ANCIENT LOVE-LETTERS.
DISCOVERIES AT ’POMPEII,
Among the remarkable discoveries in the new excavations at Pompeii are several love-letters of patrician girls to successful gladiators. They were found near the newly-unearth-ed wineshop in the Street of Abundance, which been restored to its appearance as it was 2,000 years ago.
The letters are on ivory tablets,and one is addressed to a gladiator named Strax, who, in the opinion of Professor Vittoria Spinazzola, director of the Naples Museum, was probably a “barbarian” from Britain. The letter reads:
“Art thou Phoebus Apollo in the body of Hercules? Indeed, thou art a god to me. Thy beauty and strength have blotted from my eyes all other men. I am young, and the suitors I despise say I am beautiful. I will await thee, beloved one, near the Temple of Isis!” Inscriptions on the walls under drawings of gladiators show that Chloe, Lydia, and Cornelia were in * love with them.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MH19211006.2.4
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Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2338, 6 October 1921, Page 1
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154ANCIENT LOVE-LETTERS. Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2338, 6 October 1921, Page 1
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