customs of this dead people--dead
and buried, but afterward exhumed.

The most of these announcements are but the proclamations of candidates
for office. Pompeii was evidently swallowed up at the period of the
elections. Sometimes it is an elector, sometimes a group of citizens,
then again a corporation of artisans or tradesmen, who are recommending
for the office of aedile or duumvir the candidate whom they prefer. Thus,
Paratus nominates Pansa, Philippus prefers Caius Aprasius Felix;
Valentinus, with his pupils, chooses Sabinus and Rufus. Sometimes the
elector is in a hurry; he asks to have his candidate elected quickly.
The fruiterers, the public porters, the muleteers, the salt-makers, the
carpenters, the truckmen, also unite to push forward the aedile who has
their confidence. Frequently, in order to give more weight to its vote,
the corporation declares itself unanimous. Thus, all the goldsmiths
preferred a certain Photinus--a fishmonger, thinks Overbeck--for aedile.
Let us not forget _the sleepers_, who declare for Vatia. By the way, who
were these friends of sleep? Perhaps they were citizens who disliked
noise; perhaps, too, some association of nocturnal revellers thus
disguised under an ironical and reassuring title. Sometimes the
candidate is recommended by a eulogistic epithet indicated by seals, a
style of abbreviation much in use among the ancients. The person
recommended is always a good man, a man of probity, an excellent
citizen, a very moral individual. Sometimes positive wonders are
promised on his behalf. Thus, after having designated Julius Polybius
for the aedileship, an elector announces that he will bring in good
bread. Electoral intrigue went still further. _We_ are pretty well on in
that respect, but I think that the ancients were our masters. I read the
following bare-faced avowal on a wall: _Sabinum aedilem, Procule, fac et
ille te faciet_. (Make Sabinus aedile, O Proculus, and he may make thee
such!) Frank and cool that, it strikes me!

But enough of elections; there is no lack of announcements of another
character. Some of these give us the programme of the shows in the
amphitheatre; such-and-such a troop of gladiators will fight on such a
day; there will be hunting matches and awnings, as well as sprinklings
of perfumed waters to refresh the multitude (_venatio, vela,
sparsiones_). Thirty couples of gladiators will ensanguine the arena.

There were, likewise, posters announcing apartment