The study of Roman graffiti has been overwhelmingly dominated by the Pompeian corpus due, in large part, to the number of examples from the city and villas nearby. Oltre Pompei helps to move us beyond this ‘Pompeii bias’ and introduces readers to a variety of texts from the Roman West. The anthology centres around the ‘obscene’, a subject that has been explored in Pompeian graffiti, especially in A. Varone's foundational work Erotica Pompeiana (1994). The present volume, which includes material from the late republic to late antiquity and from Aquincum (Óbuda, Budapest) to Bulla Regia (Hammam Daradji, Tunisia), provides a geographical and temporal foil to the Pompeian material. Furthermore, as Varone notes in the foreword, this volume illustrates that the themes present in the erotic graffiti in Pompeii can be found in the whole Roman world (p. 12), a linguistic and thematic koiné, as the authors put it (p. 16). The volume includes both parietal graffiti and graffiti scratched on a variety of objects, including an iron collar, a statuette of a satyr or Silenus, and tile fragments, which adds to our understanding of the rich variety of texts that included writing, ‘obscene’ or otherwise, in the ancient world. The decision to include parietal texts and texts written on everyday objects together is an important one; often epigraphic publications split these texts into different sections or volumes. By seeing them side-by-side we can consider the differences in their presentations and purposes and reflect on the ubiquity of ‘obscene’ words and images in the visual landscape of the Roman world.

Each entry (23 in total) includes the following: provenance and current location, transcription, translation into Italian, dimensions, date, bibliography and commentary. At least one line-drawing is provided for each entry, and many are accompanied by photographs. The authors have not eschewed descriptive translations of obscene words, and there are no euphemisms here. The commentaries are rich and varied, containing notes on philological, grammatical, lexicographical, palaeographical and cultural aspects of each inscription (Varone foreword, p. 13). The authors’ work as lexicographers for the Thesaurus linguae Latinae (TLL) is obvious in these commentaries. They consider examples of ‘obscene’ words from other graffiti and explicate the uses of these words in Latin literature. This is particularly helpful as many ‘obscene’ words are used differently in the various genres, and some words appear more or less frequently. Several aspects of the layout of the book are admirable. The inclusion of line-drawings and photographs (when possible) even before the transcription of the text forces readers to recognise graffiti as artefacts, inscribed in spaces or on objects, and not just as texts. Many of the entries are written so that the line-drawing, transcription and translation are on one page, and the commentary is on the reverse. This layout forces readers to encounter the texts for themselves before turning to the learned and comprehensive commentary of the authors.

The thorough introduction by Rocchi, which comprises nearly half the book, contextualises the inscriptions that follow, but also serves as an overview of the genre of graffiti, the contexts in which these texts (and graffiti more generally) were found, the language of the graffiti (especially as compared to classical Latin) and the palaeography. Rocchi begins with a discussion of obscenus and its appearance in Latin literature, a category which in his definition includes erotic texts (with references to sexual organs or acts), insults and rude gestures, threats and jokes, apotropaic gestures or mottos, and scatological themes (pp. 18–19).

Next come the entries, which were composed by both authors. The authors are not rigid in their thinking and often present opposing hypotheses when both can be true (for example, entries 16 and 20). Many of these inscriptions are too badly degraded, and many are now lost to prevent new readings; so a multiplicity of possible transcriptions allows readers to decide for themselves. For example, Rocchi gives Cuma as the last word for a text underneath entry 3 (= CIL X 4484), though he notes Varone's suggestion of cunnu (p. 62). In some cases, though, the multiplicity of readings can be confusing when one reading is preferred in the commentary that is not represented in the transcription. For example, entry 4 leaves nob[i]s untranslated. In the commentary Rocchi notes that Varone has proposed habes, which results in a more satisfactory understanding of the text (pp. 63–4). The authors also propose multiple possible translations of the text, which is necessary in such abbreviated graffiti as these. For example, laicase me in entry 3 could be translated in the sense of ‘lick me’, a sexual invitation, or ‘suck it’, an insult. To be sure, many of the graffiti presented were meant to be ambiguous, the meaning likely known only to those insulted or referenced. Indeed, we may be puzzling out the joke or insult in the same way as the ancients did.

Perhaps the most valuable part of the commentaries is the rich discussion of ‘obscene’ vocabulary and its appearance in other literature and inscriptions: gelasinos (entry 2), amatrix (entry 4), landica (entry 11), crisare (entry 13), adultera and meretrix (entry 22), among many others. These explanations will be invaluable for scholars working on any source material containing this vocabulary. Wide-ranging discussions with sources from graffiti to Martial allow us to see the deployment of these words in different contexts.

The authors have thought carefully about the social and literary context of the inscriptions, including how they relate to other genres (they suggest that entries 19 and 21 parody verse and official inscriptions) and possible authors of the texts (entry 4, they suggest, was written by a construction worker, entry 6 may have been written by a woman). A natural consequence of the wide temporal and geographic scope of the volume, though, is that we lose sight of the physical context. A thorough discussion on the types of physical contexts is present in the introduction (Sections 3.2–8), but it would have been helpful to include additional discussion within the commentaries and a plan, if possible, of the buildings in which the inscriptions were found.

The volume is beautifully produced, with line-drawings and photographs (in black and white) illustrating the inscriptions. This is especially important for graffiti, both to see the marks on which the transcriptions are based and to visualise the texts. Entry 6, for example, seems to have been written with a two-pronged instrument, a fact that would have been lost with only a transcription of the text.

There is much here for a variety of readers. Those unacquainted with graffiti will gain much from the introduction, which explains the genre of graffiti (especially as compared to modern examples), the spaces in which they were written as well as their language, style and palaeography. The ancient languages are translated, which makes it possible for a variety of readers to enjoy the volume. Epigraphers and Classicists will find much here, too. The collection as a whole forces us to consider the variety of texts containing ‘obscene’ content and the ways in which they appeared. The copious references to literature and ample commentaries allow us to consider word choice in the graffiti, especially as compared to other genres of Latin writing, and the wide geographical scope asks us to expand the borders of our studies from the confines of Campania.