The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1904-08-26
The LAST ELECTION
IN ANCIENT p0MpEN
Was Held in a. o. 70, just Be.
fore the Big Spectacle Was
Pulled Of.
HAS BEEN LITTLE CHANGE
Tho Voter. Were Jollisd Up by the
Candidate With Free Drinks and
Strong Talks, Just About
as in Present Times.

London Spectators: The graffti on
the wallis OF the e%xcavated streets III
Pompeii formed the subject of a paper
read by Mr.. Joseph Oxford before the
Royal Society OF Literature on THE
Last Municipal Election at Pompeii."
This ~Pompeiians had, of course. no
red and white and blue bills to paste
about over likely spaces, but instead
they wrote UP on prominent walls their
requests, or advice. or i'm
regard to his or that candidate for
municipal honorS. The Pompeiian
municipal honors for which candidates
We're standing i'll A. ID. 10. the year in
which the lava of Nesuvius preserved
forever a picture of the customs and
manner OF that curious Graeco-Oscan
city, We're those of the edileship and
vote in e~lecting these four magistrates
the duumviri and the two ediles-
and the interest which was taken in
the election is shown by the fact that
perhaps II in three or four of the
electors (there We're possibly 10000 in
habitants, and there are probably 1900
graff1ti referring to The election)
thought it worth while to write up on
his house wall. or in some public place.
his views as to the merits of the cam
didate.
Candidate Must Be Is and Rich.
At Pompeii a man seeking municipal
honors had to be at least rs years old
and had to prove that he possessed a
fortune of at least $500. In conse-
Quence of this property qualification,
only wealthy men competed for NUM-
cipal honors; indeed, 1T would have
been useless for men only just possess
ing the requisite qualifications to come
out as candidates. since it was neces-
sary before asking TO be elected to
promise a considerable sum to be ex-
pended on public games. or on works
likely to be of permanent benefit to
the city. At Pompeii, however. which
was a rich city, there seems to have
been actually a plethora Of candidates
for municipal honors, since a law was
made f%orbidding any intending candi-
date to spend a penny, for two years
before coming UP for election, on any
public festival or in donations to the
people: the intending candidate might
not even ask more than nine persons
to a private dinner. If the candidate
or one of his "clients"-the clients
We're in a sense the election agents
broke these rather stringent rules he
was fined 5000 sesterces (about s4o).
Competition for offices which carried
M pay with them must have been
pretty severe when a man could be
prosecuted for bribery n corruption
even DeIOIn actually seeking votes al
the poll.
Just as today. too, the candidate had
TO take into account the probable at
titude of various societies., clubs, guilds
and unions. The objects OF these clubs
and unions, however, were not always
quite 50 respectable as those of the
temperance bvotherhoods. free trade
leagues and empire leagues of our
modern English times. They seem, in
deed, to have resembled in their meth
DDS Tammany rather than West Ham
or Cherrsey. There were Collegia and
Hetairi-the more luxurious Greek out
look on life flourished in Pompeii-
with which the prospective candidate
had to deal. There We're the pilicrepi,
the clubs of ball players, Who prob
ably wanted first and foremost excit-
ing public games; there were the late
drinkers" and the 'long sleepers' (uni-
versi dormientes). who clearly were
not In favor of early closing; and there
We're the little thieves" (%furunculi),
who We're perhaps a kline of "hooli-
gans."
Plenty of Treating.
AS for the voters who favored fire..
drinking and free sleeping, you can still
see over a Pompeiian tavern door the in
scription: Here you can have a drink
for one as'( about three farthings): ANY.
body who likes to pay more can have a
better draught. What will you pay for a
glass of Falerian?" But besides the guilds
and the clubs, there was another valuabl
electoral interest in the religious sets, or
votartes of the various deities.
Occasionally peculiar reasons are giver
in the graftiti for voting for particular
candidates. One reads, for instance.
"Proculus. vote for Sabinus, and he will
vote for you,'' which is possibly the classi.
cal rendering of Scratch my back and Ill
scratch yours" This, again. arouses at
tention: "Attalus, you're asleep, Suellus
is awake" Wake up, England, and
vote for JONES'" is the obvious parallel.
Sometimes, however, the writer of the
g%raftlto. though honest, was poor in Ideas;
still, Vote for Publis, v. b." (vir bonus
"a good man'D, is at least concise. I'd r.
p" again-"worthy or public Office" "the
man you wants. straightforward
enough. Now and then client or voter, in
contrast to the abrupt electioneer. is q
most polished fellow. 'Gavius is a man
scrviceable to public interests. Do elect
him, 1 beg of you," is a pleasing example
of the polite form of solicitation. A rarer,
though apparently successful, form of APP.
plication for suffrage was the representa-.
ton of the candidate as ''one who has fol
years been identified with the best inter.
ests and traditions of the city, Thus thu
hacker of a candidate belonging to a very
Old Oscar family purposely spells thu
candidates name in the old Oscar style
writing from right to left.