ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides an overview of the Mediterranean world in the pharaonic and Graeco-Roman period of antiquity and outlines the range, number, time period and locations of ancient graffiti in that world. It also provides a gateway to reading these thoughts and feelings as cultural documents of their time and introduces ways in which these graffiti help us to understand broader social and cultural patterns in the ancient world. The Basilica was an important public place of legal and commercial business in ancient times, and Pompeii was a large coastal town in the region of Campania in southern Italy. The book focuses on the extraordinarily rich variety of peoples and cultures that flourished around the basin of the sea between lands and the Mediterranean.
