your courage in publishing “How to Find a Brothel in Pompeii.” As I reach 60, I have seen the tremendous harm done by those who would depict human life in unrealistic or censored ways. It’s much, much better to show things as they were. Without knowing where we have come from, we have no way of knowing what we are.
Bessemer, Alabama
You will surely awaken the smut police with your article on brothels in Pompeii. The question of what we should be allowed to see brings to mind something I overheard as a small child. My farmer father was laughing about a lunatic fringe notion of that time that animals should wear clothes to “cover their privates.” He remarked, “I might get britches on Henry [the bull], but how do I keep his zipper up?”
Iberia, Missouri
Kudos
Hershel Shanks’s “Protecting Cultural Property” (Editors’ Page, January/February 2004) is an excellent exposition of one of the prevailing ironies in cultural property law. Good work. You brightened my day.
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